Living a slow and simple life

tagged

2012-02-11T20:19:00.001Z

Thanks to SFT over at http://sftandthe101challenge.blogspot.com/2012/02/day-309-its-award-season.html for tagging me,and here are the questions that SFT has set for us and my answers.

1. Where is your favourite place in the world? Tell us why?

My favourite place in the whole world is the Penken mountain near Mayrhoffen in Austria.During winter it is a busy ski resort but in the summer it is a haven for walkers with some inspirational views across the surrounding valleys.I fell in love with it on my honeymoon in 1986 and have returned about a dozen times since, it is breathtaking.when I die that is the place I want my ashes scattered.

2. What person has inspired you most?

My mum is the most inspirational person I know she has dealt with so much loss in her life and battled cancer herself twice yet still manages to be so positive and a rock for everyone else.

3. Who would be your favourite 3 dinner guests (I like that question!)

Julie Walters, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and Hagrid from Harry Potter.

4. What makes you contented and happy?

Being at home with my loved ones around me.

5. City, coast or country?

Coast - cliff walks, open sands, pottering in rockpools, and the thrashing of the sea :)

5. What are you dreaming of right now?

Sounds a bit sad but I'm not dreaming of anything right now,I'm at a place in my life where I am contented.

6. What is the most delicious food in the world?

Crusty bread rolls, German mustard, bockwurst and sauerkraut eaten at a mountain hut on the Penken mountain after a five hour hike, and washed down with a cold glass of the local Austrian beer.

7. What is your best read?

All the Harry Potter books plus The Lord of The Rings.

8. What makes a perfect night in?

A warm fire, cosy jammies, tummy full of good food,cup of tea,favourite film on the dvd and my favourite people around me.

9. What was your favourite subject at school?

English - both language and literature.I love words.

10. Describe your most cherished photograph?

It is a photo of my dad and my disabled brother Andrew at my dad's 65th birthday party.It was the last time all the family were together in one place.We lost first Andrew and then my dad to cancer shortly afterwards.

11. What impulse paid off?

Starting our new life in Scotland.No regrets there :)

Sft x

........................................................................................

Here are my 11 questions for the bloggers I have tagged.

How many siblings do you have and what was your position in the family
Do you still keep in touch with your best friend from school days?
Girly shoes or walking boots?
What would you choose for a last meal?
If you could go back in time which era would you like to have been born in?
What is the one possession you would think about running back into a burning building for?
What is your favourite colour to wear?
What is your favourite colour to decorate with?
Do you like to grow flowers or vegetables in your garden?
Are you a cat or a dog person?
Who would you like to be stuck in a lift with?

The bloggers I am tagging are:

http://frugalfreesiahandmadeandhomemade.blogspot.com/
http://lastbiscuit.blogspot.com/
http://our-front-plot.blogspot.com/
http://frugalityuk.blogspot.com/
http://duchessdeclutter.blogspot.com/
http://frugalwifeinfife.blogspot.com/
http://lavenderainbows.blogspot.com/
http://thefireside789.blogspot.com/
http://veggiegobbler.blogspot.com/
http://growing-in-the-fens.blogspot.com/
http://reginassimplelife.blogspot.com/

Here are the rules

#1 - Post these rules.

#2 - Answer the 11 questions from the person who tagged you.

#3 - Create 11 new questions for the people you tag.

#4 - Tag 11 people and link them to your post.

#5 - Let them know that you tagged them.

Have fun :)

Scrap bag Saturday

2012-02-11T11:53:00.000Z

Inspired by my friend Linda's scrap bag challenge competition, I am going to post each Saturday with an item that has been made from recycled or waste materials lying about the home. Last night Sophie had a clear out of some stuff in her room and came to me with a lacy bra which was beyond repair. She thought I might be able to make something with the lacy bit (finally my daughter is getting on the same wavelength as me,lol) Anyway I had a little think about it and came up with today's recycling project.

I collected together a few bits I might need, recycled buttons cut off old clothes, some ribbon that was tying a fabric bundle I bought recently,and jam jars.

I deconstructed the bra into the usable pieces; lacy fabric,some padded fabric,two rings, two fasteners, and two lengths of ribboned elastic. The padded cups will get used as wadding on small projects and the rings and fasteners have gone into my notions jar, have you seen the price of all these bits and pieces when you need them?
The lacy fabric and the ribboned elastic straps have been used this morning to make my bra inspired tea light holders :)
Half an hour to create these three little cuties, which will be being used in the summerhouse once the weather warms up. The elastic was sewn into cuffs to go around the jar necks, and the flowers cut out of the lacy material and glued onto the jars along with some recycled buttons for extra interest. I put a couple of spoons full of salt in the bottom of each jar to hold the tea lights in place and voila - free lacy tea light holders.

It's wet and cold here today so I will be mostly indoors snuggled up near the stove in the kitchen working on a larger craft project I have just started with my LETS wool remnants. I really believe that you should spend some part of every day doing something creative you enjoy just for fun, and you don't need to spend a fortune on materials to do it, just look around you there are lots of materials that can be reused around the home.

What are you creatively recycling just now?

All the little things add up......

2012-02-10T21:03:00.000Z

Along with the rest of the population I am seriously trying to keep our electricity usage down, we have a pre payment key meter in this house as it is a rental, it is a constant reminder of how much actual money you are spending on electricity.Fortunately as there are storage heaters in the property we have the econonomy 7 tariff for lower cost overnight usage, we don't use the heaters (except when unacclimatised visitors are staying, lol) but I do make an effort to use as many of the big appliances overnight to take advantage of the cheap rate. The washing machine and dishwasher go on at least every other night,the slowcooker is set to cook overnight when needed, ,batteries, mobiles and laptops are charged during off peak times,I even bake after 11pm most times. We are night owls in this house so are usually awake until 1 or 2 am most days anyway.This week I have also started a different cleaning routine doing any hoovering or steaming during the off peak rate. All of this means that our peak rate usage has continued to drop. We aren't doing without anything,and we are still using all our gadgets and gizzmos, but rearranging our schedules means that electricity costs are staying low.
Keeping food spends low is another area where it pays to keep an eye on the little things. I already shop by bulk buying, grow and preserve lots of my own food, cook from scratch, bake, dehydrate,sprout seeds, make bread, yoghurt and kefir,trade for game through LETS,and forage for wild fruits in season.Topping up the freezer with end of day bargains also keeps costs down.Yesterday we were dog walking nearby so decided to pop into sainsbugs to see if there were any good deals about.I usually pick up the good deals on meat and fish for the freezer when the end of day price cuts come in, yesterday when we got there it was veg and bakery knockdown time. I don't usually get much in the way of the bakery knockdowns as they take up valuable space in the freezer for little nutritional return, however yesterday I picked up a couple of fruit loaves and a hovis loaf as they were all cheaper than I could have made them myself (34p for the loaf and 18p fruit loaves).

My little haul of goodies cost me £3.47 with an original sale price of £13.93 at the start of the day. We managed to land in store when the yellow sticker man was doing his second reductions, often they are grabbed long before this as it is a very small town with only a small store and everyone is looking out for a bargain these days.
Sainsburys also has the nectar points scheme and often at the till you get till spit vouchers for extra point incentives. I only ever do very small infrequent shops there picking up bargains or random items so keep getting till spits for extra points trying to encourage me to spend more, £2 or £3 off a £20 shop, double points, extra bonus points for a £20 shop,brand match vouchers, etc etc. Usually I don't get to use lots of these but now and again like this week I will be picking something up for someone else (DVD/toiletries for Sophie) and will manage to use a voucher or four in the process, result.

Along with nectar points on my petrol spends it all adds up and will get used somewhere along the line to exchange for amazon vouchers or just spend instore.
Before we moved I used to save my small change and then use one of the coinstar machines to count and change it, there is nothing like that here so now my 10ps and 20p's etc get shoved into sainsbugs self service checkout when I am paying for my bargains - and I don't even lose the 7% commision that coinstar used to charge.

All the little things add up :)

What little things do you do that will add up in the long run?

Thursday LETS trades.

2012-02-09T14:48:00.000Z

I went into town this morning for the monthly LETS meeting, quite a bit of trading going on today and lots of coffee, cake and chatting around the big table in Linda's workshop.
I traded out some bottles of alcohol and a homemade lemon coconut cake, and picked up a black bag full of oddments of wool which I had asked for, freshly laid eggs,a pile of DVD's, a pile of CD's, a metal hanging rack,some decorative glass decanters, and some home baking.Lots of goodies :)
I also picked up some unused mosaic tiles earlier in the week. Cashless trading is great! My account is usually in credit thanks to regularly giving my time to help out other members so I can afford to splurge my cree credits on all sorts of random stuff, and you never know what is going to turn up at the meetings or on the online notice board.

Some varied cd's to add to my collection.

You are never too old for a bit of Disney fun, I love Finding Nemo.

Wool remnants requested for an upcoming craft project.

Fresh eggs

Glass decanters which will be being used in my bathroom once they are filled with decorative objects.

Do you belong to any cashless trading/bartering groups?

Scrap bag challenge

2012-02-08T12:50:00.001Z

My creative brain has gone into overdrive lately, my friend Linda Woodfield,who is a local textile artist is hosting a competition open to anybody living locally to create stuff using recycled/upcycled materials.This competition seems to have really grabbed the attention of lots of people and everyone is frantically creating and dreaming of ideas for the competition, which closes in May.

