A SLOW, SNOWY START TO JANUARY / MY LONDON GARDEN DIARIES

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to my Sunday diaries. My name is Emma. if you're new to my channel. Um, and I just vlog every Sunday a little snippet of my life basically here in South London. This is my little Victorian terrace and I have an a lotment plot as well. I'm also working on my home garden here trying to grow some more things like vegetables and fruit this year. So, that's another journey that you could follow this year. Um, I do lots of home baking and cooking. I show you what I'm harvesting from the a lotment and then how I'm cooking it when I get home. And also, we're doing lots of decorating in the house this year as well. So, there's lots and lots going on. And I hope you enjoy these vlogs. If you do, maybe hit the subscribe button and uh start the year with a new vlog to watch. That sounded very full of myself. I never quite know how to start these vlogs. I do apologize. It's been quite a long time since I picked up the camera, so it feels very weird just sort of standing here chatting to myself. Um, but I have missed it. I've missed taking videos of all the little things that I get up to because it is a bit of a hobby for me. Like I do genuinely really enjoy it. And I tried really hard to just completely switch off over the Christmas um Christmas time and New Year's and not film hardly anything and just take a couple of photos here and there. And it was really really hard because I just love it. It's just it's such a natural thing for me to pick up my phone or camera and just sort of take photos and videos. So, I'm very glad to be back doing it today. It's freezing today, guys, I have to say. Um, we are starting January on a very cold foot. Um, we've had some snow here in South London, and I think we're probably due some more. It's also - 3 - 4° today. Can you see my breath? I don't know if that's coming out on camera, but it's it's honestly freezing. The garden is frozen over. There's snow everywhere. So, what are we going to do this morning? We're going to start by going for a very nice wintry walk. Um, which should be really nice. So, let's get outside so I can show you some of the snow just in case it doesn't snow again and then I don't get any snowy clips in these vlogs because that would actually break my heart, I have to say. Right, let's get going. So magical here. Everywhere looks like Beauty and the Beast. Walking through Beauty and the Beast. Woohoo! Woohoo! It is absolutely diabolically freezing outside. Honestly, I've never felt it so cold. I don't think it's been this cold for a very long time. It's about - 4 today, which is freezing. But that was so magical. It was so nice to get out. There is something so magical about having all the snow on the ground and the frost and then having the blue sky and sunshine. Everything twinkles and sparkles and it's just gorgeous. So, that was a really nice walk. We're home now. We are starving. I'm going to make some parsnip soup. I actually used all of my parnips that I picked from the a lotment plot over Christmas time. So, these ones are going to be shop bought unfortunately. And the state of my kitchen, I always say this, the state of my kitchen, um, I've just not kept on top of it over Christmas. So, I'm just going to have to declutter over the next couple of weeks before we finally get the work done on the kitchen, which I'm very excited about. That's for another day. Let's clear this surface. Also, I got some of these for the first time in my life. I've never owned these before, and they are digital scales. And the reason I got it is for my sourdough starter. I felt like we needed a little bit more accuracy with it. So, I've been putting it here on the radiator because it's warmer and there's nowhere warm in my house. This is Shelby, by the way. Say hello to Shelby. Um, it's just doing I don't know if you can see that, but it is doing so much better than my last sourdough starter. I feel like I'm getting it right. And I've got so many bubbles, which is excellent. Right. There are lots of different ways you can make this soup. Um, but I like the one where you literally cook the whole thing on a pot on the stove and then make it into soup as opposed to like using the oven because I can't be bothered to put it all in the oven. I'm starving. I mean, I'm not starving. That's quite overdramatic, but I'm hungry. So, we're just going to cook an onion and some garlic and then we'll add the parsnip and stock. And then we'll just basically blend it up. And that's that's pretty much what the recipe is going to be. Be careful. Right. So, it's all in the pan. We're just waiting for it to get soft. It should be about 25 minutes. Actually, it is already quite soft. A lot of people make their parsnip soup quite spicy. Um, I've only got cayenne pepper. I don't have any chili flakes. So, I thought I'd just add a teeny bit of this. Just give it a little bit of a kick without blowing our heads off, you know, just to give it like a little something when you eat it. Cuz otherwise, I can imagine it can be quite boring. I'm going to mash it first. And it makes it much easier to blend it up with my little hand whisk thing. So, I'm just going to mash it into a mush. Okay. And then going to add a little bit of double cream. I really think it just needs the creaminess. I'm guessing you could kind of make this a little bit thinner. Just add some more water to it if you wanted to. I'm going to keep it keep it as is, I think. Oh my gosh, that looks incredible. Oh my gosh, it's absolutely delicious. That's There's hardly anything in this. It's garlic, onion, parsnips, and a little bit of um cayenne pepper. And then the double cream, and I used 300 No, did I use 300 mls or 600 mls? Let me check. 