SLOW LIVING IN BUSY LONDON / Romanticising my London life

Welcome to my Sunday Diaries and to a very, very hot week here in the UK. It is a heatwave. I think we've got a red alert where we are and then it goes to amber and it stays amber to the end of the week, so it's very, very hot today. It should be getting up to about 40 degrees. It actually feels like it probably is almost there now, so just very, very hot. Starting this vlog at lunchtime and my kids are already home from school because the school has been closing early every day and they will continue to close early every single day this week, just to give them a chance to walk home because if they walk home at like three, I think it's like the peak kind of heat of the day and so it's been closing just before lunch so they can get home nice and safely and they've just been enjoying chilling in their rooms really, not really doing very much, so it's not really the kind of weather where you can go out and do anything at all. I've also been staying away from my allotment plot which has been quite sad, but yeah, I went there at the beginning of the week before the heatwave and I watered everything really intensely and really tried to look after it and I literally have not been back since, but I think it's been raining at night time. I've been like dead to the world at night, like literally just sleeping through, so I haven't really noticed what's been going on at night, but every morning I've woken up all my pots and my garden is wet, so I'm assuming we've had some rain, which is really good news for the allotment, so fingers crossed, when I do finally get back down there, everything should be okay, slightly concerned about the slugs and snails, that they might have eaten everything because it's been raining at night, it's been warm, they might be out there just like eating everything, so I hope I've still got some pumpkins left, however, I have ordered some more pumpkin seeds, ordered some more Jack Be Little seeds, this will be my third, no my fourth sowing of these this year, so the first lot went out, got completely eaten, the second lot have gone out, they're now sitting in the archway, in the ground hopefully, you'll probably know already whether they've been eaten or not, but I'm assuming they might have been eaten, I've got another lot in the greenhouse which is yet to germinate and I'm going to start some more of these at home, the end of June is really the latest that you can sow pumpkins and because these are like a smaller variety of pumpkin, they take less time to grow, so I'm really hoping that that means that they'll sort of, they'll grow to harvest this year, so hopefully I might get some pumpkins by October, it would be nice if I sowed them now and we actually managed to harvest them in October, because I think I've been doing it so early with these and because they don't take long to grow, I've been harvesting them in like August, so I've never really had pumpkins in October, so I think this might work in my favour, anyway the first thing that we're going to do, we're actually going to sow these now, and I'm going to risk the heat out there, I hope my camera will survive, we'll have to find out, but we are going to stay in the shade, so let's go and plant some more jack-o-littles, my fourth sowing this year, ordered myself a bag of this multi-purpose compost, I got it from Amazon because they deliver compost and it was just the easiest place for me to grab it from, and it's grow more, I use it just for seed sowing and in my sort of vegetable patch at home and it seems to work okay, so we're going to use this. Right, got a little patch of shade here, but I tell you what, it is really really really hot, I don't think anyone else will be silly enough to be in their garden today, this is absolutely insanely hot. Can you see this compost, can you see how it's kind of like quite fluffy, it's like quite a fluffy kind of texture, it's really good for seeds, it's got no lumps in it or anything, like sort of, you know the B&Q compost that I usually get, it's got no lumps in it like that stuff has. I don't know if it means that it's not as good, but it's definitely good for sowing seeds, because it's really fine. I think just because we're a bit later on in the year, I think I'm going to put two seeds into each of these in the hope that they, sort of, one of them germinates and then I will take out the weaker one, I might even pop the weaker one on again. Normally I would just put one seed in each of these, because obviously these are quite small for pumpkins, but I think because it's later on in the season, I really want to make sure that I actually get some growing, so I'm going to put two in each and I'm just going to place them on this side, not that I think this really matters in this kind of heat, but when you sow seeds like pumpkin or courgette, plant them sort of on their side, so that they don't rot, because if they sit in wet soil, they rot. If you plant them on their side, they're less likely to. We should know within five to ten days, that's when they should start to germinate. Five to ten days. I did really want to take out these broad beans today, because they just look so terrible, don't they? They've sort of half died in the heat waves, and also I think they've sort of finished as well. Yeah, I think we'll take them out. Pop it up with some new compost, regenerate it a little bit, and I think I've got some courgettes to go in here, so I'll go grab them, and we'll just whack them in. Not that I need any more courgettes in my life, but here we go, you