Linda's work is mostly based on the ethos of using recycled materials whenever possible and she produces some beautiful quilts and works of art at her studio in town.You can see some of her stuff on her website http://www.linda-woodfield.co.uk/
Anyway, this competition has really got me thinking and I have decided on a project for my entry that involves lots of small parts to make up the whole. It should be a lot of fun working through it all and hopefully the finished article will be really useful and decorative in my home once it is finished. Can't give any secrets away just yet though as the competition is getting stiff, but I will post it on my blog once it is finished.

Here is a little glimpse of the first part of my project, I started it yesterday evening and it is being made with strips of old t- shirts and an old freezer basket. I am plaiting the t- shirt material and then using the plait to weave through the basket, to enable it to be used to hold small items.

I love creating stuff by recycling so this competition is right up my street.
I thought it may be a good idea to have a regular scrap bag challenge on my blog so one day a week I am going to post something that I have made from recycled/upcycled materials, and if anyone wants to join in feel free to leave a link to your blog. I thought Saturday would be a good day to start so this week will be the first "Scrap bag Saturday " post, Have fun everyone :)

10 things you may not know about me

2012-02-07T17:28:00.004Z

As a child I was a big tomboy hated dresses, and enjoyed rough and tumble games much more than girly pursuits.To this day I do not own a single dress, skirt or nightdress.
I have always been a very good swimmer despite being useless at most other sports.
I am a big Harry Potter fan, and often watch all 8 films back to back, and re read the books.
As a child I had a huge fat cat called Tabby who lived to about 17 years old.
I only passed my driving test when I was almost 40.
I have travelled to many different countries around the world but have always yearned to see Machu Picchu, maybe one day.
I am really scared of heights - a four step ladder is about my comfort zone.
I love to be alongside water, rivers and the sea,I love to swim in them, but I am terrified of being on them in boats.Go figure!
I am a recipe twitcher.I love to cook and bake and start off with recipes but invariably I tweak them as I go along until they are unrecognisable.
Even though I am scared of heights I have always wanted to do a parachute jump.

Sheila left for home today but I have been crafting again this afternoon, I made some fun pictures using the pink frames I picked up last week from the charity shop for 50p. I used some fabric scraps, some recycled buttons and several of those free sample paint colour charts and created these;

List Making

2012-02-06T10:34:00.004Z

All my life I have been a bit of a list addict. I always have lots of ideas running through my brain and sometimes the only way I can relax is by writing down stuff in lists. Getting ideas out on paper or on wordpad helps me move on to the next idea but ensures that I have a record of what needs doing or anything I really want to remember.
I find making lists helps me to be more productive, even breaking down my daily chores into small steps helps me to keep focused on what needs doing and encourages me to work on getting things ticked off the list.
I make shopping lists, to do lists, lists of ideas for projects, gardening lists,goals I set myself, lists of birthdays, lists of books I want to read, films I want to watch,blogs I want to bookmark and all sorts of other random things that enter my head.
Sometimes I will wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep until I have emptied the ideas buzzing round my brain out onto paper.Even with all the technology we have nowadays there is something very satisfying about actually writing a list and then crossing through completed tasks.I suppose list making appeals to my sense of organisation, I like things to be ordered and logical.

Here is my basic "to do" list for today;more things will probably be added as the day progresses.

~~Empty dishwasher~~
~~Hang up clothes washing to dry~~
~~Fold clothes already dried on airer~~
~~Reload washing machine ready for tonight~~
~~Make something for dinner using leftover chicken from yesterday~~
~~Make a pan of stilton and broccoli soup for lunch~~
~~Hoover through house~~
~~Clean bathroom~~
~~Walk the dog~~
~~Visit library~~
~~Drop rubbish off at the communal bins~~
~~Put petrol in the car~~
~~Set the fire ready for the evening~~
Decoupage tray
~~Write blog post~~
Make a trifle
~~Clean leather sofa~~
~~Pick up some mosaic tiles from LETS member~~
~~Make several phone calls~~

Some days I feel like I haven't achieved anything but I look back on my completed to do list and realise that actually I have got a lot more done than I thought.

How do you stay organised?

A pootling about sort of day

2012-02-05T17:40:00.000Z

My friend Sheila is still visiting with me so we have been pootling about trying out some different craft ideas and just enjoying having time to spend working on little projects. Sheila has been handmaking some beads from plastic clay, ready to use in her jewellery making. She has also been scouring the local charity shops for beads to recycle and managed to find some lovely unusual and pretty necklaces to dismantle and reuse.

This afternoon Sheila crocheted a headband/ear warmer with a crocheted
flower decoration,

whilst I thought I would have a go at some simple paper sculpturing. I saw this on one of the Kirstie Allsopp tv programmes last year. It is similar to papier mache but instead of using paper/ paste you use scrunched up newspaper and sellotape to build up your model,before decoupaging with paper pieces and pva glue. I thought I would make a little crocodile for my first attempt but on hindsight I probably would have fared better if I had stuck to a more rounded figure until I had a clue what I was doing.The decoupage part could get addictive though, and what I have created is just about recognisable as a crocodile, lol :)

I'm going to have another try of this craft another time though as it was quite fun to do and not too messy.
Yesterday I cooked a small gammon joint for dinner for the four of us,so after soaking some dried peas overnight the remains of the gammon have been used to make some lovely thick pea and ham soup for lunch today, along with some freshly made wholemeal bread rolls.

Lovely hearty wholesome food for cold weather days.Whilst the oven was on I also made a banana and walnut cake to use up three squidgy bananas.

I have a chicken cooking in the slow cooker for dinner tonight which will make a roast dinner and the leftover chicken will be saved along with the chicken stock to form the basis of another chicken based meal for tomorrow's dinner.
Also this afternoon we popped into town to help out a friend,propped up alongside the neighbouring flat's dustbins were a small broken timber/tongue and groove lamp table and a really old tray. The table is now being converted by Ian into kindling for the fire, and the tray will soon become a project for me as I intend to transform it using decoupage.I had only thought earlier today that I needed to look out in the charity shops for something suitable so this is ideal.

it is acrylic with a metal edge and quite large,22" x 15", and at least it has now been saved from landfill and will get used once again.
That's about it for our pootling about day, tonight we will be settling down to watch a film on DVD and do a bit of blog hopping whilst we have a cuppa and some banana cake.

What have you rescued from landfill recently? I know Frugal Down Under has been reclaiming bottles and cans from the trash, and Ilona at Life after Money is always recycling stuff, anyone else got any tales to tell?

Upcycling a thrifted box.

2012-02-04T15:18:00.001Z

I picked up this wooden box last year on a day out with my mum. We were mooching around an antique/curiosity type shop when I came across this battered wooden box for the grand price of £2.

The original lining had been ripped out at some time in the past and it was a bit messy, with random small tacks and glue stains on it.

I have used it since then to store my packets of seeds but it really needed a makeover so today was the day when it was transformed.
First I had to remove the metal shield from the top of the box and pull out the few tacks that were hammered into the interior.
The exterior of the box was given four coats of a matt cream spray paint to brighten it up before I decoupaged some floral motifs onto it. The flowery craft papers were picked up at one of my LETS meetings a while ago and I have been waiting for a project to use them on.

The inside of the box has been lined with some remnants of a striped cotton material.I cut paper templates first and covered these with the material before glueing each piece in place in the box.

The inside lip of the box was also decoupaged with some of the craft paper, in a colour to complement the striped material.

Overall the dark and dreary box has now had a new lease of life and looks lovely and fresh and bright, much too nice now just for storing packets of seeds in it. I think I will use it to keep my writing paper and notelets in from now on.

Have you upcycled anything recently?

Thursday

2012-02-03T05:25:00.000Z

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

My friend Sheila is visiting for a few days so life just now is being filled with lots of cuppas,catch up chatting,laughing, exploring new crafts together, and adventuring through the local charity shops for creative inspiration. Mind you she has had to pack her warm clothes and thermals as she isn't acclimatised to the colder temperatures up here, and that is inside the house , lol :)
On our charity shop trawls we picked up a few goodies between us including this cute little Laura Ashley lamp, which cost me £3,

and this set of picture frames which were 50p for the three :) These are destined for a bit of creative upcycling some time soon.

Lots of bargains to be had in the local independent charity shop here, but the prices in the larger charity (Sue Ryder/ Marie Curie ) shops are getting a bit steep these days.

Have you bagged any charity/thrift shop bargains lately?

What's in your store cupboard?

2012-02-01T14:29:00.001Z

A while ago SFT asked about my store cupboard, and as I have just been through my dry/tinned stores cupboard I thought I would post about it today.
So this is my main store cupboard in all its glory, it is floor to ceiling height and the shelves are 20" deep, it also houses the electricity meter on the back wall down below.This is my home supermarket where I "shop" from when my kitchen cupboards need topping up or when I am doing a spot of baking.

So what is in the cupboard?

The top shelf has things some tinned goods on it, mostly tinned fruit,papaya and grapefruit and some catering sized tins of other stuff.There are some jars of cheesy pasta sauces, which I mainly use as a base for pies and other dishes,tubs of hot chocolate mix, dried peas,tapioca,cup soups and veggie mixes. Everything on this shelf was bought when it was a bulk buy special deal or at a really good price making it worth stocking up on.I might buy 36 tins of papaya at a ridiculous price but then I won't need to buy any for ages and tinned goods last well past their best before dates.

