A serious challenge to all growers...

And the answer is .... Jimson weed or Datura Stramonium ... just don't eat it.!

Jimson Weed, (scientific name Datura stramonium) is a toxic  plant found all over Illinois.  Some of its other common names include devil’s trumpet, thorn apple,  Jamestown weed, stinkweed, and  locoweed.  Ingestion of parts of the plant can cause delirium (inability to differentiate reality from fantasy), hallucinations, elevated temperature, flushed skin, fast heart rate,  and agitation (bizarre, and possibly violent behaviour).  The changes in mental status can last for days in cases of severe intoxication.

All parts of the plant can be considered toxic, but the leaves, juices and seeds can cause the most effects.  The plant is a perennial blooming plant; the leaves and flowers bloom in the spring and summer and the seeds set in the late summer and fall.

Ok here's the details:

This little beauty is a bushy plant that bears a large white trumpet flower and this very spiky seed pod or fruit...not sure which.

It is growing in the garden of a house that the parents of a friend of ours  have recently moved into in southern France and in his words has grown out of the middle of a pile of chicken poo...

So our question to you is what is it?

Please use the comments option at the bottom of this post to give your answers and if you would like to win a small selection of our deli produce by special delivery for being the first with a correct answer then you will need to provide an email address in your post.

Good luck...

Someone at work once said "Take more risks!"...

So here goes:
Today we have been doing one of the things we love most, experimenting in the kitchen.  Trying out new flavours and combinations.  Scanning through recipes that others have shared online or in books and seeing how we can add a streetgrowers twist to these things.
This is not just an adventure that we experience alone as we have a group of 10 or more friends coming over tomorrow for an afternoon tea tasting session.  So all of the wonders we have conjured today will be laid out for them to try and the afternoon tea menu looks a little like this at the moment:

• Scones with a choice of jams including; strawberry and vodka, raspberry and vanilla, orange and cointreau, cranberry and orange or plum and toffee vodka.
• Mini English tea muffins toasted.
• Rustic wholemeal bread
• Selection of cheeses and cured meats
• Selection of chutneys including apple and pear, spicy tomato and apple, cranberry and apple with port, pear and onion with brandy
• Filo wraps with salmon, prawn and tomato
• Filo wraps with crab and home made chilli sauce
• Courgette and chocolate cake
• Boiled fruit and orange and cointreau loaf
• Baileys fudge
• Mini toffee apple bites

Lets not forget all of this is home made by us, apart from the filo pastry and the cheese and meat selections of course.

It is very rewarding that several friends who cannot come tomorrow RSVPed by saying how upset they are that they are busy with Paralympic events on the day and demanded to know when the next taste event would be!

So where is the risk in all of this...well here it comes.  Being that these are friends coming over tomorrow and its lovely to catch up with their summer events we obviously dont charge them to come, but tomorrow they have a task to complete:

Following the afternoon tea they are asked to please go to this blog and add a comment giving your views on the food you have eaten, the flavours, quality, textures, in fact the whole afternoon tea experience.

This is a live blog and no comments are vetted first so the risk is in us receiving comments that may not be favourable and the world will see them, but hey if you can't be honest about your products then you can't be proud of them we reckon.!

So roll on Friday when we all will see how we got on.

Fabulous Eltham Pleasaunce...

It's been a pretty full on week once again, in fact it seems we often forget to give ourselves days off which can be a downfall of working for yourself when weekends are often work days.  But the good side of that coin is that when you do want to take off-days you can choose them based on the weather and the events that are going on, so every cloud and all that.

So all this hard work has been keeping up with tasks and doing quite a bit of freelance work whilst preparing for the 'Summer Sizzler' at The Tudor Barn in Eltham.  This is a Greenwich council run event that happens twice or three times a year on bank holidays and includes a range of stalls offering local produce alongside some charity and fair stalls with competitions as well as live music, BBQ and of course the bar is always open.
We had taken a stock of our jams, jellies and chutneys as well as our range of flavoured oils and some extras including toffee apples, flapjack and some recycled planters planted up with herbs or flowers all home grown, home made and looking fabulous in their smart professional labels.