600 mls or one pint of um vegetable stock. And that's it. It's the perfect thing to have after a nice winter's walk. How about that for a winter warmer? Little parnip soup. Delicious. Good morning, guys. Oh my gosh, it's freezing today. Absolutely freezing. We've got a yellow warning for ice. All the snow has definitely melted and gone, but we are due some more snow on Friday. So, I will let you know how that goes. So, it's a bit stop and start at the moment. I did manage to get to the a lotment this morning, which was good and do a little bit of work, but that was it really. Haven't really stepped outside other than that. I am going to show you the garden today. We're going to have a little look around and see what's going on out there. Um, and also I'll show you some of my plans. I'll tell you some of my plans even. I did go to the garden center over Christmas time and I picked up some compost to fill up one of those raised beds and I also picked up loads of stones, little decorative stones to fill up the ground around there and make it neater. But it's been under snow, so I just haven't managed to get it all out there and it's still in the boot the car. So, we're not going to do that today. Maybe that would be a job for next week or maybe the week after. But I think the plan will be to just kind of collect supplies um as and when I can and then when the weather does cheer up and I can get out here, I've got something to do. That's the plan. So, it is freezing. I'm going to put on my coat and my wellies and then we'll go and have a little look. Right. It's really icy out here. I did have to come out here over the Christmas holidays and wire up the fence because we had like a really bad storm and it was really windy and it just basically came away from the fence again. So, I put wire across now. Seems to be holding up a little bit better, but we've got another storm on the way. So, we'll have to find out. Obviously, I keep saying this, but it's not. It's It's only a temporary solution until we get the new fences put in. But, for now, it sort of works. Okay, vegetable garden. It's looking exactly how I'd expect it to look at this time of year. All the bits and bobs in the pots seem to have survived over the winter. Um, I mean, if they've survived the cold that we've had so far, I think they'll be okay. These are like pansies. These are still flowering even though they've been covered in snow and frost. I don't know if the ders would have survived in here. In here, these are ders that I've just covered over. I don't know if they' have survived. Um, they might have needed a thicker mulch or maybe I should have pulled them up. I don't know. These pots look okay. I wonder if that's frozen over actually. Yeah, it has. Just tulips coming through, which is really nice. Nothing in this one yet, but that's okay. We'll just break this up. I don't know if the pond plants can survive this. I really have no idea. You know what? I might need to get some hot water. Right. This is all doing okay. Brassacas are pretty hardy, so they're okay. We got the onions and the garlic. Yeah, onions and garlic look fine, too. This all looks fine. I'll leave this here just to stop the squirrels from digging. Broad beans are a little bit flip-floppy, but I think that's because I had them covered for so long and um they became a little bit leggy, which is a shame. I think we'll just leave these and see what they do. I'm not going to fiddle around with them too much, I don't think. I am going to paint this trellis a darker color. A lot of you said a dark green would be nice, and I think that's I think that's right. I think they need to blend in more. And I'm going to level them so they're actually straight cuz at the moment I can see they're very wobbly, which isn't really helping the area. And then we've got more stones to go down, which hopefully will neaten up this ground. Um, this area here needs to be sorted out at some point. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it, but I will figure it out. I like the positioning of the raised beds now. I think I've got it right. And then this seating area over here. Other than just needing some more planting in the springtime and sort of, you know, neatening up like that's coming away over there. I'm really happy with this area. And it's really nice to sit there in the summer and read a book. So, I'm really happy with that. We'll keep that as is. God, it's noisy out here today. It was much quieter at the a lotment earlier. Um, right. The big thing this year is because we're getting the kitchen done and extended. Um though we're getting it extended, it's actually going to be further back because that the smaller extension on the back is going to be knocked down to make more garden space because garden is obviously very important to me. The whole front of