The second shelf holds mostly baking goods and ingredients of that ilk: cake decorations,gelatine,custard powder,icing sugar,yeast, treacle, syrup,extracts, sugars,nuts, seeds,oats, salt and virtually everything which might end up in a cake,loaf,sauce or pudding.Again much of this was bought as bulk buys or on special price offers.

The third shelf houses bulk packs of rice,bags of wheat bran, and large tubs filled with dried goods such as cous cous,veggie mince mixes, pasta, and lots of bulk bought dried soup mixes. I don't use these as soups I use them as flavoured bases for casseroles or to make sauces for pie fillings. It's all about thinking outside the box, just because something is sold as soup doesn't mean it does not have other uses.I like to think of everything as just ingredients to be experimented with.

The bottom part of the cupboard has the heavy stuff in it. kilo's and Kilo's of pulses, dried broth mixes,lentils,split peas, chickpeas,mung beans,haricot beans, borlotti beans, and veggie sausage mixes. There are also trays of heinz baked beans, trays of tinned pre cooked pulses,tinned tomatoes, tinned tuna, random oils and flavoured vinegars and an overspill of bags of flours and gluten free flour. Again most of these have been bulk bought or picked up on special.I very rarely pay full price for any store cupboard items.
The rest of my food storage is spread around different areas of the house, two freezers in the shed house home grown fruits and veggies from the last harvest along with fish and meats bought when on a good deal or when yellow stickered.
I have a walk in preserves store which houses all my home made jams, chutneys.pickles and home bottled food. It also holds and overspill of dried goods in sealed tubs.
I have a store cupboard full of herbs, spices,extracts and flavourings for cooking, and another which holds sacks of flour and catering packs of /bread/scone/cake/and muffin mixes.
The rest of the everyday foodstuffs are in kitchen cupboards and the fridge. It might be an unorthodox method of buying my foodstuffs but it works well for me and keeps my food spends down very low. I do not shop weekly or monthly even I just buy the best deals of things that I use as and when they are on offer, and pop into Sainsbury's to bag any meat/fish bargains if I am in town at the right time.I am the kind of shopper the supermarkets hate :)

What's in your store cupboard?

Mending

2012-01-31T19:36:00.000Z

Time to catch up with a few little jobs that have needed sorting for a while but kept getting put to one side ; pair of pyjama pants that had come undone along the seam, a bra whose wire had started to poke through and scratch, and a pheasant who had lost his squeak!, all in need of a little TLC.
A quick whizz along the seam of the pants with the sewing machine and a little hand sewing of the bra and both are now good as new and back in use.
The pheasant needed an emergency squeak transplant, involving the removal of his old squeak and the fitting of one of Jake's squeaky balls, before being sewn back together.
It's worth taking the time to do these little repairs to prolong the useful life of things and make the most of the money you spent on them in the first place.

Happy puppy.........priceless!!!!!

What's lurking in your mending pile?

12 for 2012

2012-01-30T18:05:00.000Z

(one of Sophie's sunset photo's :) )
I never made any resolutions this New Year at all, in fact I didn't do anything to mark the new year coming in at all. So after realising that January has almost passed us by already I thought I would set down some of the goals I have for the year, a sort of guideline of where I want to be headed.

Become a television free household.
Continue to reduce the use of plastics in my home.
Enjoy some time walking outdoors every day,even on the cold, wet or snowy days.
Try and further reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.
Look for the beauty in everyday things and take time to appreciate the small stuff.
Introduce more flowers and plants into my garden.
Find small ways to give back to the community I live in.
Use materials I already have to maintain and redecorate the house and reorganise some areas so that they work better for me.
Make time for creativity.
Make my own soft furnishings for the house to make it more cosy.
Continue to learn new skills and improve those already learnt.
Enjoy each day, even the bad ones.

What are you striving towards?

Wintertainment

2012-01-28T11:24:00.002Z

For a good while now I have been contemplating not having television in the house. I really begrudged paying the television licence when I only ever watched an odd programme here and there, anyway recently I have finally done the deed and we now have no live TV.The freesat box has gone and as we have a dish and no aerial the television is no longer capable of picking up any signal whatsoever.
Have I missed it? Not one bit!
We have an extensive collection of films on DVD for entertainment and should there come a time when there is an unmissable programme on TV there is always I-Player etc to catch up later. I read the online newspapers to keep up with current affairs and can always listen to the radio,CD's,surf the internet, or read.
It's been a bit harder on Sophie as she was used to plonking down in front of the television and using it as background noise whatever else she was doing, she also watched a couple of the soaps.Having no TV is making her actually get up and do other things, like baking and photography. Jake thinks he has his own paparazzi with all the snapping going on :)
During the day we get on with daily chores and tasks, go walking with Jake, cook, bake, sew,craft, or meet up with friends, and in the evening when we eventually head into the living room to settle down for the night it is mindful viewing instead of watching TV by osmosis.
Roll on the long days of summer when we can be outdoors until dark o'clock enjoying the garden again.
How does everyone else entertain themselves on winter evenings?

Creature Comforts

2012-01-26T17:29:00.000Z

Jake doesn't like to be left out when we are all snuggled down for the night watching a DVD!

Tray Bake

2012-01-25T22:33:00.000Z

I was asked by a friend to make a couple of cakes for a regular coffee morning that she holds, so this evening I have been baking, ready to deliver them nice and fresh tomorrow morning.
I decided to do an oaty tray bake and a simple lemon drizzle cake.

The tray bake is really tasty and easy to make.

Oaty Tray Bake

300ml boiling water
80g porridge oats
110g butter
175g dark brown soft sugar
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
200g plain flour
70g raisins, currants or sultanas

Set the oven to 180 and lightly grease a 23cm x 33cm tray bake tin.

Stage 1
Add the boiling water to the porridge oats and leave to soak for 10 minutes.

Stage 2
Next take the sugar and butter and cream together until soft.At this point add the eggs and the vanilla extract and beat together, then stir in the soaked oats.

Stage 3
In a separate bowl add the rest of the dry ingredients and toss in the sultanas, ensuring that they are well coated in the mixture.Then add the contents of the bowl to the wet mixture and combine well, before emptying it into the baking tin.

Cook in the middle of the oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.Leave to cool in the tin for before slicing.
This recipe will cut into 20 or so pieces and will keep well in an airtight tin or freeze well.

The next little projects

2012-01-24T19:06:00.001Z

I'm still on a mission to get some of the small projects completed which I have had in mind for a while.Today I thought I would stay with the paint spraying and revamp an old mirror destined for Sophie's bedroom.
I picked up the mirror a few years ago very cheaply in B&Q where it was damaged stock.A younger Sophie had it embellished with butterfly motifs during a pink phase then outgrew it and it has been lurking unloved for a good while now.We are about to redecorate Sophie's room in a white and teal blue theme so the mirror is getting a makeover.This is what the spray can of silver paint was destined for originally.My friend had given me a net of clear glass pebbles to make use of and I had bought a net of blue ones for £1.39 to use with these.The spay paint was left over from one of mum's projects, and the glue was picked up in the pound shop recently.

I needed to cover up the damaged corner of the frame so after a couple of coats of spray paint I decided to decorate each corner with the glass pebbles in a simple design.

Then I used the most of the remaining pebbles to make a small flower embellishment on each side just to pretty it up a bit.

I'm quite pleased with the end result and it should look lovely in the room once it is redecorated.It was a bit awkward trying to get a photo of the finished mirror as it is 31/2 ft x 2 1/2 ft so hard to get in one frame.

It just needs a good clean up now and the upcycled mirror will be ready to use, total cost for the project was £2.39, bargain :)
Whilst I was spray painting I also did another small project at the same time, I had been saving this slimline cigar tin to use as a needle case so today it got the treatment too.

A couple of coats of the spray paint and some skeleton leaves left from some card making used as decoration and the outside was complete.Inside a piece of scrap felt holds the needles.

Another little upcycling project completed and a few more bits of collected "stuff" finally liberated from my cupboard and put into use.

Little projects

2012-01-23T19:58:00.000Z

I was rummaging through some stored "stuff" this morning when I came across a box of bits and pieces which I have been saving with small projects in mind. So I have decided to make an effort to get started on some of the things I had in mind.Some of these are just really small projects which will not take a lot of time or effort so today I chose one of these to begin.
I picked this small penny picture up in a charity shop over a year ago for 20p, it never fitted in with any of the decor in the house so it was waiting to be transformed.

A good clean of the glass with lighter fluid to get rid of the sticky residue and then the frame was removed and sprayed with some silver spray I got from my mum for another project.

Just a few minutes and a bit of drying time and the frame is now silver and will look great in my bathroom.

I can't believe it took me so long to get around to such a quick little project :)

Fires

2012-01-21T12:45:00.000Z

Beech-wood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year;
Store your beech for Christmastide
With new-cut holly laid beside;
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for years 'tis stored away;
Birch and fir-wood burn too fast
Blaze too bright and do not last;
Flames from larch will shoot up high,
Dangerously the sparks will fly;
But ash-wood green and ash-wood brown
Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown.

Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold;
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke;
Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold;
It is by the Irish said;
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread,
Apple-wood will scent the room,
Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom;
But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry
A King may warm his slippers by.

Anon.