It was great having an event on our doorstep as we have previously had a 45 minute drive or more to get to the venues but for this one it was 5 minutes down the road and the access gates were open which led us straight to a really superb bloke in charge of the event on behalf of Greenwich council.  There was a moment of concern when he realised we were the second company offering jams and chutneys, but made a top decision to take us round to meet the other stall holder and have a chat about the situation.  The other 'jam lady' was not over pleased to find she did not have a monopoly on the provision for the day but after a little chat, realising we were both very local and all home made she seemed happy with our offer to set up pitch on the other side of the pleasaunce.  It did give a bit of a damp start to the day but then we just got on with setting up and having a good day rather than worrying about competitive issues, after all our view is if people like your produce they will buy it however many jam stalls there are.

Timed to perfection we were all set up and ready to rock and roll 35 minutes later and the stall was looking great.  We are very proud of our home grown look rather than a corporate or commercial looking outfit with flashy banners and flags that make you feel you have wandered into the ideal home show.
The place filled up even before the 10am start time and just kept coming, with lovely people from all over the local area.  We bumped into a number of people that we knew, which was all very likely given I have spent over 20 years teaching in the local area.  All of them were really friendly and interested in our goods as was everyone that came to our stall.  Lovely humour and chatter, lots of compliments about our produce and people really admiring the recycled planters and loving them for their imperfections rather than commercially pressed plastic moulded perfection.  I cannot recall anyone trying our produce who didn't buy something and the toffee apples were a real surprise hit too, so many people telling us they havent seen them for ages and having one for reminiscence as well as the idea they could munch through the sweet toffee convinced it was good for them due to the crunchy apple centre. It was very rewarding seeing people walking about the park enjoying chomping into one of our apples.

One of the planters was bought by a woman whose husband said "You never cook with herbs" to which she said "That's because I have never grown any".  So it was lovely knowing she took away a herb box to grow on her kitchen window ledge as a new experience, and we hope her cooking benefits from it too.
But the overriding memory of the day was the wonderful community attitude of all the people who came down to the pleasaunce.  Eltham has for too long been synonymous with racism, a tragic murder and a sense of BNP thugs gathering outside pubs intimidating the public. Even during the riots of last summer with the burning down of towns all over SE London and not an incident of looting being seen in Eltham at all they still managed to attract negative press for gathering as a community and warning any potential looters to keep their hands off their high street. This is not the Eltham I know and love and so far from the wonderful togetherness experienced yesterday that it is worthy of as many column inches as can be grabbed by any local or national press, tweeter, Facebooker or blogger.  The community came from the Eltham Heights area right across Middle Park and into the edge of Sutcliff Park and the new Kidbrooke village.  The mix of backgrounds was fabulous, so many family groups spending the day together with kids, parents, grandparents all sharing the event and treating each other to gifts as they shopped.  The inquisitive questioning of our produce and that of other stalls was fascinating and discussion about what they planned to do with their purchases was lovely, they really cared about what they were getting and showed huge appreciation for our efforts to bring it to our local area.

Thank you Eltham for a great day, a truly wonderful community that makes us proud of our local area.

Catering for the needs of others...

One of the strings to our bow so to speak is our luxury party catering foods which are all sourced locally or grown in our own little urban farm.  Everything is hand made at home, fresh for your booking.  Food can be delivered ready for you to pop in the oven and carry to the table as if you have made all that effort yourself for your very fine guests.  

Although you can decide exactly which foods are included the general mix includes mini pies, tarts, filo wraps containing a wide range of exciting flavours using our sauces and chutneys alongside great local cheese, fish meat and veggies.  Also you can expect a range of artisan breads, pâtés, cheese straws and crispy hearts.  Scotch eggs are made using Kentish pork and our Bantam eggs from our own flock and as to the veggie fritters well in our experience they are tried once and constantly returned to with or without our tasty dips.
So if you are catering for the needs of others in the near future, or throwing a BBQ and want a spread of tasty foods to work alongside the spit roast you have planned then look no further and give us a call to discuss the details.

Click here to find contact details.

What is Olympic record for nest box making?...

Yesterday was one of those epic ones where even though we were all moving slowly because of the Equatorial temperatures we got absolutely loads done and then some.  We set off pretty much at the crack of dawn heading to the auctions and had a superb time dipping in and out of the bidding finally coming away with 4 beautiful new ladies.

They are crested cream legbars and are about 12 weeks old. So looking forward to their first blue eggs, yes they lay blue eggs, we chatted over the options on the way home for how we introduce them to the rest of our flock.  Health wise they look great and are fully vaccinated so no need to quarantine them so we decided best foot forward was to let our 3 old girls out for the afternoon, pop these new pretty ones into their large coop and then wait for the evening bed time ritual before we see how they are going to measure up to living together.

