Fried Green Tomatoes

Managed to get a couple of hours in the garden this weekend. The last couple of weeks I've been glued to the computer screen with work and in any case the weather has been grey and damp. Sunday was a lovely day - frosty first thing but sunny and warm during the day.
I cleared out most of the tomatoes in the greenhouse. The stems and leaves were going brown and collapsing so the fruit were not going to get much bigger. I harvested about 5 pounds of green tomatoes. They will ripen on the kitchen window sill. But I've always wanted to try fried green tomatoes. I researched a few recipes and went for this:

1lb of green tomatoes
2 eggs
100gms polenta
Salt & pepper to taste
Rape seed oil or butter to fry

Cut the tomatoes into slices 1/4 inch thick
Break eggs into a small bow and whisk up with salt and pepper
Spread the polenta on a large plate
Dip the tomato slices in the egg and then coat in the polenta.
Shallow fry for a few minutes and turn over and do the same so they are golden on both sides and slightly soft. Do in batches and keep hot in oven.
Enjoy. We had them with cold pork from Sunday roast and the verdict was "Good!"   

I think they could be improved with a pinch of chilli powder or other spice mixed with the polenta. And maybe could try with wholemeal flour or breadbrumbs.

First real frost

Very cold this morning - bright sunshine and a bitter north wind. There was ice on the fountain and a spattering of white snow. I abandoned plans for weeding and just dashed out to pick raspberries - about 3 lbs - and 4lbs of tomatoes from the greenhouse which I'll ripen on the kitchen window sill.
I brought some of the tender plants into the conservatory for the winter - geraniums, fuchsia and bougainvillea. The geraniums keep flowering all winter and will brighten up the grey days.

Turning yellow

Yellow tones in the maple and walnut trees. Golden hosta leaves below the rockery.

Yesterday we did a quick trip to family in Dublin. Driving along by Phoenix Park the trees were so beautiful with reds and oranges and browns intermingled with dark green.

Last weekend I took some photos of Froggarts Cottage Garden with the foliage on trees, bushes and herbaceous plants like hostas turning distinctly yellow. We arrived home from the airport at midnight to see a carpet of yellow leaves blown down from the big ash trees in the  the field. Today the ash trees and the walnuts and maples are beginning to look very bare. Seems like we're not getting the vivid colours we have some years. Perhaps it was the lack of sunshine this year. The golden yellows are beautiful anyway.

Redcurrant bushes are turning yellow and starting to shed leaves

More yellow tinges, set off with the black-eyed daisies which have flowered all summer long

Variagated shrub with extra autumn hues

Don't know the name of this lovely small tree. It has beech-like leaves and small yellow flowers
in the early spring before the leaves come out.

The last of the squashes - colourful "Celebration".