Our latest log delivery was a full load of Ash, lovely and toasty and it burns a treat putting out lots of heat on these cold winter nights.Up to now we haven't used the electric storage heaters as the small multi fuel stove in the kitchen and the open fire in the lounge are providing enough heat.The kitchen stove also dries all the washing overnight on the ceiling airer, and provides us with continuous kettles of boiling water to use throughout the day,this combined with using an electric shower, and the dishwasher on economy on alternate days means we also never use the immersion heater for hot water, which keeps the electricity use down. The stove hearth is a great place to dry out walking boots after wet and muddy walks,and for drying off wet dogs.Some days I even slow cook a casserole type meal on the stove top, it works great as long as you are in no hurry.

Fuel for the fire and stove is relatively expensive, and much more expensive than gas central heating, but as there is no access to gas in this area it's really irrelevant,you just have to work with what you have.At least we are using minimal amounts of electricity with a weekly spend of less than £10, not bad considering we are at home 24 hours, and we make use of whatever free firewood comes our way to beef up our log deliveries.I'm so glad that we had the small stove installed as it heats up the whole back of the house and is much more efficient than the open fire, we keep the stove in 24 hours but only light the open fire in the evenings as that is when we are more likely to use the living room for any length of time.The rest of the time it is a case of warm clothing,fluffy slippers, fleecey throws and the odd hot water bottle to stay toasty.
Tending the stove and fire are part of the routine here, bringing in coal and logs, emptying ash,and chopping kindling all need doing daily, Ian has taken on most of these roles, relishing in wielding axes and saws and providing for the family, but when a log delivery arrives it is all hands on deck to get it stacked away out of the weather.One drawback of fires and stoves is the amount of fine ash dust that settles around the house, still the extra dusting and sweeping burns off calories, lol.
Central heating may be much cleaner and easy, instant heat at the click of a switch but it doesn't add structure to your days,give the room a focal point,and it isn't so satisfying.Making fire is probably still as satisfying now on an elemental level as it was back in the days of cavemen, there is just something about it :)

Yesterday

2012-01-20T13:44:00.000Z

Yesterday was a dry day so we managed to get out for a couple of walks. All around though we can still see the effects of all the recent rain we have been having. The farm fields have huge pools of water laying on them and anywhere the cattle have been congregating is now just muddy wallows.It's all extra work for the farmers to try and keep their animals fed and healthy.Most of the cattle around us have been moved into byres out of the weather,especially the ones due to calve soon.Not much fun for new born calves to try and wade through thick mud.

The track we walk along is also waterlogged in many places so we don't go anywhere without good walking boots.

Most of the nearby small waterways are also swollen with all the water running off the fields.

Jake doesn't miss a chance to leap into any available water for a splash about, even when it is freezing cold outside.

Daft dog !

Luckily he doesn't mind jumping in the shower after our walks which is necessary as he usually arrives home covered in mud and smelling like a swamp monster, a hot shower warms him up and cleans him off ready for a snooze.
Whilst he was asleep yesterday morning I tried out a little project to use up some dried flowers that had been in my press for quite a while. My friend Sheila recently gave me a cache of candles to make use of so I thought I would use a couple of them to decorate with the dried flowers.

It's really simple to do. I just immersed a candle in hot water for about 30 seconds to allow the outer wax to soften slightly. Then the dried flowers were pressed into the softened wax, and the candle in then immersed again in the hot water for another 30 seconds to set the flowers in the wax.

They look quite pretty when they are finished.

Yesterday afternoon we went out walking around the pond and through the forest with the dogs.It's really beautiful there just now.

The heavy rains have led to lots of standing water and overspills from the river which runs through the forest.

The dogs love running through the trees here as there is lots of open ground between them compared to the denseness of the other forest walk we regularly take.

Jake likes splashing about in the river, but it is flowing too fast just now with all the rainfall so we have to keep him out of it, apart from some really shallow parts where the current is much milder.

This part of the river is usually calm enough for doggy paddling.

There is something relaxing about trudging through dried fallen leaves and crackling twigs whilst hearing the sound of babbling water alongside of you.The air here is crisp and clean and smells of pine and moss and earthy smells, no matter how you are feeling when you arrive a walk through this forest has the power to re-energise you and leave you feeling calm and happy.

The dogs love exploring through the undergrowth and playing their own version of tag amongst the trees. It's also fun jumping through all the waterlogged swampy areas they can find.

We had to turn back before our usual stopping place as the high winds had brought down five or six of the tall pine trees along our route.

These photographs really don't show the scale of the trees, in reality they are huge and totally block the path through.

We had enjoyed our walk though and the dogs had been well exercised by the time we headed home.

Wet and windy day out

2012-01-16T13:41:00.000Z

Just recently I had to take Sophie to another interview a short drive from home, whilst we were nearby we decided to take a visit to Portpatrick and have a wander around the harbour.It was a very cold and grey day and the rain was constantly drizzling but we still enjoyed exploring around and about.

This is a memorial to the many people who lost their lives when the Princess Victoria ferry sank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Princess_Victoria

We saw the brand new lifeboat recently presented to Portpatrick.Most of the money for this had been left in the will of a Dr and his wife, who had been visitors for decades and loved the area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7569960.stm

We then walked around the harbour, the walled harbour was being dredged whilst we were there.

A little further around the shore and the harbour opens up to a shoreline with an accessible beach. Jake who is part border collie and part water baby couldn't wait to get down there and get into the sea.

Wave jumping is one of his favourite activities.

Happy wet dog!!!

Just a few more waves before we leave.

The sand was really wet as the tide was just going out so plenty of footprints left behind us as we walked, but nothing ahead as we had the whole place to ourselves.

Plenty of pawprints too :)

Soon it was time to drive home and get warmed up in front of the fire, where I found this heart shaped birch log in the log pile :)

Living a slow and simple life

2012-01-14T12:45:00.000Z

, so no more "Dreaming of a simple life" as it no longer seems to fit , instead it is now "Living a slow and simple life". I realised that all the gradual changes made over the past few years had now become second nature and I was no longer striving to get to where I wanted to be in my life, instead I had arrived at a comfortable place where for the first time I felt completely at home and at peace.I am utterly contented to be a home maker with no burning ambitions other than to enjoy the slow rhythm of my everyday life and just take time to appreciate everything around me, family, friends, my home and the beautiful countryside which surrounds it.It's a good place to be :) so I will be using my blog to record some aspects of my life and share some of the things that I enjoy in my daily life. I hope you will enjoy being along for the ride :) it's been a long journey getting to this point.

Remembrance

2011-11-11T13:33:00.002Z

For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943)

Brrrrrrrrr

2011-11-09T15:31:00.000Z

Lots of cold and blustery days here lately, with an odd day of sunshine in between, but it hasn't stopped us getting out and about enjoying our walks. I had to take Sophie to an interview in Stranraer a few days ago so we stopped on the way home for a walk and play on the beach with Jake even though it was really cold and very windy that day. I love watching the sea when it is wild and choppy.

The rough weather had left lots of seaweed up on the high tide marks.We collected a couple of black bags full before we left,one for us and one for a friend, it is great to add to the garden for extra nutrients.

Sometimes it's good just to take time out to enjoy looking at the small stuff :)

Jake loves running about on the beach and is usually absolutely shattered by the time we leave.All three of us were tired out and ready for a hot drink this day though.

Lots to explore and paddling to be done before we had to leave.

Chasing pebbles into the sea is great fun too.

Hole digging is fun and really easy on sand, Jake can make a deep hole in minutes :)

We saw a little glimpse of sunshine between all the clouds but it was quite a dull dark day considering it was only just after 2pm.

Back into the car and headed for home until another day and another adventure.

So what else have we been up to?

Winter preparations are still underway, we've been stocking up the log stores and chopping kindling - that's Ian's domain as head log chopper. I've collected more fir cones and dried them out to make firelighters by dipping them in melted wax from candle ends I have been saving.

More draught excluders have made an appearance, and the bathroom window has now been covered in bubble wrap. It is the only single glazed window in the house and has an old metal frame which is so cold in winter. The bubble wrap really increases the temperature in the bathroom.

Fleece liners have been added to the curtains, again these really help to keep the heat in the room, and the emergency cupboard has been checked and restocked where necessary with stuff like matches, candles, lighters, wind up torches,lanterns, first aid etc. Mostly it is just a case of knowing exactly where everything is as we always have a stock of these sorts of things in store, it's just handy to have everything in one place.I am part way through making us all individual cuddly quilts for using on the sofa. These are being made from warm brushed cotton fabrics so they are lovely and warm feeling.

This is the one I made for Ian, it's a bit more manly looking than the pinky/purple one I'm doing for Sophie :) These quilts are made with 10" squares and are big enough to wrap up in completely.

Another project on the go at the moment is a window quilt for the back bedroom window. The back of the house is very exposed to the weather particularly the gusting wind which can really cool down indoor temperatures.The quilt will just be another layer of insulation on the large window area, same idea as the bubble wrap but prettier to look at :)

After sitting in a spare room in a box since June, the wardrobe has finally been assembled by me and Sophie and I have been able to clear out a cluttered corner in the process which had really been getting me down.

Sophie has been busy transforming the front bedroom for herself and we have been clearing out a lot of "stuff" in the process, lots of which she has sold through the bay of E, and made herself some cash along the way. Now the bedrooms are sorted I'm looking at the kitchen and planning how I can give it a bit of a makeover using some of the paint/tiles/shelving etc that we have lurking in the shed and garage. I really should be making a blind, curtains or a window quilt for the kitchen window as it is a real cold spot but I can't bring myself to cover up the lovely view lol.