Well Plan A went well...Not.

Within minutes of being together the old girls just went for them full on grabbing at their feathers and dragging them out from under the main coop.  Not the best meet and greet ever.

So we separated the large run down the middle with a wire frame and that way they settled reasonably well but still a bit fractious in close proximity. But there was nothing more for it they would have to spend the night apart and see what joys the morning brought.  However we had a nagging worry about the old girls laying their eggs on the run floor in the early hours and then getting inquisitive and having a little taste of their bounty.  As any discerning chicken keeper will tell you once you have an egg eater in the flock you have trouble.  So determined to avoid this we decided what they needed was a quick spare nest box so out came the work bench, hammer, nails and saw at 7.08pm and this is what happened next....

7.08pm
Scavenged floorboards from Freegle and 4 blocks from an old pallet are nailed together to make the base.
















7.14pm
One new 2m piece of baton from the garage is cut to lengths to form side struts, more boards as walls nailed to batons and in turn locked into place as back and sides.















7.23pm
With sides and back firmly joined a front bar/perch is added

7.26pm
Roof is cut to length and nailed in place
















7.42pm Some bedding is added and the temporary nest box looks more like a solid permanent structure ready for advertising on laterooms.com















Now that is what I call speedy DIY, 34 mins from beginning to end with plans developed in our heads as we went, but more to the point it will also be a really useful broody box for next spring once we get all our birds acquainted and living in harmony in their coops.

NEWSFLASH:
This morning we woke with a moment of inspiration which cannot be claimed by the Olympic movement, we have moved the big old girls into the smaller Bantam coop, which was theirs way back in the day and they have laid their eggs in there very happily this morning, and now we have the 4 new ladies in with Dr Horatio, his girls and the little Lady Hoshi...we will see how this new found friendship works out...

Winning at the auctions...

What a top morning despite the 80 degree heat we trundled off to Country Chicks auction just outside Faversham this morning to add to our flock.  Now this auction lark is a canny art and nothing like Cash in the Attic, so I wonder if a few tips might be useful for everyone and feel free to add your own in the comments.

1: Download the catalogue online in advance of the day and have a browse through, making a note of anything you might be interested in.
Remember of course some lots will change on the day, some sellers will not turn up and of course you are sat at home with a lovely cup of tea sporting your best rose tinted glasses, so Lot 106: 2 fully vaccinated POL hens Light sussex does not tell the full story, but the catalogue is a good place to start.

2: Arrive nice and early so you can have a good look at the lots in advance of the rush of bidding.

Obviously this will mean perusing the cages a few times as some sellers always arrive at the last minute but in general our practice is to peruse the aisles looking in all cages in case something really exciting has arrived unexpectedly as a replacement or late entry but also checking in on the lots we have marked off in the catalogue.

3: Check the health and quality of any lot you might bid on.
Have a good look at the birds you plan to bid on. Make sure their eyes, nose, ears, legs and feet look healthy and free from disease.  Check for bald patches due to pecking and have a good look at the overall stance of them.  it can be difficult when they are crammed in a tiny box with just a small thick piece of netting to peep through.  My advice if this is the case is either find the seller to show them to you or steer well clear of them, there may well be a reason you cant see them very well.  Don't be put off by panting or slightly runny bums on the day often the experience of being in the auction room can be hot noisy and frightening for birds so expect to see them react to this.  But make sure the birds you are about to take home to join your flock look healthy and free from disease, otherwise you might be taking home more than you bargained for.

4: Get a feel for the prices and other bidders around on the day.
By being close up to the action for the early lots you can get a feel for how much money is in the room.  If you know the rough price of the birds at a local farm then you can gauge the prices in the auction room from that marker which will help you decide how much to bid for anything.

5: Be sure to make eye contact.
Whilst the last thing you want to do is be mistaken for a bidder on a lot you have no interest in it is worth making sure you make eye contact in the early bidding with the auctioneer.  All of the ones we have come across have been very experienced at working the room, but a new one has to start one day so make eye contact and make sure she or he is aware of you in the crowd, this way it is easier when a lot you want comes up.

