At this time of year, I can normally be heard frantically saying, ‘what on earth am I going to do with all these courgettes?’ Not this year. The very dry spring has almost put paid to my courgette harvest but conversely, has paid dividends for my crop of figs. What a year! I’ve never known… Continue reading What shall I do with all these figs? (A recipe for fig and orange jam)
And so it was that I found myself at 8am on a Sunday morning, devouring a bacon butty – fuel for the challenge ahead. I was taking part in the Pink Ladies’ Tractor Road Run for the first time. In its 20th year, this iconic event saw 197 tractors and 201 women, all swathed in… Continue reading Pink Ladies’ Tractor Road Run – I’m hooked!
It’s taken hours but I’m finally there – the tractor is bedecked in decorations and ready for the Pink Ladies’ Tractor Road Run this weekend. It’s fair to say that I have been fervently decorating the beast with passion, consideration and glee. And, it has given me time to consider the sheer scale of the… Continue reading Pink Ladies Tractor Run – clutch control mastered (maybe)…
When I signed off from my last Pink Ladies column, I boldly made the claim that in the coming month I would hop on my bike and attempt to cycle the 20-mile route that makes up the Pink Ladies Tractor Road Run. I wanted to familiarise myself with what was in store. It’s fair to… Continue reading Pink Ladies Tractor Run – racing towards £1million…
Rhubarb – it’s one of those crops that always seems to thrive, regardless of what you do to it. It is also one of the few that is now truly seasonal. As soon as the first bright pink stems of forced rhubarb start to push their cloches off, I vow to keep on top of… Continue reading Rhubarb syrup recipe…
Over the past month, two notable things have happened in my journey to becoming a Pink Tractor Lady. Firstly, my collection of pink paraphernalia has increased dramatically and secondly, I’ve made a concerted effort to seek out Pink Ladies to find out what taking part is really going to entail. I’m as keen as mustard… Continue reading Pink Ladies Tractor Run – the key to success? A sports bra…
At the end of last year a friend emailed me. He said, ‘I think I’ve asked you before about Detectorists: I’ve watched every episode over the past few weeks, and I love it. It’s filmed in your neck of the woods, innit?’ I replied the next day and said, ‘I’ve never seen Detectorists before, whizzed through the… Continue reading Metal detecting in Norfolk…
On New Year’s Day, as 2023 rolled into town I found my phone lighting up as a new message came through. It said, ‘how about tomorrow morning?’ ‘Yes’ I said, with a huge smile on my face. Come the next morning I was standing in a farmyard about to meet the tractor that will take… Continue reading Pink Ladies Tractor Run – I meet my tractor…
On a frosty walk through the woods, a momentary stop to appreciate the clarity of the day drew my eye to the south-facing trunk of a struggling ash tree. It was covered from top to toe in what I thought was some sort of fungus but on closer inspection it turned out to be clusters… Continue reading Ladybirds in hibernation…
Six years ago I witnessed a sight that stopped me in my tracks. There I was, cycling on the backroads of South Norfolk when out of nowhere a host of women came hurtling towards me on an array of tractors bedecked in pink. It was the vivid and widely-loved Pink Ladies Tractor Road Run. I’d… Continue reading Pink Ladies Tractor Run, here I come…
