I'd seen a lot about the drought in the UK on the news, and my heart goes out to those affected by the wildfires, but it hadn't really sunk in. The garden is surprisingly green, because the white rose, lilac, honeysuckle and fuchsia that dominate our garden are all at least ten years old and have deep roots. Besides, we're at the bottom of a hill that has a spring higher up, and we're near a beck so I suspect that our water table isn't as low as it could be even in this weather. The street looks like this.
Which is the usual green, though perhaps a little dusty. Then this morning I drove to the Salvation Army to drop off a few bags of books, and across from there was a patch of grass.
That is incredibly dry. I hope that it will recover.
I went out into the garden this evening. I didn't spend long as it was getting dark, but I managed to cut back some brambles. You can barely see the difference, but the corner now looks like this.
It always amazes me how resilient grass can actually be. By the end of summer most years ours turns a horrible shade of brown, but it always seems to bounce back again next spring, so much so, that husband is complaining about how quickly it grows.
ReplyDeleteYes, grass is pretty resilient, so fingers crossed or the local parks are going to look pretty odd next year!
DeleteI love corned beef hash but it's not good for kidney disease and neither is potato, so we don't have it. I never used an egg in it though.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the gardening - thorns are beastly and get through everything.
Thank you. I swear that the thorns on these brambles are worse than most!
DeleteCorned beef hash is one of my favourites too, but I rarely get round to it.
You did well getting more done in the garden! 10 minutes or even 5 minutes over several days will add up and make a difference. I can't spend more than 5 to 10 minutes weeding, etc. without triggering a sciatica flare up, so, I do 5 minutes at a time. Baby steps.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE corned beef! I saute it with onions and tomatoes and add chili powder to it. But, corned beef is a treat for me, due to its cost. A 12 oz. can of corned beef costs $8.49 and at today's conversion rate ($1 = £ 0.74), $8.49 = £6.30 according to my calculations. The store brand canned potatoes (15 oz) is $1.39 (£1.03) while brand name canned potatoes, (14.5 oz) is $2.49 (£1.84). I took a quick peek at the UK Tesco website and a can of corned beef there seems to be half the price of ours. I didn't check the price of canned potatoes, but, I'm pretty sure it's less than £1. I just love doing these types of price comparisons. :)
I think that's why I love seeing your shopping - you buy such different foods, and often the prices are wildly different from the prices here, and it's so intriguing for me. A big tin of around 1lb of the really cheap and not so great quality (that works fine in the hash) is 39p, but the nicer tins are 89p for slightly less. So for around £4 I got two portions of a meal that I very much enjoyed and that I probably could have stretched to three.
DeleteI really like how you figure out the cost per portion. I, too, try to do that, especially when I buy something expensive. :)
Delete