6: Step firmly into the bidding when your turn comes.
Don't dither or you will miss out, and don't jump in right at the start you might pay too much (if the auctioneer says lets start at twenty and you say yes you will pay at least twenty depending on other bidders, but if you wait and no-one else says yes the auctioneer will say who will start me at 15, or 10 so you start lower and then depending on how much others will pay you could get a real bargain), but when you do bid be firm and confident then other bidders know you are serious. Have a maximum price in mind and try not to pass it unless the lot is really special and a one off.

7: Make sure you are good for the money.
Always take enough cash with you to cover your purchases. Most auctions don't touch cheques and still don't chip and pin without charging you another additional fee. But before bidding make sure you know what buyer fees there are.  Some auctions add 10% buyer fee to the hammer price, some don't have a buyer fee at all and the seller has to pay a higher %, but whatever the setup make sure you know the details and how it will impact your bids.  For example this morning we bid £40 and paid £40 as there was no buyer fee, at the auction last month in Maidstone we would have paid £44 as there was a 10% buyer premium to add at the till.


8: Take your box just in case.
We have been to some auctions not intending to buy as the catalogue had nothing exciting in it for us, yet when we got there we found some lovely Japanese bantams and would have brought them home but were outbid.  Today we travelled home with four hens in the box so always take a box just in case.

9: Have fun, chat to other sellers, buyers, breeders and bidders as these people all share an interest with you and you may just meet a like minded breeder with whom you can swap cockerels to change the genetics of your birds or maybe just share a laugh or a little knowledge.  Either way it's all good fun and the auction community is generally a very friendly bunch.

Time to be in control...

It has amazed us how many small businesses have paid other people to create them a website only to be left with minimal or limited control over the pages unless they surrender further hard won funds to ask the web developer to add a few more gismos here and there.
I suppose we have been very lucky over the years to have met and worked alongside some amazing people, none less so than Søren and Jon who I worked with at a large secondary school where they were constantly pushing the boundaries of learning and asking everyone to take on new skills.  From one of their fab days of workshops I emerged bedraggled with laughter having made and edited my own short film then embedded it in my own website and just before sun down had pulled in the feeds to my twitter and Facebook accounts too.  These skills I have continued to work on and have proudly developed more advanced abilities and the other half of this partnership, Helen has a background in web design and intranet building among other very techie named atributes.
It was therefore inevitable that sooner or later we would find ourselves chatting to someone who asked us to help them sort out their website.  By sort out it seems they meant get control of it, understand how it works, be able to update it without fear of losing the whole thing and on went the list.
So having worked with a few local businesses we felt it would be an offer that should be made to all and have devised a number of workshops that might fit the bill of your needs, we have kept the cost to the minimum to make this affordable for small businesses who lets face it want their website to earn them cash not break their bank. Finally we also offer bespoke courses and remote web support fixing glitches and issues as well as developing new functionality at an hourly rate.  So take a look a the advert below and decide if this workshop could be the most cost effective way for you to get the skills you need to make sure you never have to pay out again just to get a few simple things fixed on your home page.
Feel free to click on the image to go to the site where you can download the advert in pdf format.

Going for Freegle Gold...

We have decided to launch a quarterly micro-mag showing the benefits of being a Freegle Buddy.  You can see what we have been scavenging but also take a look at the projects we have taken on with our bounty.
If you have given us your free stuff take a look at how we put it to good use.
If you're a Freegle-er or become inspired to try it, feel free to send us your pics or ideas for the next issue due out just before Christmas.

Open publication - Free publishing - More free

Inspired to Compulsion...

Ok, so as you know I am the first to claim pride and deep joy in the London 2012 Olympics and the success of Team GB and if I am really honest it runs much deeper than just pride.  I am inspired by the achievements even of those not receiving medals for their efforts.  I have previously nattered on about the beautiful way athletes have shown honour in defeat, some have publicly admonished themselves for letting down their coach, friends, sponsors, family and significant other all in the face of their understanding of how much those others have put into this team effort.  Talking of team effort and I know it's not GB but fancy finishing your stint in the 400m relay with a broken leg just because you had bought in so much to the team ethos of the other 3 athletes running with you and refused to let them down. (Manteo Mitchell Team USA we salute you.)
It is this champion attitude that has so inspired many of the population of our little island.  It is not just the haul of gold, silver and bronze hanging on purple ribbons that has perked us up, it is definitely the ethos of team spirit displayed even in the most solitary of events that has lead to those back-room soles who help to get you to the start line being praised universally.
So, full of this vigor and inspiration what does the nobel leader of our Empire decide is the appropriate legacy action, oh yes, that's obvious really, lets make old fashioned team sports compulsory for every school child in the land, that is sure to nurture the embers of the inspiration flames.  What is that man thinking of.  Has he spoken to the people who have suffered at the hands of some of the team sports teachers and coaches when football is just not your bag.  I expect his public school upbringing probably included more than its fair share of icy rugger pitches and PE changing room de-bagging and wet towel whipping which he has managed over the years in his deluded fashion to quantify as the character building antics of youth and look, it didn't do him any harm.