Twice daily dog walking is continuing and the evening walk is now by lamplight. We are enjoying traipsing through the forest in complete darkness each evening with the three people wearing headlights and the three dogs wearing flashing illuminous collars and flashing tags.

It is great fun and everything looks so much different in the dark. The dogs enjoy it loads and we can always keep an eye on where they are, as they are lit up like little red and blue fireflies darting about under the fir trees :) It's quite funny sometimes as Jake hasn't realised we can see him and often lies down to "hide" amongst some long grass only to be given away by the red flashing lights around his neck lol.

That's about all to write about just now, but here's a photo of what Jake thought of Sainsbury's latest free magazine :)

CONFETTI YAY !!!!!!!

Late again !

2011-11-01T22:12:00.000Z

Arriving very very late to the virtual tea party is me

,http://mumssimplylivingblogat.blogspot.com/2011/10/its-here-mums-vintage-tea-party.html

I never seem to be anywhere on time lately. A bit late for tea and cakes but I can make a good hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream if anyone is interested, and I still have apple pie :)

I was planning a lovely post for today but the sun came out and it was a dry day, not so amazing for many people but we have had almost constant rain and winds for the past month so when the sun was shining today I'm afraid we were off and out to enjoy the winter sun.That will teach me to be better prepared..oops!

A gorgeous morning walk along the lane followed by an afternoon wander through the forest and around the pond with friends to enjoy all the scrummy autumnal colours.

I took some pictures to share with you all though :) Enjoy!!

If i could bring a few people to the tea party with me I think I would bring Hugh Fearnley - Whittingstall , Jack Nicholson, and Julia Walters, all long time favourites of mine who I would love to natter to.

I'm off now to investigate what everyone else has been up to at the tea party :)

Winter morning walk

2011-10-28T20:13:00.001+01:00

When we left for our walk this morning there was a definate frost on the ground, Jake was still happy to be out and about though and ready to explore down the lane.
It was just after 7:30 am and the sun was just rising.

An early morning walk wakes you up and gives you an appetite for breakfast on your return home.

Jake likes exploring amongst the hedgerows, picking up the scents of all the animals that have been passing through during the night.

The frost was still thick on the ground as we returned back along the lane.

Jake was on his long lead as both farms along the lane were up and running and several landrovers and a huge feed wagon passed us as we walked.Jake is trained to head for the grass verge and lie down whenever a vehicle is approaching, he is very good at doing this even when he is busy exploring.

As we neared home the sun was getting higher and it was almost full daylight.

Just time to look at the cute calves as we neared the end of out two and a half mile walk..

Then it was home for a lovely hot breakfast and a cuppa, ready to start the day properly.

Another poopy day

2011-10-27T18:50:00.001+01:00

I didn't feel too great today so decided to have an easy day just pottering about in the house. I bottled up the litre of sloe gin that was ready into two recycled white wine vinegar bottles, then I finished sealing them with some of those cellophane caps that shrink when you apply heat. I think they look pretty nice I just have to sort out labels for them now.

I also got the batch of rhubarb wine out of the cupboard which I started last summer. I had a little taste and it is delicious, so that will get sorted and bottled in the next few days.
This afternoon I was looking through my small fabric stash for inspiration when I came across some towelling mats that my mum had given me a while ago.They are meant to be bath mats but were a little dull looking so I sorted out some fabric squares and made a little patchwork design on one to try and see if it would brighten it up any.
These squares were in the box of stuff that I received from Silver Sewer a while ago, I am still creating stuff with all those lovely squares :)
I'm really happy with how the bath mat turned out and will probably make another couple too. At the moment I have heavy chenile bathmats but these take a long time to dry, especially in winter, so the lighter mats should help with drying times.

I edged the patchwork with some turquoise velvet ribbon from my stash, which I picked up recently for 40p, bargain! I am an enthusiastic but not very precise sewer so that border of ribbon helps to tidy things up a bit , lol.
The colours are much brighter in real life, but here is a close up of part of it;

Sophie took Jake for his walk this afternoon and came back with a very wet muddy and smelly puppy. Jake had found some fox poop and had a good old roll about in it, eek! Anyone who has ever smelled fox poop will know how stinky it is, really really stinky!!! So it was straight into the shower for Jakey boy and a good lather up with coconut and almond shampoo with lots of rinses to get rid of the eau de fox smell. I now have a lovely coconutty smelling puppy who is currently in solitary confinement till he dries off a little.
He is very good at sulking :)

Thanks for everyone's comments on yesterday's post :) It turned midnight as I was posting so was dated as Thursday, hope it doesn't confuse anyone. I'm off now to make a tuna and noodle fritatta in the remoska for dinner tonight, yummy :)

Pies and jelly

2011-10-27T00:24:00.002+01:00

I had a dozen apples to do something with today so decided to make a deep apple pie for the freezer, for a change. I was already using the oven to do some other baking anyway as I was making a few individual corned beef hash pies also for the freezer, and a large one for our dinner tonight.Sophie was sulking as she liked the hearts on the apple pie, but she doesn't eat apple pie so insisted on having a heart on her portion of the pie for dinner..... kids!!!! (and that's a 20 year old!)

Tha apple pie turned out lovely, but I thought rather than waste all the peelings and apple cores I would use them to make an apple and mint jelly. So whilst the pies were baking, I cooked them all up with a little lemon juice added.

Then set the cooked pulp to strain through my jelly bag.

This was then used to make the apple and mint jelly with the addition of some of my dried garden mint ,and sugar.

A few more goodies made that can be added to home made gifts for Christmas :)
The remaining pulp that was left from the apples was added to the wormery so nothing was wasted at all :)

Today I also discovered that Jake likes apples :) He likes quite a lot of raw fruit and veg,like carrots, squash, peas, and peppers. Last week he stole and ate a whole small courgette from the veg basket, but he hates mushrooms with a passion :) Just now he is driving us daft continually bringing us his favourite toy of the moment, a squeaky cube.....aarghhhh!!!!!

Not much else to write about today, it was just the usual rhythm of household tasks, feeding the stove, bringing in firewood, walks with Jake,seeing to the chickens,reading, and assembling a bedroom cabinet that has been waiting for the past three months :) I still have a wardrobe to put together bought at the same time which I am hoping to get assembled by the end of the week.

I'm trying to get back into the habit of a daily blog post so that family can see what we are up to all these miles away.

Starting winter preparations

2011-10-25T15:21:00.000+01:00

I have been making a start on my winter preparations today. Two pieces of leftover pipe lagging and an offcut of fabric have turned into a new draught excluder for the kitchen door.

I measured the door width and cut the foam to a little shorter than that. The material was cut to about 6 inches longer than that to allow for the overlaps at both ends.

The material needs to be wide enough to sew two long channels for the foam to fit into with a channel between them as wide as the depth of the door.

Then cut a few inches of the centre channel away leaving just fabric overlapping each end of the foam, this is then cut down into inch strips which are then tucked away inside the foam piping.I'll probably wash this periodically but if I wasn't planning to I would probably glue the ends in.

The whole thing is then slid under the door so that the door sits in the centre channel, making a double sided draught excluder which moves with the door when it is opened and closed.

It fits nice and snug on both sides of the door and will help stop the draughts coming into the kitchen from the back porch which is about as warm as Siberia, even now :)

Start to finish this just took 15 minutes, and used leftover bits and pieces from other projects, but it should help with keeping the heat in the house.The only thing left to do then was to rescue the offcuts of pipe lagging from Jake before he turned them into polystyrene confetti !!!

Sheepy dog bed for my sheep dog

2011-10-24T13:49:00.000+01:00

Nothing much happening in the kitchen today so I thought I would get on with making a doggy bed for Jake to put inside his puppy crate. Actually I will be making two as he has two crates in different places. I found this really cute sheep fleece material recently and one metre of it will be enough to make the two dog beds. I have an old fleece throw to use for the backs and an old single sized duvet to cut up for the inserts.
I just split the duvet into half, folded it and sewed it into two quilts a quarter of the original size.I then used the fleece materials to make a pillowcase for the quilts.The quilts are now small enough to go in the washing machine and the covers are removable for the same reason. i'm really happy how they turned out and they were so simple to make.

Jake was doing quality control :)

He seems really pleased with them :)

They fit in the puppy crates perfectly and will be nice and cosy for him when winter arrives.

Using the recycled materials meant that the only cost was the metre of sheep material at £6, not bad for two sleepy sheepy dog beds :)

Busy day in the kitchen

2011-10-23T17:52:00.000+01:00

I've been busy in the kitchen a lot of today transforming more of the harvest into edibles for the freezer and store cupboard.
The strawberries have now been made into 4 jars of jam.

The jam gets used for cake fillings as well as just being eaten with toast etc,I also give some to friends and family and trade some out through LETS, so extra jars are always useful.

The ham hock is simmering away in the slow cooker with dried peas and onions to make a batch of pea and ham soup for lunch tomorrow and more for the freezer.

The ripe tomatoes I picked the other day have now been cut open,

the seeds were removed, strained, dried under the wood stove on kitchen paper, and packaged. Most of the remaining tomatoes have been cooked down with herbs and made into pasta sauce for the freezer.

I also used some of them to add to a large batch of mixed vegetable chutney,

I have also used some of the runner beans, the courgettes, squashes, and some apples for the chutney.It made 12 assorted jars for the stores.