the garden down there is going to be redone. We're going to have a retaining wall built and like graduated steps. What is going on? Can you hear all those sirens? Anyway, hopefully you can still hear me. All of the front of the garden is going to have to be relocated to the back of the garden and then redone. and all the front will have to be redone and I could reuse that stuff or get new stuff or just have to see what happens. So, it's going to be quite a big change to the garden this year and that's going to be quite a big job. Let me just quickly show you roughly what I mean. So, it's a Victorian terrace and we're basically going to get a side extension done to fill in that corridor there and get this building here which is an old toilet and shower room which doesn't really work and doesn't have any building planning permission or anything when we bought the house. It's just stuck on the end. Um, so it shouldn't really be there anyway. We're just going to knock that down. So from the brick wall, that will be the back of our house right along with nice double doors in the middle and a patio. And then all down here will sort of be dug down so that it's ground level. We'll have patio and then some graduated steps coming up here into the garden, which Oh, hello. There I am. Um, which does mean we will lose some of the garden, but it will look better overall. Um, and I think it'll work. So, that's quite obviously quite a big change. Anyway, that is plans for later on this year. There's not much I can do out here today. I was going to trim the apple tree back, but I think was apple tree prunis prunis accolade tree back, but I think I might do that another day. Um, because it's absolutely freezing out here. So, let's go inside and get some lunch, I think. But yeah, the garden is looking good and um I'm ready to go for spring whenever spring wants to show its face. Okay, before I make lunch, and it's just going to be a really quick, easy lunch, I'm just going to sort out my sourdough starter and feed her. So, I actually can't remember what day we're on, but I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure it's almost a week. So, what we'll do is we've reduced it down to 75 g. This I've See, I've done it properly this time, guys. I mean it. I'm really serious about it this time. This jar is 400. This is 680. So, 475. We need to get it down to. So, I need to pour enough away. I'm also pouring it into the bin, not down the drain, cuz a lot of people told me often I put it down the drain cuz it turns into like a glue. Oh my god. Did I just get my hair stuck in that? No. Oh, I just put my hair in sourdough starter. God, that would do. Right. It's 492, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We're doing it properly, but we're not doing it that properly. Then I reset it to zero. Okay, cool. Then 100 g of bread flour goes in. 50 60 100. Yeah. Okay, that's 95. That's 103. That'll do. And then 115 of warm water 23. All right, cool. That'll do. As long as it was roughly near those numbers, in the region of those numbers, I think it'd be fine, right? We'll just give it a mix and then we'll put it in the other room. I've also stopped keeping it in the kitchen. I think my kitchen is too cold for Shelby. This is Shelby, by the way. Did I tell you that? Let's put Shelby back. All right. And then I might as well show you what I'm having for lunch cuz I keep going on about it and I'm sure you want to see. It's actually very boring. It's leftovers from yesterday. So whenever I make pasta, we had pasta with like mints yesterday. Like I made like a bolognese pasta thing. Whenever I make pasta, I always cook a little bit over for my lunch the next day. And I've just put it with cucumber, tomato, some mayo, some sweet corn. Might add a little bit of cooked salmon. I've got some cooked salmon in the fridge. And that's it. That's pretty much my lunch today. Okay guys, I know you probably can't see me at all because it is very very dark now. Um, it's actually only half 4 and it's pitch black outside. Got all my lovely lights on in the kitchen, but I don't think it's quite bright enough on the camera. I'm going to make a sweet potato and oberine curry. I sort of say curry loosely because I know there's a specific way of making curry and I do not make it that way. It's basically well I'll show you what I do. It's not that spicy cuz I don't like a lot of heat. Um I sort of call it a curry. Maybe it's more of a casserole. I don't really know. Let me just show you it and then you can make up your mind if it's a curry or if it's something else. But this is what I'm having for dinner. But I do tend to make this quite regularly um because it's just quite an easy dinner to throw together and it's got lots of veg in it and stuff and spices and I just think it's really good for you. Maybe it's not good for you though. I don't know cuz it does have mango chutney in it and cream. You be the judge. You can judge me. I can't hear you. Sorry. I should just say this is a Harry Potter jumper. I got it for Christmas and I love it. It's the jumper that um Ronald Weasley's mom buys Harry for Christmas one year and I love it. Pop it into an oven dish. Little bit of olive oil like that. And a little bit of turmeric. Sprinkle sprinkle like that. Toss it all together and then it can