Short sighted is clearly one of his issues and should keep him from the archery field for sure and in fact any dangerous gun sports too, but to realise he has no idea about society big or small and how to nurture and build on the magnificent job of inspiring a nation that Team GB and the Olympic organising committee have achieved so adequately is reason enough for me to agree he is beyond redemption and should step down immediately and trot off to play rugger for 2 hours a week with his chums.
The alternative it seems is likely to be Boris with his planned 2 hours a day of school sport.  Now I would have thought the following words were well beyond me but maybe I too have been inspired to new heights, but go on Boris, bring it on.  The impact of 2 hours a day is quite possibly so extreme it could be the saving of the nation, maybe the economy and perhaps even the planet, well if it were possible to just save our little bit of it that is.

You see 2 hours a day of school sport occupies every child for 10 hours a week in a fun sharing activity which offers the opportunity to experience success and failure, it will no doubt impact on their health, cutting the cost of the NHS usage in years to come and probably reducing further the smoking and teen pregnancy rates as all of the youngsters learn to have greater respect for their bodies. In addition it will in one fell swoop wipe out the school league tables as the figures for English, Maths and Science will plummet in the first instance due to the hugely reduced teaching time available to them although the hope would be that in years to come the increased health means young people learn smarter due to improved levels of alertness throughout the day. Finally of course the likely impact on this nation of sports mad young people is that they will all be walking and cycling to avoid the overcrowded public transport networks and will in turn grow healthy fruit and veg to feed their temple-esque bodies all of which will sort out the environmental issues and bring economic wealth to the small local businesses rather than multi national junk food factories. Or am I so inspired by the 'Boris Way' that I have entered a land of dream like ideals.  No I think 2 hours a day would be fantastic because Boris would of course be in charge of designing the sports that had to be included, as there would be so much time available there would be no excuse not to include the full spectrum of sports including a few taken from the Bonkers Boris locker of design.

Well, all this Olympic, political banter has not done much to germinate further inspiration in us here at streetgrowers other than to say we are building veggie planters like mad so the inspired young can feed themselves with fresh firm harvests right from their window ledges and we are now planning a range of high protein chutneys to deliver just the right amount of each essential amino acid and vitamin required to jump to a height of 2.92m and  a new jam that will increase your response time to the B of the Bang when in the blocks for sprint events.

Now I am off to jog to the squash bed and back a dozen times and dig a giant hole then fill it all in again before anyone decides 2 hours of physical jerks is compulsory for us all.!
Check out what else is happening at streetgrowers by clicking here.

Post Olympic dark cloud looming...