The runner beans have been sorted and the big stringy ones have had the beans removed for drying, the rest have been shredded and blanched for the freezer.

Then I checked on the litre of sloe gin I started a couple of weeks ago, all doing well with that. I then started a litre of blackberry vodka going. The 500ml bottles from the white wine vinegar I used for the chutney will be ideal for bottling up the sloe gin :)

Just the turnips to deal with now and then it will be almost time to get started making tonight's meal :)

Clearing the raised beds

2011-10-22T18:58:00.000+01:00

Well, I managed to get out in the garden this afternoon and cleared the last of the runner beans, I now have about 15lbs of beans to process! and a barrow load of plants to put through the shredder on the next dry day. I also cleared most of the squash plants and courgettes, some of these were still flowering but the weather lately has meant many of the squashes have been rotting on the plant. I picked the last half dozen courgettes and about seven patty pan squashes before adding the spent plants to the compost.I also cleared the last of the turnips from their bed so have around 10lbs of tiny pal turnips to process too, the chickens enjoyed munching the turnip greenery and still have lots more to scratch amongst and play with in their open compost bed..

I now have 7 of the raised beds totally cleared and ready for fertilising and covering with black plastic. I'm contemplating planting through the black plastic next year to further cut down on weeding and helping with water retention - i just need to work out a watering system first, maybe a sort of funnel alongside each plant would suffice? or some of those buried terracotta pots? OR I could just use black porous weed control fabric instead of plastic but then that wouldn't keep the heat in as much.... decisions, decisions......

I still have the greenhouse to clear out now that the tomatoes have been picked, but that can be done any day whilst it's indoors :) and the plants shredded for composting.

Off now to take a ham hock and a kilo tub of hulled strawberries out of the freezer to make a bit more space in there. Pea and ham soup going in the slow cooker tomorrow, and a couple more jars of strawberry jam to be made too. looks like tomorrow I'm going to be busy in the kitchen with runner beans, turnips, squash, jam and soup to be sorted.

Last of my tomato crop

2011-10-22T12:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday i finally cleared the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse, another 4lbs of ripe ones and 5lbs of green ones. This takes my total tomato harvest for the year to 61lbs from my 26 tightly packed plants in the greenhouse and half a dozen outdoor plants. Next year I am just going to plant Amish Paste tomato plants as these were the best croppers and also had the largest fruits with most individual tomatoes weighing in at around 9 - 10 oz. They have been great for making pasta sauce and tomato passata for storing and have kept us in fresh tomatoes for months too.I grew some Purple Ukraine this year too but although these cropped well I found that they soon went mushy once picked so I think I will stick to the Amish Paste next year. I got my seeds from The Real Seed Company this time around so I can happily save seed from these tomatoes for next year's crop as they aren't hybrids.
I will probably make another batch of green tomato chutney with the last of the unripe ones and another batch of passata with the ripe ones, I should then have enough stored cooked tomatoes to see us up to next summer.

Today I really need to get out and harvest the remaining squashes, runner beans and turnips before the plants are pulled and the beds cleared.It's time to start putting some of the garden to sleep for the year and getting the raised beds cleared and fertilised with home made compost for next season's crops.It will give the worms and other organisms in the soil time to disperse the nutrients before the winter really sets in. I also want to split some more of my rhubarb plants and then cover the rhubarb bed with a deep layer of compost and manure to feed it.

Drying my herbs

2011-10-10T19:24:00.000+01:00

Still preserving more of the garden harvest here, today I did a little bit of dehydrating to store more of my herbs. My dehydrator is only a cheap basic model but it works fine for what I need it for. If I had more cash and lots more space I would love an excalibur dehydrator, but this basic ones does the job just fine so the excalibur will remain on my wish list for now.

I picked a bunch of mint, some lemon balm,chives and parsley from my herb bed. There is still lots of each growing but it's handy to have some dried and in the kitchen ready for the winter.

The dehydrator dries out the herb leaves in just an hour or so it is easy to do small batches at a time.

Sometimes I just hang the bunches of herbs from the ceiling airer to dry out, it takes a couple of days doing it this way,less when the multi fuel stove is on.

The kitchen smells lovely though. IF I only have a small amount of herbs to dry I often hang them in one of the little bags that you sometimes get with washing tablets.

Once the herbs are dried and rubbed they need to be stored in airtight containers or bags to keep them fresh and flavourful.My mum found these tiny kilner jars for me, which are ideal.

Along with the herbs I've also been drying and saving seeds from the garden ready for next year's planting. Some of the nasturtium seeds came from a friend's garden.I'm planning to save as much seed as possible this year especially from my vegetables so I have left some of each crop to go to seed for collection.Other seeds have been collected from mature fruits , like the peppers , courgettes and tomatoes, an extra bonus from my home grown goodies.

Once they are completely dried out they are bagged,sealed and labelled ready for storage.

Next for the dehydrator is a few pounds of apples that I want to turn into dried apple rings :)

Chutneys, rugs and puppies

2011-10-08T12:48:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy time here for the past week or so,with lots of winter preparations getting under way.The outdoor green tomatoes were picked and turned into a green tomato chutney for the stores. I also made a large batch of beetroot chutney and several jars of apple and elderberry jam.
Beetroot Chutney
4lb beetroot
1lb onions
6 peppercorns
6 cloves
1lb raisins
1 tsp salt
1 pint distilled malt vinegar (white)
1 tablespoon allspice
8oz white sugar

Wash the beetroot and heat gently in a large pan,covered with water, until tender.Allow to cool,rub off the skins and dice into cubes.
Peel and chop the onions.Put peppercorns and cloves into a muslin bag.
Put all the ingredients except sugar into a large heavy based pan.
Bring to the boil slowly,reduce the heat,stir in the sugar and simmer gently until cooked and thick.
Remove muslin bag and pour the chutney into hot, clean, sterilized jars, seal at once.
Makes 2.3 kg chutney.

Green Tomato Chutney
5lb green tomatoes
1lb onions
1tablespoon salt
8oz seedless raisins
8oz sultanas
1oz root ginger
4 red chillies
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
12 cloves
1 pint malt vinegar
1lb demerara sugar

Wash and finely chop the tomatoes.Peel and chop onions.Place both in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and leave 1 hour.

Transfer into a pan with raisins and sultanas. Bruise the chillies and ginger and add to other spices in a piece of muslin, add to the pan along with the vinegar.

Bring to the boil, switch down to a simmer, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

Stir occasionally and cook down until thickened, remove the muslin bag, pour into hot, clean, sterilized jars and seal immediately.

Makes 2.7 kg of chutney.

(Both recipes taken from EASY JAMS, CHUTNEYS AND PRESERVES - Val and John Harrison )

My stash or recycled jars has now been reduced greatly but my preserves cupboard is bursting at the seams with lots of home made goodies to use and give to friends and family,or trade through LETS :) Sophie is thankful that chutney making is almost at an end though as she really hates the small of cooking vinegar! My next preserving tasks will be mainly dehydrating based.
The garden is still producing despite lots of wet and windy days, courgettes, curly cale, squashes, wax beans, runner beans,rhubarb,strawberries,spinach,onions,turnips,amaranth,tomatoes, peppers, herbs etc are still being picked regularly. My dwarf runner beans and first bed of wax beans have now finished cropping and the plants pulled, passed through the garden shredder and returned to the beds,along with chicken manure and worm casts, to act as fertiliser ready for next years crops.This weekend those beds will be covered to help heat them and aid decomposition and to help prevent weed growth, they will then be ready for planting up next season.
In the greenhouse the tomatoes are still cropping and ripening but are gradually getting to the end, once these are finished I will be planting up some winter cabbage, chinese greens and some lettuces in the large wooden bed where they will be out the way of slugs and other pests.

I have been taking small steps to try and bring more permaculture processes into the garden,For instance in the chicken pen there is an open compost bed, the spent bedding and manure from the coop are emptied onto this along with any bits of greenery such as plant stalks that the chickens do not eat. The chickens then scratch amongst this compost, helping to break it down further and manuring it at the same time. It helps to keep them occupied doing something they enjoy. Also the presence of the compost draws worms up from the ground underneath which then provide extra protein food when the chickens dig them up.We dig over the compost bed regularly and then when it is composted sufficiently it is used around the garden as a fertiliser.Along with their grain the chickens also eat much of the greenery from our home grown veggies and suitable kitchen scraps, along with recycled eggshells.Chickens are great little recyclers, turning all of this into eggs and manure :)
As well as the chicken compost bed we have two large compost bins, a tumbling composter and a wormery so all the inedible garden waste and kitchen compost, newspapers etc get used in these.It all helps to reuse and recycle stuff within our little space. The worm casts and worm juice have been really beneficial for my veggie growing and the tomato plants in particular have loved the extra fertiliser, giving me my best crop ever of tomatoes.The garden shredder has proved to be invaluable for reducing whole plants and hedge cuttings into tiny shredded particles ready for the composters or for using as a mulch. It reduces composting time considerably as much of the breaking down is already started, and it provides a greater amount of surface area for the bacteria to work on.
The garden has kept us in veggies for months now but as things are starting to wind up for the season I have been busy saving seeds from the crops and flowers ready to plant next year. I have left some of the beans to seed and dry and left specific plants to flower and run to seed for this purpose. I now have a collection of home saved seeds which should grow true to type as this year I did not plant any F1 hybrid seeds, instead I opted for mostly heirloom seeds from The Real Seed Company.
I have also dug up and split my rhubarb crowns so that the rhubarb bed has now doubled in size and should be even more productive next year. The runners from the strawberry plants have also been potted to make more new plants and create new strawberry beds next year.These will eventually replace the older ones once they are no longer productive, although under the plastic cloches the strawberry plants are still producing fruit !!! Eventually I would like to introduce more perennial plants and vegetables into my garden to add to the fruit bushes,flowers and herbs that already self perpetuate.It is all small steps to working with nature to become more self reliant.
With all the wet weather this year we have had an abundance of weeds in the garden, especially around my fruit bushes.Many of these have been dug out, some of the dock leaves and nettles were added to comfrey and used to make a liquid fertiliser.Some other dock plants just had their leaves removed but the roots were allowed to remain in the soil, this is because their long tap roots are actually very good at breaking up soil and bringing minerals up to the surface for use by other plants.So even the weeds have their uses and are not totally worthless.All in all it has been a good productive year in the garden and greenhouse and we now have lots of our home produce preserved in some way for future use, whether it is , cooked, baked,frozen, jammed, pickled, chutneyed, dehydrated or soaking in alcohol.Every little helps to keep food miles down,keep packaging to a minimum,helps us eat healthy locally grown and organic produce, and keeps a little more cash out of the hands of the supermarket monopolies, if we can achieve that and keep building on it in small steps I will be happy :)

