Here they come!

The beds are coming to life.

Red and white onions coming along nicely.

Potatoes just peeping through.

Sugar snap peas looking good.

Mixed lettuce, thinned them out a bit today and had a huge plate of baby leaves for my lunch

Strawberries are flowering.

Tomato plants have zoomed up in size.

Pepper, chilies and aubergines coming on a treat.

Finally its time to plant and sow

My lovely tomatoes, peppers, chillis, potatoes and onions all ready to be planted

My Thompson and Morgan seeds arrived in the post today....don't they look gorgeous? The swiss chard looks so colourful..I can't wait to get them in the ground.

This years garden plan..I'm going to try lentils and aubergines this year

Lots of manure to dig in...one of the muckier jobs

That lovely moment just before planting.

Finally the weather has warmed up here. I am feeling a bit behind on my planting but it's been so cold and wet there's no way I could have got anything in the ground. So now its all systems go. I'll put another picture on when its all done in the meantime I've got to roll my sleeves up and get to work! 

Limoncello recipe

This is an amazing drink I discovered last week whilst spending a night in St Ives. We had a great meal at St Andrews Bistro. The chef bought this out as a little treat at the end of our meal. It's so easy to make. I now have a rather nice bottle of it in my freezer!

I used cheap Tesco vodka and bought 6 shot glasses from Amazon. It's now a great addition to all my dinner parties!

Limoncello

Ingredients
5 unwaxed lemons
1l bottle vodka
750g caster sugar
700ml boiling water
Pare the zest from all the lemons, try not to get any white pith. Put the zest in a large clean jar and pour over the vodka. Cover with a tightly fitting lid and leave for a week, shaking the jar every  day.
Put the sugar in a saucepan and pour over the boiling water, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Once slightly cooled, add to the vodka and peelings and leave for a further week.
Decant into bottles ( I used the original vodka bottle...you'll find you have quite a large quantity of it, I'm keeping the bulk of mine in the storage jar then topping up my vodka bottle in the freezer when its running low!) add a few strips of lemon zest to each bottle. Just keep an eye on the bottle to make sure it doesn't completely freeze as its not pure alcohol!