Oh I do so love a morning, in fact not any particular morning or type of morning, just mornings in general are very high on my list of likes.  I am sat here listening to the trickle of the water feature feeling very glad we moved it down to this end of the garden near the outdoor office.  I can hear the call of the birds in the trees hanging over the fence and Dr Horatio has cock-a-doodled the street awake, to which they have clearly all just sighed and rolled over in their beds pulling the duvet higher under their chins in a vain attempt to shun the arrival of today.  It wont work.  I could pop round to the nearest neighbours, knock on their doors and tell them Friday is here whether you accept it or not, but that's not likely to be a welcome sight especially in my pink spotty jim jams!
So back to my morning love...maybe we are very lucky in that where we live you can just hear the passing traffic over the back of a row of houses or so but beyond that unless its bin day the mornings are just beautiful and peaceful and great times to think and assess your plans for the day.
Now as regular readers will know those plans have mostly consisted of scanning the Olympic schedule for key Team GB events and even a few non GB ones where the mood grabs us and planning meetings, lunches and business tasks around that basic structure.  However this morning my Team GB email alert was titled 'In the finishing straight' which has germinated a sense of impending doom deep within me and I am struggling to shift it.  Two days ago we chatted over lunch with a good friend about the worry of the country recovering badly from Olympic fever, will the ParaOlympics be able to carry the euphoria for another couple of weeks?
But this mornings doomful feeling was further fuelled by reading the morning news articles showing the worst UK Trade deficit for yonks, growth in the Chinese export economy slowing sharply, unlike their gymnasts, divers and badminton players and the drought in the US causing massive losses of corn and grain leading to higher prices meaning cattle are being slaughtered with the fastest Bolt around, yes faster than the one in yellow and green with a sackful of dodgy poses for the cameras.
So what does Autumn look like? Well to start with the Paraolympic games will lead us in to the first 9 days of September with some continued pride, excitement and celebration either for continued success in the sporting arenas or for pride in the delivery of the games on the world stage.  But from 10th September we will be on our own.  We will have the post holiday blues, we will be returning to school terms and preparing for University courses which might distract some of the population from the crisis in our economy.  If the speculators are right 2013 could begin with us seeing Boris attempt to build a path into Conservative leadership and fight off Cameron in advance of approaching elections in 2015.  But what is for sure is the prices will rise, the cost of living will rise, the taxes will rise and the euphoria will sink following a full on belly flop from the 10metre board.
Now I am no crystal ball gazer and given my past experience of data crunching and looking for patterns I can claim no genius to suggest that surely the UK has to take a large fan like leaf out of the team GB training manual.  We need to focus on home grown.  Not just home grown talent, but home grown crops, dairy products and home made goods that do not clutter the ether with carbon footprints and can be produced at a fraction of the cost to both the economy and the environment.  I know this is a well played tune of old but surely with the economic crisis ahead of us this country has to remember to look after it's own first.  The UK trade deficit is a problem because we imported more than we exported.  The money people in the city have tried to blame the Queen for having a jubilee saying the ports were shut, but even I as a once a year ferry passenger can tell you if the ports were shut, which I dont believe they were on any bank holiday then they would be shut for goods going out of the UK as well as those coming in so that argument is sunk in the water along with the Uzbekistan's hopes of topping the Olympic medal table. Why Oh why are we importing eggs for example from abroad where the animal welfare rules are more relaxed and battery farming still continues so the eggs are cheaper, whereas we see egg producing companies in the UK struggling.  Why are we treating our dairy farmers in such a shocking manner that we set a national price for milk below the cost of producing it, surely if these are economists running the market prices they know where figures like that can only lead, either to cruel farming conditions or broke farmers.

So that huge flapping leaf that needs to be grabbed by UK economists should surely reflect the Team GB culture of nurture, funding, support, care and hard work.  I can't recall seeing a news report where British growers or farmers were complaining or threatening strike because their job was hard work, it's always been hard work and they roll up their sleeves and get on with it.  So come 2013 I would like to see farmers and GB producers being interviewed on the news thanking their team of trainers and support staff some of whom will be government departments, for helping them to work hard every day, in the rain, cold and bleak November mornings so that they could reep their medal of success which might just be a fair price for their produce or a national ban on specific imported products that we can supply in the UK without harm to animals or adding to the global smog.  For sure I am not advocating no international trade, just readdress the balance and make GB truly Great in all our arenas before we go off searching for the cheapest price for every item we stack on a carbon dripping shelf in supermarkets. Support our home grown, home made, welfare focussed farming and growing communities so we too can be proud to be Great and British.

Rant over, taking breath and sip of tea...aah the trickle of water and sound of the birds, I love mornings!

Not your average week...

This has surely not been an average week, not for streetgrowers nor for Great Britain as a whole.  The Olympic viewing schedule has caused us planning issues of our own, making sure that when booking in business meetings we don't clash with anything important like the heptathlon javelin competition. But it's also tried to catch us out when popping out to the garden to prune a few spent roses or throw a drop of water around in the greenhouse, we couldn't just pop out on a whim or we might risk missing a lightweight rowing fours gold medal being hard fought and won.  We have of course visited the Olympic park, just across the river and enjoyed a superb day in the park, watching GB take 2 golds at Eton Dorney from the 'Park Live' screen in the middle of the park on the river Lea.

The landscaping of the park is truly beautiful and adds colour scent and texture to the surroundings which have been designed to the highest standards leaving us feeling so very proud to be British, not just for the amazing medal collection we are gathering as a nation but because unlike our concerned anticipation of the possible failings of the organising committee they have in fact done a top job and created a wonderful set of venues to complement the amazing opening ceremony which we still haven't stopped talking about.