In other news I have also just started an indoor winter project, I want to make a rag rug for alongside the kitchen sink. I went to a day workshop yesterday at Linda Woodfield's Fabric Workshop to learn the basics and get started.It isn't difficult but there are lots of little helpful hints and tips which can make the process much easier, which is why I decided to attend the class.Basically the rug is made by poking scraps of unwanted/recycled fabrics through a piece of hessian sack,using a small narrow pointed piece of wood, this is done over and over until gradually you build up a thick layer of tightly packed fabric strips which form the rug.Any bits of scrap materials can be used as they only need to be about 5 or 6 inch x 1 inch strips.
I am using pieces of recycled fabrics from the "community chest" in Linda's workshop, this is a chest full of scrap fabrics donated by people, bits of fabrics leftover from projects, old bedding, curtain scraps, virtually anything which can be reused in some way.It is available for anyone to go and help themselves, to swap fabrics or to take what they want in exchange for a small donation.

I'm working on a terracotta/pink/green colour scheme for my rug.I have already attached several hundred strips of fabric to the hessian and it now looks like this:

Once I have attached all the strips it will need the edges binding and a backing sewn on, it will then be washable. It is quite relaxing and stress relieving when you are working on it though, and time passes quickly. Even so it will probably take me quite a while to complete it.
It also helps if you haven't got one of these "helping" you!!!!

Naughty Puppy!!!

The past week

2011-09-29T01:15:00.030+01:00

My daughter Sophie has come to live with me for a while so we have been enjoying lots of walks with Jake and getting out in the countryside.The other day we went out to a local forestry site and enjoyed the walk through the woodlands and around the pond. We are trying to get Jake used to travelling in the car so often take him on short jaunts with a nice little walkies as a reward :)

Lots of interesting sights and smells for Jake to explore.

Several kinds of fungi were growing along the path, and there were still many wildflowers dotted about with the insects making the most of the available nectar.

There are definate signs of the seasons changing with vegetation dying back and taking on it's autumn colours.

Closer to home we have been out foraging along the lane.

This time of year there are lots of edibles available in the hedgerows for jam and chutney making. The elderberries are ripening well, I want to have a go at pontack sauce this year as I haven't made it up to now.

On the blackthorn bushes the sloe berries are abundant, I'll be making some sloe gin with these and trying out a recipe for sloe chutney.

There's still lots of blackberries around. Along the mile or so of the lane the blackberries are in various stages of development some are still green, others have already fruited and withered away but there are plenty of ripe ones for picking.I'm planing on making some blackberry vodka with some of these, as well as some jams.

Back home after our foraging walk and it was time to sort and rinse the berries and freeze them with some I have already picked until I get time to start my projects.

Just now I am busy preserving as much of my garden harvest as I can. The two chest freezers are almost filled to bursting with home gown fruits and veggies so this week I have been bottling, pickling and preserving in jars.

I have picked 25lbs of tomatoes the past week, mostly Amish Paste and Purple Ukraine plum tomatoes, these are so big they make the normal tomatoes look like cherry tomato size, my largest Amish Paste tomato weighed in at just over 11 ounces :)

Most of the tomatoes this week were cooked down to make a pasta sauce and bottled using my pressure canner.So I now have a stash of bottled sauces to use over the winter months.The sauce is in litre sized jars so each will make more than one meal when opened.

The smaller jars are cinnamon apple butter made from apples from my baby apple tree and also some from my mum's tree.

I've also been making pickled beetroot for the store cupboard.

Today I picked 7lbs of green tomatoes from my outdoor plants. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are still ripening well but the outdoor ones seem to have come to a halt so these have now been picked and tomorrow I will be making a batch of green tomato chutney for the stores.It's great having jars of homegrown goodies in the store cupboard.

Today's foodie bits and pieces

2011-09-18T17:28:00.000+01:00

I picked some more veggies from the garden and set about blanching and freezing it.There were lots of tiny pal turnips, potatoes from one growing bag, dwarf curly Kale,runner beans, wax beans,a couple more courgettes, scallopini squashes, patty pan squashes and a good few pounds of heirloom plum tomatoes.The freezer is full to capacity of homegrown fruits and veggies in all their various guises.
Then this afternoon when I was out walking with Jake I foraged some a few blackberries and some sloes. I collected these in my gilet pockets so couldn't pick much. Next time I will take a bag or bowl with me for foraging but it was such a lovely afternoon today that I was more interested in the walk.

The sloes will be used for sloe gin and adding to preserves.

There are a couple of handfuls of cape gooseberries with the blackberries, these are from the greenhouse and usually just get eaten whilst I am in there seeing to the plants.I'll probably add these few to a mixed fruit jam or similar once they ripen up.The blackberries are being frozen until I can collect enough for jelly making.

Ian bought me a recipe book recently which is being sold to raise money for the local heritage museum in Creetown. One of the recipes in it was for a diabetic fruit cake with only three ingredients. I was intrigued by this so gave it a try.

It was delicious and no added sugar or fat in it, and it is huge.

Diabetic Fruit Loaf from The Creetown Cook Book

1 kg of mixed dried fruit
450ml fresh orange juice
2 cups of self raising flour

Soak the fruit in orange juice overnight
Mix in the flour thoroughly
Put the mixture in a large well greased 2lb loaf tin
Bake in a pre heated oven 125 deg C /250 deg F / Gas 1/2 for 1 1/2 hours.
Turn up oven to 160 deg C/ 310 deg F/ Gas 2 1/2 for a further 1/2 hour.
Cool on a wire rack

I reduced both cooking times slightly as my cake was getting well done within the time given. I will definately be making this cake on a regular basis in future and trying out variations with different dried fruits.

The winner is........

2011-09-18T11:34:00.000+01:00

The winner of the book give away is Fishcake -random
I hope you enjoy the book.

It will be in the post as soon as I receive your address details :)

Walkies!

2011-09-16T12:35:00.000+01:00

Since Jake arrived I have been doing much more walking and getting out and about around the cottage. We usually cover between 4 and 5 miles each day on our two walks down the lane and along the forest path. It hasn't taken Jake long to learn the word "walkies" and he knows if I get my boots on we are off on an adventure.

This dog was destined to be a country dog, I don't think he would have been happy pounding the pavements in a town.
Our walk down the forest path starts with a short mosey along the lane investigating everything along the way, he has to be on a lead for this bit as often the tractors, quad bikes or other vehicles are haring up and down the lane and as yet he isn't disciplined enough to understand the rules of the road.

He likes to see what the cows and sheep are up to each day,and have a sniff of any wildflowers.

Then we're over the gate to the forest path, or in Jake's case through a gap in the fence. Once we are off the road he can have freedom to be off the lead and really investigate

.Come on hurry up !!!

There are lots of exciting smells to follow around here, foxes, deer, hares,and lots of other wildlife

On into the trees and there is lots of fox scat to sniff at, and interesting noises coming from the undergrowth. Jake is still a bit wary of the darkness under the fir trees yet and doesn't like to get too far off the path, he is only 17 weeks old though so he's still just a baby yet :)
He keeps looking back for a bit of reassurance once he is out of his comfort zone.

Jake's favourite time of all though is his evening walk when we meet up with a neighbour and her two dogs for the forest walk.He knows his place within the pack and gets so excited when he is running about with the two other dogs

He likes to follow Beena the cocker spaniel as she forays into the undergrowth but invariably ends up getting left behind as he hasn't got the confidence yet to go too far away from me. So he heads back to the track and sits waiting for Beena to reappear further along the track. Sometimes he will follow her into the reeds and often gets a surprise when he jumps into a water filled ditch he wasn't expecting lol.
Beena is very patient with him when he runs in circles about her trying to get her to play. She is a lovely tempered dog.

Moppet plods along at his own pace, doing his own thing but keeping Jake in line if he oversteps doggy boundaries :)
Just before we head back towards home the dogs have a little meaty treat which they enjoy as part of their adventure.

Then off we go in reverse,enjoying the scenery as we walk along and saying hello to the horses and the big bull on the way past.