know, here we are, we've got them. We might as well use them. Just to let you know guys, nobody needs this many courgettes in their life. I think I've got about six growing at the allotment, and this is quite a lot to put out here, but you know what? I actually just don't want to waste the plants. They've just done so well. They've survived snail attacks, so I feel like the least I can do is whack them out. Right, and then just along the back there, I'm going to put a row of runner beans, and these are seeds that I saved from last year that I actually forgot were sitting in my kitchen, so I haven't sown these at the allotment. I thought I might as well whack them in here, and then we will build the structure another day, maybe a day when it's not 40 degrees out here. Do you know what? We could actually, what am I thinking? We could actually do a little teepee. Right, so I won't finish making the structure because it's far too hot, but I will just plant my runner beans around it. I think that's quite a good idea to do a little teepee in here. Do you know also, beans and courgettes go really well together. They're really happy, and also sweet corn. Sweet corn, runner beans, and courgettes go really, really happily together. They all help each other out. All looking very beautiful. My goodness, I'm going to be so sad to say goodbye to this garden, but hopefully, I mean, it did start as a complete mess. It was just like, it was nothingness really, and we've really brought it to life, so hopefully whatever garden I get next, I'll be able to do the same, but look at the seating area. Isn't it just lovely? It's so inviting. I've been leaving a little bit of water out for the fox. I'll put some footage up here, but yesterday, I saw the fox in the garden. That's actually really hot. You won't want that. That's boiling water. It's actually got bubbles. Look how hot it is. Oh my goodness, but yeah, yesterday, I saw him in the garden, and he was so thirsty, so I left him some water, and he lapped it up. Wow, guys, I must have been out there for, what, five, ten minutes? Look at me. It's just not fun. My camera's overheating right now, but basically, I just wanted to say that what I've planted in there, because you might be thinking, why are you planting anything? It's stuff that I've already got growing at the allotment plot, so courgettes, runner beans, just in case we're here a bit longer than we think. I don't want to leave it empty, so I'm not sort of putting anything in new, because we could go at any time. I don't know how long it takes to move, but yeah, that's what's going in there. Anyway, I need to come in and cool off. Right, so if you watched my allotment vlogs this week, you might know that I harvested a really nice cauliflower and some potatoes. So we're going to use these today in dinner, and I'm going to show you what I'm going to do with them. So these are my Red Duke of York. It's a first early variety, and I pulled up one of my plants. I've got a few potatoes. I'm going to need a few more, because I'm going to cook for the whole family. And I've also got this lovely cauliflower, but this will just be for Dave and I, because I don't think my kids are going to eat this. I just managed to harvest it before it went over and started to flower. So you see how this bit here is a bit taller? It's because it's bolting, which means it's going to start throwing up its flowers. So I managed to just grab it before that happened. So I'm not doing anything too fancy with it. I actually think, oh, look at that. This is the disappointment of these beautiful red potatoes, is that when you start to peel them, they are just normal potatoes, my friends. They're just a normal colour. Still very, very delicious though. Yeah, and keeping the recipes quite simple, because even though I've grown these, I used to think when I harvest my own veg, I have to do something really exciting with it to make it worth it. But actually, I've realised now that sometimes that's putting too much pressure on myself. And actually, you can just use it in the same way that you would any vegetable. You don't have to do something super fancy. Okay, so I'm just going to chop a couple of them in half, sauce them with water, and then I'm going to top them up with some baby new potatoes, because I didn't pick as many as I needed to for the whole family. I was actually only going to cook for me, but now I've decided to cook for everyone. And we shall boil these. Sorry if my kitchen is a little bit dark today. I'm trying that thing where you keep all the doors closed and the windows and all the blinds closed to try and keep it cooler. So I'll let you know how that goes. Okay, so potatoes are now soft all the way through. So I'm going to put some aside for the kids, because they don't like potato salad. And I'm going to make a really simple potato salad with half of them. This is not the official way of making potato salad, but this is way that I make it and I like it. So big dollop of mayo. So people do use creme fraiche. Okay, now I've got some malt vinegar. So we're just going to put some of that on. Okay, and then we've got some spring onions. We'll go with the spring onions. Okay, and then I've got some dill. So I'm just going to chop up a little bit of this. It's a lot of dill there, but it is really good in this dish. And then kind of mix all of that together. All right, that is my super quick potato salad. And then with this cauliflower, I think we're going to literally keep it simple and just add it to some boiling water and just cook it as a cauliflower, like as