Friday is market day in NCE

NCE.... local abreviation for New Castle Emlyn... not sure when the castle was new, must have been quite a while ago, as its just a pile of a few stones now. Anyway, its a lovely little town, with plenty of interesting independent shops. On a Friday a veggie wholesaler turns up with a truck load of stuff at unbelievable prices. This week it was a case ( 6kg ) of tomatoes ( only two with moustaches out of the whole lot ) for £1.50, and a case of plums ( about 4 kg ) for £2.00 that I couldnt resist. Today I have spent the whole day making tomato chutney ( turned out a little spicier than I intended... maybe next time I will walk over to the drawer to get the teaspoon toi measure the chilli powder ), preparing and freezing tomatoes for the freezer, and making plum jam and plum compote... yum yum yum, pity the washing up fairy didnt bother to turn up to give me a hand afterwards. Dear Teresa( from 2 doors down) turned up with her wheelbarrow to offer us a hand lifting the turf... in the pouring rain. David and I felt quite guilty telling her we were good weather gardeners only.

Lifting the turf from the field is a bit like giving a hairy leg a good shave, except its more heavy duty and a bit bumpier. Once David has gone over the field with the machine, we have to remove all the turfs, and make piles at the edge of the field so that they can rot down and make lovely compost for us. I found bending over rolling the turf up a bit rough on the back, so have landed up crawling along on my hands and knees in the mud rolling it up to be loaded into the wheelbarrow. I now feel intimately aquainted with every ridge in the field and if mud is good for your skin, then I should be looking years younger around the knee area.By six pm , I was considering taking up religion, and even started to pray for a bit of rain. Someone heard me, and soon there was the pitter patter of rain drops falling on my head. Theres not evry much that a nice hot bach and some clean clothes can not cure, and tomorrow we should be able to remove the rest of the turf. Yippee.