CURRANT AFFAIRS

Sunshine and rain in the wrong proportions can be a lethal combination for gardens but this year’s hot, dry spells punctuated with scattered showers have been perfect for our fruit and veg emporium which is bursting with peas, carrots and currants.

Blackcurrants ripening nicely in the sun

The currants especially appear to have gone into fruity overdrive. The 2 bushes are groaning with shiny black bunches of currants. There are so many fruits that the sheer weight of them has forced branches to topple forward across the smaller redcurrant plants. It’s a berry bonanza!

You're gonna need a bigger punnet

Below is the first batch harvested which filled a 500g ice cream tub and is now safely stored away in the freezer ready for jam making. Believe me when I say there is probably double that quantity still to be picked.

Half a kilo of currants picked in one go

Back in the kitchen, Project Nouvelle Cuisine is also heading to a ripe conclusion. The right hand side of the room is pretty much finished. All units have been fitted, tiling grouted and water supply dug into a trench that runs round the edge of the room to the waste water pipe outside, concealed by the flooring tiles and coir matting once laid.

Right hand side of kitchen almost finished

Jade metro tiles look stunning with white grouting

Speedy progress is being made on the left hand side of the room. All units are now assembled with worktops expertly cut round all the fiddly brickwork of the old fireplace. The builders have certainly demonstrated their expertise in this area as none of the walls run straight in old houses. It must have been a bit of a pig to cut and shape but they’ve done a quality job.

Fitting together the tall larder unit

Tall larder and ironing board storage

But projects never run perfectly and we’ve hit a couple of minor snags around the old fireplace enclosure which is now home to a new Neff hob and soon to house our stand alone oven. 

 

Left hand side of kitchen coming along nicely

To achieve a nice flush run along the length of this side of the kitchen, the units had to be positioned a way out from the wall. Unfortunately this has left a chimney recess space that is much deeper than the oven housing cabinet so now there’s a large gap between the wall and back of the worktop. Sod’s law that the section of leftover worktop is too short to fill the gap otherwise we could have used that as an infill.

Hob horrors - how to plug the gap?

Second fly in the ointment is the extractor canopy. Originally meant to be completely concealed within the chimney, it’s such a deep unit that it touches the concrete lintel bracing the chimney thus visibly protruding down over the hob.

Extractor canopy too deep to fit flush

In true management style, I’ve delegated the creative solutioning of these two issues to the builders so it’ll be interesting to see how they get round these horrors without compromising the overall look and kitchen design.

Boiler corner lots to box in

Tiling begun in the boiler corner