sort of plain. Yeah, it looks good to me. I think I'm going to see if I can pull up a couple of these carrots for dinner as well. I wonder if I've got any, I'll pull up a couple and if they're big enough, I'll pull up a couple more. We'll start with a couple and see how we go. Oh my goodness me. Oh my goodness me. Okay. I think we've definitely got carrots. That's incredible. That's absolutely, I mean, that is a carrot. That's a proper carrot, isn't it? Let's pull up another one. Okay. A little bit smaller, but you know what? Not bad. A few years ago, that would have been my best carrot. Not this year. Oh yeah, he's okay. He's pretty good. Yeah. Okay. A little one there. So a little bunch of carrots from my garden to go with dinner. Fantastic. How amazing being able to pull up your own veg and cook it straight away. Just such a simple thing. That's so amazing. There we go. There's the salmon and we've got some home grown veg. How very exciting. And some of the potato salad. And that, my friends, is my dinner for tonight. See, really simple, but most of it homegrown. Delicious. Well, hello. Oh my goodness me. It is so, so, so hot. This heat wave, I think it was originally supposed to break today and now it's not going to break until tomorrow afternoon. So we've got another full day of extreme hot temperatures. My kids' schools have been closing early as they've been coming home at sort of lunchtime, which has been quite nice to be honest. They're happy about it because the temperatures have just been crazy, crazy high. I have managed to get to my allotment now. I went quite late last night, about half past eight, quarter to nine at night, gave everything a water. Things are alive and my Jack Belittles are alive. I don't know if you've already seen that vlog. If not, major, major spoiler. My Jack Belittles have survived. How much longer they survive is, we don't know. We don't know. I'm really hoping that they're still alive now because we haven't had any more rain and I've given them a water. They look okay. They're still very small, but they are alive. I have been really struggling to keep the house clean and tidy. Do you remember, because it's on the market at the moment, we could have viewings at any time, but with this heat, it's been horrendous and it's so difficult, especially to do the upstairs. There's been no hoovering upstairs, no dusting. I haven't gone over the bathroom, only just to wipe the toilet down and stuff like that. It needs a proper clean. I think when the heat breaks on Sunday, it should hopefully be Sunday, I'm just going to do a top to bottom clean of the house. Anyway, I will try to keep you updated on our journey because a few of you have said that it is quite interesting to you. We are staying local in the local area, just looking at moving out a tiny little bit so we get a little bit more space, but we're pretty much staying local to where we are. I'll just update you when things get interesting. At the moment, it's just people coming around and looking at our house and us looking around other houses and that's pretty much where we are right now, so there's not much more to share. I think I'm going to water the things here in the shade. I'm not going to bother watering the stuff in the sun just now because it's so hot. All my things in the garden, all my plants are looking okay at the moment. I've been keeping on top of the watering with the pots and obviously these herbs are in this wooden container and it does dry out quite quickly, so even though herbs can cope, I think, with a little bit of stress, can't they? I'm still really watering them every morning and every evening. I actually think I'm going to leave this herb planter here for the next people because this is just too big for us to take with us and I think it just might be quite nice to get a new one for the new house. I don't know what the garden is going to be like so I don't know if I can plonk this in the garden anyway and it's quite old so I feel like it's a bit rickety now. I might just leave it for them. I managed to do a little bit of tidying. I've got the washing out at least. I've probably done 15 wash loads over the last few days. That's another perk of the heatwave, I suppose, is that all my washing's been done. I think I might just throw together really quickly a banana bread cake. Banana bread? I feel like it's weird saying banana bread because it's obviously not a bread but like a banana loaf cake because all of our bananas are going off. They're just not happy in the heat at all and we don't eat tons of bananas so they're just going off very quickly which does make a great banana loaf. So it is just one of those recipes that is just ridiculously easy. I think I'm going to keep the eggshells again and just put them outside to dry in the sun because that worked quite well last time. The thing with banana bread, and I'm sure you know this, is that the more ripe your bananas are the better. So the blacker they go and the softer they go the better. Look at that, all the tops of the bananas have just come off. I literally am not going to be able to keep these. I only need two. Right, quick tip from me. I have said this many times but if you need to line a tray, like a baking tray or a cake tin with baking parchment, scrunch up your parchment first. It makes it much easier to work with. So just scrunch it into a ball, unscrunch it. Now it's much more kind of mouldable and much easier to work with and then you just get your tin and dot some of the mixture. I don't have many tips for baking because it is just something I do for