go into the oven until it's basically cooked nice and soft while the onion is sizzling. So, we kind of want the onion to go nice and brown. Um, so it kind of caramelizes a little bit. I've got an oberine. I'm just going to chop this up and stick it in the oven with the sweet potato. You don't want the oagene to go go in the oven for too long cuz then it will kind of overcook and become slimy and horrible. So great thing about oagene in this dish is that oagene really absorbs all the spices and flavors and stuff. So it just sucks up all the flavor and it's delicious. Right into the onions. And I do not really measure these out. I just go for it. Garam masala. Great combination of all the spices you need really. And that goes. Turmeric. Little bit of medium curry powder just for a little bit of a kick. Like I said, I don't like it too hot. So, mango chutney. This actually goes into the curry. And also we save some for on the side. So about 3/4 of this. Now into this goes some chicken stock. Thin it out a little bit. That was about um half a pint. And we're just going to leave that to simmer for a little bit while our veg is still cooking. As soon as the veg is cooked, it's going straight in. Okay. So, now that's all in the sauce. I'm going to throw in some coriander. Just a great big handful of coriander cuz I love it. Mix that in. Good old double cream. That can go in. Not too much of this cuz otherwise it doesn't work. But I just drizzle it on the top about that much. This is maybe like 100 ms. And then it should go this really lovely yellowy golden yellowy color. Bit of rice. A little bit of a naan bread. Half an ara bread maybe. And that's it. Pen, are you coming in? Start nudging the door any second to try and come in. Pip in. Okay, while he's making his mind up whether he wants to come in or not, thought I would really quickly talk books with you guys. Last year, I shared my second passion in life. So, my first passion is obviously gardening, growing my own food. That's like my biggest number one passion in life. And my second passion is reading. Um, I'm a huge reader. I love reading books. All kinds of books. I'm very eclectic in my book choices. though, now that I've organized some of them, I do find that I gravitate towards three specific categories. And that is best-selling thriller top 10 kind of page turning cliffhangery books that I will forget the entire plot by the time that I finish the book. Short novels or short I think they're called nollas or just like really small thin books that are about something completely random and have beautiful writing. maybe some poetry in it or maybe it's just written in a really unusual way, but I gravitate towards kind of like thinner books that I can finish in a couple of days. And then more kind of like character books, books that are about specific characters and have kind of maybe not a lot happens in the plot, but you get to know the characters very in depth and kind of fall in love with them or just, you know, really enjoy their company for a bit. Like things like Elellanena Olphant is what I'm trying to say, where it's really about the character. And those are kind of the three categories of books that I'm really drawn to. And then I have random ones like obviously Harry Potter which I've read about million times and like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials um but not any of the other ones. I only like His Dark Materials. I cannot for the life of me read on about Lyra. I don't want to know anything else about her life because her life for me ended when she couldn't be with Will and that was it. And I cannot I I tried I've got the book of dust. I've literally bought the first book of dust. I tried to read it and I just couldn't. I just could not get over I broken my heart by separating them forever. But I thought I would quickly because when I shared books last year, a lot of you said, "I've inspired you to start reading." Um maybe you haven't read for a long time or maybe you're not quite sure where to start. So it's like a new year. Maybe your New Year's resolution is I want to read more books this year or you know you want to start reading. I want to share with you where I would start. If I hadn't read for a very if I hadn't read for a very very long time, where would I start? So, the first place that I would start is on the short stories. If you go into a bookshop these days, I think it must be a sign of the times that our attention span is so much shorter um that there are so many more books in bookshops that are are thinner. They're lifesavers if you're trying to get back into reading. So, I've got some examples here. The end we start from. Um this is actually now on Netflix as well. can watch it as um a film. Sort of just like a dystopian future where the UK has been engulfed in water and everyone kind of becomes a refugee and um this woman has a baby during this crisis and she's trying to sort of get to safety. Um beautifully written, very unusually written, very much her diary. Um and just her like trail thoughts just coming out on paper. Absolutely loved that. This is another one which is very very short. Um, I who have never known men. This is again dystopian, dystopian future. This is very philosophical. Really makes you think. It's also a little bit sad. And