A poppy trivet - with a heart - from Charles Viancin

You'll know I'm a fan of silicone kitchenware. I've already tried - and regularly use - the daisy lids and the cute vegetable bottle stoppers, and today I'm sharing a poppy trivet.

Once again it's from Charles Viancin and I like its bold poppy design. The texture on the leaves and the centre of the flower is great. I think it looks great against my dark quartz worktop. And, who doesn't like a poppy?

It differs from the daisy lids in that it's much more flexible. Infact I'd say it's screw-up-able, look:

It works as a trivet - as you'd expect - for hot pans and dishes just out of the oven.

And it also works well as a pot holder. Remember my Munchkin Pumpkins from Sunday? Well they didn't last long. Until Sunday evening's tea to be precise. And very tasty they were too. They also provided a colourful reminder that this trivet is also useful for grabbing things out of the oven. 

It's harder - but not impossible - to take out a bread or cake tin using it, but trays like this are a breeze to get hold of. And as it's on the worktop, it means I don't have to rummage in the drawer below the oven while the oven timer happily beeps away!

The other thing I like about this trivet is that for a month around Remembrance Day in November, Charles Viancin donates 10% of all sales from the Poppy range to the Royal British Legion. I like that a lot.

This is a collaborative post but all views and opinions are my own.

A year in Greenwich Park: September

I got thinking the other day, Greenwich Park is now such a big part of my working week that it'll be interesting to watch it close up over the coming months. And so, my thinking led me to think sharing how the park changes with you would be a good thing too. 

I'm hoping to capture how people use the park changes, as well as the more obvious changes in the trees and gardens. You'll remember last month I shared how I took a diversion through the Flower garden and I'm counting that as the start of this series as that coincided with my daily commute to Greenwich.

Each day I've been walking the same route, and it's often as busy as this:

Seriously though, the view above is now one of my favourite in the park. Before I'd really only thought of the park as a whole, and with the exception of the Flower Garden which is gated, not individual parts. I do see people on my way through the park and we'll come onto those in a moment, but first conkers.

Yes, on 1 September I found my first conker. That was quite a shock to the system as the weather was still very much warm, and the warmest two days were still to come. It's been fun to see children with their parents scour for the biggest ones, with only a few of the bigger kids encouraging the conkers out of the trees with sticks.

The park is still quiet in the mornings, but I've noticed that it's now quieter in the afternoons too. Where once there were impromptu picnics and gatherings as I walked home, the park is less busy. There's groups of schoolkids messing about, as you do, after school. But it's in the mornings that I notice people more. 

People walking their dogs. Like the old man with the Jack Russell and the man with the greyhounds, who hang back and then gracefully bound past me. The greyhounds that is, not their owner. It's got to the point where I judge if I'm running ahead or behind schedule on where I meet people along the way. Most often it's behind schedule, but occasionally I see the panic in their faces because they must be doing exactly the same thing!

The light has been great this month, it's that time of year when the sun is low and it's been great to capture how the sun shines through the trees. It's actually been quite captivating. And magical.

THE TREE WHERE I TURN RIGHT

I've watched the sweet chestnuts turn from green to brown, but that photo is technically next month so you'll have to wait for that. The grass in front of the tree where I turn right, is usually a good indicator of how my day will go. I mean the day after the Autumn equinox, it was a lovely day and I risked sandals. Walking over the grass I soon realised this was a foolish decision and I arrived at work with wet feet. Lesson learnt and now it's trainers every day.

Ironically there's less cyclists in the park this September. Perhaps most were taking advantage of the lighter London traffic and can't quite fit a cycle commute into their "back to school" September routine, who knows.  And I say ironically as September was supposed to be the month that I'd start cycling in - or rolling down the hill one way at least.  It hasn't happened partly because I'm still enjoying my walks, even the uphill ones on the way home, and I'm not ready to give those up just yet. Maybe October will be the month, maybe...

There is one tree that I think is pretty special, and that's this one.

If I were to follow a tree here, it'd be this one. It's a fantastic shape and as you can see its leaves are starting to turn. It'll be interesting to see how it changes, along with the rest of the park over the coming year. And if you're wondering I haven't checked in on my first tree for quite a while, maybe I should.

While there's been less cyclists, there's definitely more people using the park to keep fit with runners jogging past every which way. My favourite fitness thing though has to be the girl that jogs backwards. It makes me smile inside every time I see her, it just looks so peculiar. A bit like these greeny-grey pinecones. I've got my eye on these, though they'd better hurry up if they want to be in contention for the bleached treatment.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of October brings for the park and sharing that with you.  Do you have a place - park or otherwise - that you visit regularly and note how it changes?

We have a cauliflower!

After a few days away last weekend in Devon and a day at Woodfest yesterday, this morning was the first time I got a chance to pop over to the allotment and check on how things were doing. The sun was out, so armed with a supply of paper bags and my pen knife off we went.

And look what's happened while we've been away.

Yes we have a cauliflower!

It's only about the size of my fist at the moment but it looks like a proper cauliflower. It's also the only one, so far. Of the other plants, one looks like it might follow suit, another has snapped most likely caused by an over-enthusiastic fox running past and the final plant is still behaving as I'd expect purple sprouting broccoli to behave... Maybe I could start a new thing?!

The feeling of satisfaction when the veg you grow looks like it should, and like veg in the shop is indescribable and such a good feeling!

Our continuing harvest

The tomatoes are still ripening and we left with another 700g of mainly small, but very eatable tomatoes. The courgettes are still going, although at a much slower rate, today I picked a on-the-way-to-being-a-marrow courgette and a smaller yellow one which are destined for a chocolate cake later today.

I also picked our mystery squash so by next weekend, the mystery should be solved. My money's on it being a spaghetti squash, but dad thinks it's a round courgette. We'll see.

We left the butternut squash there but picked the two munchkin pumpkins. We've some venison chops for tea tonight and I'm planning to cook some red cabbage so I think these little beauties could also end up on our plate quite quickly. That's another thing that gives me immense satisfaction about growing our own veg, being able to eat it so quickly after picking.

There were also a lot more crab apples down than we've seen before, and those on the tree were looking quite rosy so we started to pick those. Four bags later and I have 3.2kg, so some more crab apple jelly could be on the cards.

Elsewhere on the plot

• The spring onions I'd sown between the cauliflowers are now being crowded out and it's unlikely they'll grow much more.
• The turnips look to be doing well - both those I started in a seed tray and those sown direct. The seed tray ones are much further ahead, as I'd expect with such a head start.
• I spotted some more borlotti beans clambering up the canes from my second sowing, which is good news because my crop so far is a solitary bean!
• The chard is having another burst of life, which I'm pleased about, MOH less so. With the sweet peas cleared from nearby it's clearly getting a lot more space, and light, and liking it.
• The sunflowers are still going strong, I'm leaving the seedheads there for the time being and plan to keep at least a couple for seeds while letting the birds feed on the rest.
• The red cabbage plants have done well and have grown significantly, the kale and cavolo nero have fared less well and seem to have been nibbled, so I'll need to do something about that.
• The rhubarb has died back already, and we need to clear the space next to it where the sweetcorn was.
• The leeks are still thin, but doing well despite MOH's size 9s. If I get any leeks that don't get trodden on I'll be surprised. 
• The small apple tree which we moved last November has a single apple on it. Just one. And we're grateful for that. And hopeful that next year it'll be back to producing more. Meanwhile though we are planning carefully when and how to enjoy this singular fruit. We want to make the most of it...

It feels like it's been a productive growing season this year. Over the coming months our focus will change to clearing some more of the plot so it's ready for more crops next year. But that's for another day.