enjoyment. I'm not really trying to learn how to be better but I do have a few things that I picked up along the way and this is one of them. Look how easy it just sticks to it. There are some really interesting bird noises outside at the moment. I think because of the heat everything sounds really tropical but I think the birds have literally turned into tropical birds. I've never heard birds like this before so I'm going to try and pick it up on camera out and show you. Of course they've stopped now. They kind of stop and start. I'm not sure if I caught it on camera because it's quite noisy out here but they sound so strange and tropical. I have no idea what birds they are but it's kind of like a squawking. Look at these lovely flowers. These are the ones that I sowed from a seed ages ago. They're like the candy floss or candy pop or something and they've all started to flower. They're gorgeous. They said that they were easy. The actual seed packet said that they were super easy to grow from a seed and they were right. I find it so hard to grow flowers from a seed but these have done fantastic and they're beautiful. Some of my pepper plants are doing okay. This is the lemon drop. This has survived really well and then I've got another one over there. This is the tangerine dream I think and this one's doing okay but on the other side unfortunately my longhorns got munched. However they are getting some new leaves so you never know they might come back again. I'll just leave them be and see what happens. So okay it looks done definitely. The way to tell is if you get a really sharp knife or a skewer and just put it in the middle, if it comes out clean with no like sticky stuff on it, sticky stuff, cake batter on it, then it's done and this is definitely done. Probably the only acceptable baking to do on a hot day. Just throw together like a loaf cake like some banana bread or a blueberry cake. Fantastic. It's a few days later guys. The heat wave has finally broken. Hallelujah. Oh my gosh. We were all waiting for it to break and it did break. It's still been like a little bit hot at night. This is my bedroom and it's like a loft conversion so it gets really really hot in here whenever it's warm outside. So just in the summer in general the heat wave has been unbearable up here. Seriously we've had every single window open and it's just been like sleeping in an oven. This is the only room I can talk to you in. I'm pretty sure you're going to hear building work in a second. So we've got some building work going on there. I've got building work going on just in front of my house so I can't sit in my usual spot in the living room. Anyway I'm so done with it. We are literally moving and I'm so relieved. With the moving situation it's becoming difficult. I know some of you wanted me to kind of keep updating you on this. I'm going to try to keep updating you but it's it's emotional moving house. I feel so privileged. I know I'm so privileged and fortunate to be able to move house. There's a lot of like emotion involved in it and you do you can't help getting emotionally attached to houses that you see. So when like you lose them which inevitably we have, it's really hard. It's really heartbreaking that you have to like spend a few days getting over the heartbreak of losing a house and then you have to like move on try and find another one. Also like having to say goodbye to this house that we put our like so much work into is really difficult as well. There are other reasons why we're moving so it's not just like one reason. Everything is stressing me out at the moment. Everything is stressing me out. The finances are stressing me out. The actual moving is stressing me out. Finding an actual house is stressing me out. Everything is stressing me out. Anyway I do hope you've enjoyed this week's vlog for my Sunday vlog. I'm going to be back at the allotment plot tomorrow and we are officially in July so it's going to be all about harvesting, taking care of the allotment and then moving on to planning our autumn winter allotment. So I'm going to be doing lots of seed sowing in July. There will be a video on seeds that I'm sowing in July because it will be all the autumn winter stuff and it's good because if your garden didn't go to plan this summer there's another garden coming where you could do the autumn winter growing and actually it's quite enjoyable to grow veg throughout the autumn winter. There's obviously less chance of heat waves and I don't know I just kind of like growing in the autumn winter. It's quieter at the allotment then as well. People close their allotments down and come back in the spring so I find it's just a really nice time to get some crops in the ground. We'll be doing that throughout July and I hope that you'll join me. So I will see you when I see you guys. Thank you so much for watching as always. I'm going to do my best to answer as many comments as I can. Please leave me comments. I'm going to try and answer any questions in the comments and then if you've just left me a lovely comment maybe I'll just heart it because they do get on top of me sometimes and I think that might be quite a nice way of acknowledging that I've seen the comment and that you know like thank you so much for leaving it. But then I'll answer questions in the comments so if you want a question answered leave me a question and I'll see what I can do. Have a lovely lovely week. Let's all just have a really lovely week and take a deep breath and just everything's just going to be great this week. Let's just do that. Thanks for watching. Bye.