then anything by Cla Keegan because she does the most beautiful stories. I've just finished Foster and I think this is my new favorite, but I've only read two um small things like these. These are great books to read. So then I thought I'd share a few books that have really stuck with me um that I just think I would recommend to pretty much anyone that I met on the street. Um, so this is a firm favorite. Half a world away. This is by Mike Gail. Um, this is a beautifully written book and slightly sad but also like a really really good story line with some great characters. So I loved this book. I'll just whiz through these. Shy Creatures by Cla Chambers. Um, she also wrote Small Pleasures, Simple Pleasures, Small Pleasures. Brilliant book set in the 1960s. Gorgeous writing, fantastic characters, um, and just a really compelling story. Lessons in chemistry will come as no surprise. I think this is now a TV series as well. Um, fantastic story. If you haven't read it, go and read it this year. I also really enjoy the Dolly Audin books. She's only done a few actually. Um, this one is good material. Little bit frustrating. Um, and a little bit I I didn't I didn't like the story and I didn't like the characters, but I also feel very much like it stuck with me and I know the characters and I think sometimes you don't have to like the characters in a book. Sometimes they just stick with you. Do you know what I mean? It's it's really well written and I if I met this character in the street I'd know exactly who she was and what she stood for and I hate her but I disagree with all of her views but great great book. really really good to read. So, I would try this one out. And then what I thought I would say is if you're reading a book and um you're kind of losing the will to live and you can't get into it and it's a bit slow and you lose the pace of reading, pick up one of the best sellers um in any bookshop that is like a thriller. These kind of books are great for getting back into reading because they are snappy, they are catchy, they're repetitive. At the end of every chapter, there's a cliffhanger. It makes you want to keep reading. So, I've got some examples here. Anything by Freda McFaden. It's just fast-paced. Um, really simple story lines, but really gritty and just straight in the action. I read this one, Someone in the Attic. This was one of the bestsellers. Again, super snappy. Just every single chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Makes you want to pick it up again. Uh, wrong place, wrong time. Brilliant storytelling. kind of starts at the end and works it way its way back to the beginning. Really keeps you gripped. Fantastic book. The Silent Patient, again, a real page turner, just really suspenseful, really thrillery. Um, just makes you want to know what happens at the end. And I will share more of my book recommendations throughout the year. Also share what you're reading. What have you read over Christmas? What would you recommend to me to try? Um, and just let me know if you pick any of these books up. I'd love to know your thoughts on some of them. I'd particularly like to know your thoughts on any of the Cla Keegan books because I'm obsessed with her writing. I'm going to buy every single one of her books. They are just gorgeous. I read this in about an hour and I wanted more. I wanted so much more. I wanted a fullon massive book of this. This is just beautiful. Yeah. Hope that was helpful. Right, we're going to go and make some pasta sauce now just to just to change the subject. Right. This is such a ridiculously easy midweek recipe. So, you just get out whatever veg you've got in your fridge. So, okay. Bye tomatoes. I've got some red onion, some red pepper, some celery, a few carrots, and a whole thing of tomatoes, which are just sort of not getting used. So, we'll whack all that in. It's just a matter of chopping it up, sticking it in the oven, and then whizzing it up with some um stock. and then we'll also do a whole bulb of garlic in there. So, I'm just going to chop the top off like that. Lost a clove. We lost a clove. Put the clove back in. Wrap it in a little bit of foil. Extra virgin olive oil. And then whatever we can just put over the top. So I've got some garlic granules here. So I'll stick some of that over the top because that sounds really nice. And I've got some dill as well. So we'll just put that over too. Right, there we go. Soup or pasta sauce, depending on what you want to do. It's a bit thin for pasta sauce, but at the same time, I'm going to be hungry for dinner, so I'll just whack some pasta in it anyway. And that, my friends, is dinner tonight. Right, I'm going to end the vlog there just so that I've got time to edit it and get it up for Sunday for you. Um, we will make the sourdough bread in the next vlog and hopefully I'll have some more snow to show you because I think we're due some snow tomorrow. So, I'll let you know if that actually happened or not. It's actually starting to rain right now. I think the storm is about to hit. So, I'll leave the vlog there. I'll see you again next Sunday at 9:00 a.m. or I'll see you on the a lotment plot on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thank you so much for watching. I hope you're enjoying these vlogs. Um, and I'll see you next week. Bye.