Soup and Cycles

This is part of the enormous piles of vegetables my lovely Dad harvested from the allotment for us this morning. Pretty impressive, eh? even more so to me, considering I haven't stepped welly on the plot for weeks. It's not for lack of wanting to, more down to pure knackered-ness (and rain) on my part.
So tonight we shall be dining on corn on the cob, potato wedges and leftover quiche and coleslaw from the cafe! Tomorrow shall be spent cooking up pots of soup, some of which will come back home and some which will be hopefully be sold to the masses!
We have unusual courgettes and gourds, heaps of potatoes, beautiful leeks, kohl rabi, parsnips and sweetcorn. Yum.

I have been thinking recently that I really should consider changing my name from 'Garden girl' to 'Cafe girl' or similar. I seem to have spent less and less time doing any gardening and more and more time thinking up lists of recipes, what to order from suppliers, interesting sandwich fillers, new cakes to try etc.etc.
HOWEVER, now, obviously, I will darn well be sticking to Garden Girl, because LOOK!!!

Pretty amazing, I am sure you will agree. My very own, beautifully hand painted Garden Girl mug. The very lovely Moss Stitch (still can't do links, but do look on my side bar) sent this fabulous present to the cafe this week. The postman was quite scared when I snatched the box out of his hands as he approached the cake counter. Several customers were trying hard not to look as I carefully unwrapped (ie. ripped) the sellotape off the box, and unravelled the bubble wrap that was safely packaging the delights within. Can you see the bumble bee on the handle? Can you? And another inside. Sigh. It is so very beautiful, I have used it for every cuppa since.

This was the amazing handmade card that came with the mug. I am going to try and find a box frame for it and put it on the wall of the cafe. Ms Stitch, you are very very clever and thoughtful. Thankyou so much, I am delighted with it. xxx

We decided to drag our bikes out from the shed this afternoon, having been inspired my The List Writers latest interest! I love cycling along the roads where we are so used to driving or walking. It has been a year since we last used them, which is shameful!

Somehow being on a bike, you observe things you wouldn't normally. People smile at you as well, probably because of the massive grin I had plastered across my face (they probably thought I had escaped from somewhere-I had, the laundry).

I felt like a big kid as we whizzed through the back streets, wind in our hair, cheeks rosy. Fresh air and a bit of exercise were definitely the tonic I needed this afternoon. If you have a bike gathering dust and cobwebs somewhere I can recommend you dig it out, pump up the tires and go for a spin. Smiles guaranteed.

Back to the laundry. Have a fabulous week everyone.x