The atmosphere in the park was friendly and well informed with sporting trivia which gave us a positive boost just when it is needed most as this week has had more than it's average number of negatives too.  We heard earlier in the week that a good friend and previous work colleague had tragically collapsed and died from a huge brain haemorrhage.  Gill was a constant source of humour and happiness even on days when nothing seemed very funny and to think of her as gone has been hard, really hard but it has been a timely reminder that we have to make the most of every day, they are all so valuable in their finite existence.  When there have been odd moments of worry that leaving the security of a rat race job might not have been a safe decision, it will always stay with me that life is for living and we must take some risks in order to truly have adventures.  Our adventures are for us but a little part of them is also in loving memory of friends we have lost along the way in a tiny attempt to make up in some small way for their lost time.

Not only had this sad news dampened our week we also heard that a proposal we had made to establish a fresh produce cafe in the local town has been rejected by the board.  We had great plans and heaps of excitement for this project but it is obviously not meant to be.  Yet in this far from average week we have been surrounded by images and sound bites of athletes who have failed to reach their goal telling us how they will regroup, bounce back, train harder and continue trying for future successes.  So leaf out of their very wise book and we have done just the same, revisited our business plan and plunged more efforts into other projects and opportunities.

So yes a not very average week, but yes another exciting adventure in the life of streetgrowers in all it's many and varied forms. On the up side of all of this we now have a week ahead of us that is full of promise, ideas and adventure.

Let bygones be collectibles..!

 So when does a bygone become a collectible or vice versa of course?  This morning we went for a nose  poke at the Tenterden bygones and collectibles auction.  To be fair we went as much for the drive in the country and to pop into Headcorn on the way back as we did for the sale and it is true to say we had not had our reality glasses on when we scanned through the online catalogue.  This of course means when we saw bushell and half bushell baskets in the catalogue we saw beautifully crafted woven baskets bearing some scars from the years of packing them overfull with produce.
This morning we stood in a large sheep field confronted with what looked like a pile of whicker tied together with red bailing string which had once been bushell baskets but now held little chance of keeping 3 apples in place.  Of course this is part of the auction adventure that you just have to be there on the day a bargain is to be had because no one else in the crowd has an interest in your favoured lot, but you need first to find a lot that  would prompt you to part with your hard earned cash.  So we went on to review a number of other  lots, some of which had better prospects for renovation but some had become bygones and travelled further down the timeline of history to broken unloved piles of junk in a field.  Having spent a happy hour or two strolling round the field taking in the historical sights of old wagons, water pumps, a fair number of grease guns, the odd park bench or two among piles of bricks, pots and coal scuttles we then ventured into the indoor ring which was held in a huge shed and had five benches just scattered with the tools, signs, lamps and heaters of the distant past.  It is like spending the morning in the Natural History Museum without making a contribution for your entry and in a week when the cleaner is coming to the end of a year long holiday.  Fascinating articles and some that you have to look up in the catalogue just to have a chance of working out what they are.  When we arrived we did a little people watching, one of our favourite sports and couldn't help wondering the purpose of the other people visiting the auction.  There were those with their distinctive dealer outfits on, some who smelt of their antique shops and barns to which they would drag back their bounty later and start rubbing it with sandpaper to attempt to make it a saleable piece and then others who may have just been along for the ride, or were hiding well the part of their life that meant they had a use for an antique rusty broken chaffing machine.  But as we left the field, empty handed I hasten to add, we could not help but wonder where some of these items had come from, and who dragged them out of a shed in 6 separate pieces and thought I know I'll take this to the auction.  I mean who do you know that has a 1900s manual combine harvesting machine in 3 pieces in their garage?


So fruitless but cheery we departed Tenterden and headed back to Headcorn a favourite little Kent village of ours.  This place is well worth a stop off if you are passing through.  We managed a tea and scone in the village tea rooms and pondered the fortunes of the lovely independent little stores that line the tiny High Street.  One of these shops used to be a home and garden store, which it seems has not done so well of late and as such has rented the shop to a new enterprise, but the owner continues to trade their mainly garden but some home products from the alleyway next to the shop and two sheds at the rear.  What a den of inspiration this place is and not ripping anyone off either.  Do pop in you will find something for your garden for sure. As we left the lady owner said would we please take a forlorn hanging basket with us for free...seems we can't help but be given things these days. On that very note we then got straight back to the Freegle gifts when we got home and continued in our challenge of turning them into useful products for our garden or as gifts for others but more on that in a future blog.