So we cracked open the sweet potato kit-kat yesterday evening. It tastes curious, but not at all unpleasant. I could probably eat another. We spent some time — in much the same manner one does with whisky — determining how best to describe the flavour. Tom finally suggested it was like eating salted and sweet popcorn simultaneously, and this just about captures it.
Thanks for all your allotment good wishes. We are both very excited. Thanks too for the seed offers. I think I shall take these up. Several of the networks of eighteenth-century correspondence that I love to read have their origins in personal exchanges of seeds (sometimes across the Atlantic!) and there is something so pleasingly literal about the way these epistolary conversations grew and developed via vegetables.
One more thing: I saw my first bumble bee of the year today. At 6.15, and in Edinburgh. How I am enjoying the early morning light.
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I’d like to try one of these… I love sweet potatoes. To the person complaining about daylight saving time in the US, move to Arizona, we don’t observe DST!
Hurrah for bumble bees! I so look forward to our first, but with this much snow on the ground, it will be weeks. And I absolutely love strange Japanese candies. Lucky you.
Our bumble bees have started to slow down for the autumn. Here in new Zealand the native and imported honey bees have had their niche threatened by a varroa mite which decimate whole hive stacks. Any how , the cooler drawn in days are still pleasant and our hydro lakes are filling up quite nicely.
You are lucky you do not live in the United States, where early morning light was cruelly ripped from us by the evil daylight savings conspiracy. It’s back to getting up in the dark again. Sigh. Congratulations on your allottment!
The first butterfly of the year was in our garden this morning, a Clouded Yellow.
I went to the Seedy Sunday seed swap in Oxford last weekend and got some Green Zebra tomato seeds (and loads of others), and lots of big ideas about saving seeds from all the easy stuff this year. Maybe there’s one in Edinburgh?
We have a spare copy of ‘The Allotment Handbook’ by Caroline Foley if you’d like it? My husband always gets bought gardeinging books for Christmas/birthdays so we often end up with duplicate copies and I’m always happy to send them off to a good home :o) I’d consider it a fair trade for the owl jumper…
Wow, a bumble bee? Here in Connecticut the snow is still melting and crocuses are coming up.
I have yet to see a bumble bee here in New Mexico, just honey bees so far. I am also marveling at the idea of light at 6:15 am, we just went on Daylight Savings Time, and now it is still dark at 7 am! At any rate, I look forward to watching your garden emerge.
an allotment – how exciting!! – i was on the list for a few years too and eventually got mine, I was at the lady road one – It was such a mess when I first got it i almost handed it back but it was the best thing that ever happened to me – i used to spend hours there – and it was no time at all before i was eating what I had grown – the other gardeners there were such a good crowd and really helpful. I hadn’t a clue but it was amazing how quickly I learnt – enjoy it and have fun!
You have bumble bees there already? We still have snow here in Finland :D Do you have snow in Edinburgh on winter?
I have been reading your blog for a little while. My boyfriend loves whisky and i love knitting, so your blog is great for both of us :)
We saw a bumble bee on saturday. Then next doors cat attacked it.
Pah.