Well, the new kitchen is in and it is as beautiful as we imagined! But it's not finished yet, as we knew upfront, because the countertop had to be measured after the kitchen was installed. And because the countertop isn't there yet, part of the wall above it couldn't be plastered. We have to wait at least 3 weeks for the countertops , since the factory is closed. Frank has to cover the ceiling with tong and groove as well, he will do that after the new floor is in. This week, Thursday, Friday and probably Saturday as well, Frank, his brother Maarten and a good friend will put in the wooden floor. It's a really big job, because all the furniture is in the room , including a really big bookcase and a large dining table. Today and tomorrow Frank and I will finish odds and ends, bit of painting, bit of wallpapering, and then on Tuesday I get to empty the bookcase again. Only this time it has to be completely empty (cleared out only the top part last time when we moved it: 12 boxes of books), because the men will have take it apart to move it across the room. When the floor is in, I will take some pictures to show you how it all looks.

With all this remodelling and redecorating I neglected the allotment a little bit, but I have started with a vengeance again and have planned to go there every day this week, otherwise the weeds will win. Luckily, the vegetables are growing as well, can't complain there. We have eaten french beans this week and they were delicious. Wesley was even disappointed I didn't cook more.  I have more, but will can those, so the kids can eat them as well. They are on vacation with their biological father now, so we will have to miss them for three whole weeks. After eight years I'm still not used to the vacation weeks. Actually we have eaten something from the garden almost the whole week. Yesterday Frank and I had zucchini soup with soft goat cheese and basil, and it was delicious!

I have kept a record off the harvest from my garden:
zucchini             5.8 kg (12.8 pounds)
cucumber           4.2 kg (9.3 pounds)
endive                3    kg (6.6 pounds)
lettuce               2.5 kg (5.5 pounds)
kohlrabi             4.1 kg (9.1 pounds)
french beans     3    kg (6.6 pounds)
We have passed 20 kg and there is still a lot to come: cabbages, broccoli, brussel sprouts, runner beans, beets, carrots, tomatoes, fennel, corn, and pumpkins of course!  
I hope to get some more french beans and that the runner beans, which are flowering at the moment, will hang in there, because we've had a lot of rain even though it was hot. 'That made that part of my allotment very wet, and beans don't really like wet feet, it causes the leaves to turn yellow and fall off.
I have to clean up my greens bed, the lettuce is overgrown, so I will take that out and plant some new ones, as well as endive and some more leeks.

I have picked blackberries from our back garden over the past two weeks and froze them until I had enough to make a large batch of jam and now I do. So I have planned a kitchen session either this afternoon or tomorrow to preserve some of  the harvest, but I will tell you more about that when I'm done. 
To finish off a picture Frank took yesterday when I was picking blackberries in our garden while talking to our neighbour at the other side of the fence.

blessings, Ellen

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Posted by Cathy

Ellen,
I love the picture of you....you are beautiful my friend.
Love ya,
Cathy

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Posted by Vickie

I enjoyed reading your blog this morning. You have a beautiful garden & your new kitchen sounds like it will be great!
Hope you have a nice day.

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