Once we get home it's a quick rub down with his towel, a brush to get grass seeds, sticky bobs and mud out of his fur then Jake usually collapses in a corner for a well deserved nap.

More often than not this involves lots of leg twitching and little squeaks as he dreams about his doggy adventures.

Today's pickings

2011-09-14T17:30:00.000+01:00

Today's pickings from the garden : cherry tomatoes, heirloom plum tomatoes,yellow wax beans, runner beans,red and green peppers,one yellow courgette,pumpkin squashes, patty pan squash,scallopini squash, and a lemon crystal cucumber, plus three more humongous black beauty courgettes.I swear these grow when they even hear rain!

Just for an idea of scale here are the two types of courgette lol,

Probably the final bowl full of strawberries were also picked today from the covered beds,, but Ian has snaffled those so no pic.

Lots of courgette and stilton soup,and courgette and cheese savoury muffins to be made for the freezer.I haven't quite decided what to do with the rest yet.

Don't forget my book giveaway,,

so if anyone wants a chance of getting one for free just leave a comment over the next few days and I'll pick someone at random. I'm happy to post anywhere in the world :)

Garden pasta sauce and a book giveaway

2011-09-13T00:27:00.000+01:00

I was looking for inspiration for dinner tonight so thought I would see what was ready to pick from the garden and greenhouse.I came back with this little lot:

Courgette, red onions, green, red and yellow peppers, cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes. So I decided to make a batch of veggie pasta sauce for dinner tonight. I also had some home dehydrated garlic,oregano and basil from the garden so I used some of those as flavourings too.It was so easy to just stick everything in the food processor and blitz it into quite a smooth sauce ready for cooking down.

It made quite a large batch of sauce so after using some for dinner,which was delicious, the rest was divided into meal sized portions and frozen for future use.That way I can always use it as a base for a lasagne by adding minced beef,use it as it is , or even add stock and make soup.There are lots of ways to turn it into the basis for a meal.

There is still lots of produce to harvest from the garden yet, so I'm hoping it doesn't get ruined by the very wet and windy weather we are having here at the moment I'm picking small amounts like this every day to try and get the most from the garden.I have several more large courgettes to harvest yet so tomorrow looks like being a courgette cooking day :)

I was also looking through some of my books earlier and discovered I had two copies of this book after a duplicated gift;

so if anyone wants a chance of getting one for free just leave a comment over the next few days and I'll pick someone at random. I'm happy to post anywhere in the world :)

A different kind of park

2011-09-11T16:19:00.000+01:00

In August I went to Spain for a few weeks with my mum, we stayed at a friend's apartment and just had two weeks of quality time chilling out and relaxing. We also did quite a bit of walking and lots of exploring by train whilst we were there.One afternoon we walked quite a way along the coast and visited a park. This park was surrounded by apartment blocks and hotels all around and was just five minutes walk from the sea,it was a little oasis of greenery amongst the urbanity.Just inside the entrance to the park was a lake with a huge fountain in the middle of it which was lovely, but also dotted around the lake were several floating duck houses, and lots of little islands designed for feathered inhabitants.

There were lots of varieties of ducks and swans on and around the lake,some were also sitting in the shade of bushes alongside the path like this little one.

It soon became apparent that this was no ordinary sort of park as everywhere you walked you were surrounded by birds and animals just plodding about doing their own thing.

All over the park were cockerels and chickens enjoying themselves scratching and digging. We saw lots of chickens being followed by a string of little chicks and not in the least bit afraid of humans being nearby.

The park itself is very hilly once you are past the lake so it was quite tiring walking about it when the temperature was over 40 degrees and it was the hottest part of the day. As well as the animals though there were some beautiful plants and trees to look at and to show to visitors what the original land was like before the tourist industry led to much of it being bulldozed in favour of building hotels and apartment blocks.
I began to feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland as we walked about, it seemed a bit surreal to walk round a corner and suddenly find a rabbit or two sitting in the shade, especially white ones !!

We even saw a couple of doves when we stopped to sit a minute.

We stopped on the way out of the park to have a cold drink at a cafe at the entrance and even there the chickens and rabbits were meandering about between the tables looking for titbits, and the ducks were playing at the base of a small water pump. The chickens even roam in and out of the park gates and cross the busy road outside and the local drivers stop to allow them to cross safely.This is especially amazing as they often do not stop for pedestrians, even on zebra crossings!!!!The lovely thing about the park is that all the birds and animals are just free to roam, there are no cages or coops, they just live amongst the trees and bushes, and the grass banks are full of rabbit burrows.Nobody is keeping them there they just choose to stay. It was such an inspiring place to visit and hard to believe that it is literally 5 minutes away from this

I know where I would rather spend my time.

So what's been happening lately?

2011-09-10T06:13:00.000+01:00

I kind of fell out with the internet for a while back there, it was taking up too much of my time and intruding too much into my life..... so I switched off for a while while I got the balance right again.

So what's been happening? Just the usual really; lots of gardening, baking, veggie growing,sewing,and spending time with family and friends.
The garden has been very productive despite lots of rainy or chilly days. The fruit bushes, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries and apples have been the best crops that I have had up to now.I started picking strawberries from my four covered beds on the 26th of May this year and I am still harvesting a handful of strawberries every few days come September, brilliant! The rhubarb also excelled itself this year and I have picked well in excess of 25lbs over several pickings. I even dug up some of the crowns and split them and the new plants just carried on producing.I left the new growth though to help get better produce next season.

I also grew some alpine strawberries from seed which are fruiting just now, the alpine strawberries are tiny, but lovely and sweet.Unlike the others they are annuals so I probably won't grow them again next year as I am trying to make the garden more sustainable by using as many perennial plants, bulbs and self seeding varieties as I can, as this will cut down on my workload in the future.I am also saving seed from as many of my plants as possible and haven't used hybrid varieties for this reason.
In the fruit section of my garden this year I have successfully grown; blackcurrants, gooseberries, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, whitecurrants,apples, cherries and cape gooseberries, albeit on a small scale.My grape vine is also doing quite well :) but the little plum trees got wind damaged early in the year and didn't recover, so I may have to relocate these to a more sheltered spot later in the year.

When it came to the veggies I decided to concentrate on veggies that we use a lot of and which are more expensive or difficult to buy. I decided against stuff like carrots as they are so cheap and freely available anyway and the space could be better utilised for other stuff.
This year I have grown; lettuces, mixed leaves, spring onions, radishes, cucumbers, peppers, lots of varieties of tomatoes,three varieties of patty pan squash, scallopini squash, pumpkin squash, yellow and green courgettes, marrows,three varieties of runner beans, yellow wax beans,broad beans, red amaranth, curly Kale, cabbages,three varieties of turnip,spinach, swiss chard, red and white onions, potatoes in bags,peas,mint, lemon balm, three varieties of thyme,oregano,chives,two varieties of basil, rosemary,salvia,and wild garlic.The slugs got my sprout seedlings but they have been the only failure so far.
Everything is producing well and I am steadily harvesting my produce and as well as eating it I am also preserving it for using over the winter.

It is lovely being able to go out into the garden or greenhouse and pick lots of the ingredients for that evening's meal.The chickens are enjoying lots of the veggies too as they get stuff like the spinach, chard, turnip tops and lettuce as part of their greenery each day.Anything that us or the chickens can't eat ends up in the compost or the wormery so nothing gets wasted.Stuff that doesn't get eaten right away gets turned into something edible for storing, the past few days I have made batches of veggie pasta sauces, courgette and stilton soup, fruit crumbles, stewed fruit, turnip and potato mash,roasted veggies,,jams, chutneys,quiches,cakes and blanched veggie portions for the freezer.There is still lots more to harvest yet and a huge crop of plum and fleshy tomatoes which are beginning to ripen in the greenhouse.I have already harvested lots of tomatoes but these are mostly heirloom varieties with much bigger fruits, up to 1lb each supposedly.I haven't picked one above 10 ounces yet but there are some beauties still to go yet and lots of them.The new raised tomato bed in the greenhouse has been a great success and allowed the plants to set much deeper roots and produce good fruits. I am considering moving the patiogro frame to a new area next year and creating a second raised bed in the greenhouse for cucumbers and peppers etc, it has been such a better utilisation of the space available.
This is the first year I have really been interested in growing flowers as well as veggies and everything I grew from seed did really well, the summer bulbs I planted (dahlias, gladioli etc) are all going great guns and I have had a lovely show of hanging baskets, window boxes and bedding plants at the front of the cottage this year. Currently I also have perennial seedlings growing in the greenhouse ready to be planted out next year.
So that's a quick update on where the garden is up to and most of the positive stuff, not much negative stuff apart from wet weather and a resident mole!!!!!

In other news there has been an addition to the family of the four legged variety :)
Meet Jake my Border Collie puppy :)

Jake was born on 1st of May and was 14 weeks old when I got him. He is such a cutie and is a clever little guy with a real personality all of his own.
Here's a few of his baby pics over the past week or so since I brought him home:

I can see lots of adventures ahead with this little chap so he will probably be making lots of appearances on this blog.In the meantime plenty of training ahead for us both as living on a working farm means he will have to be trained in obedience and learn to respect the livestock all around us,that is not negotiable. Fortunately for him he is an intelligent puppy who picks things up really quickly, and fortunately for me Ian spent a large part of his career training police dogs in everything from obedience to tracking,to agility, to sniffing out drugs and corpses.Between the three of us Jake should end up a well trained and well loved dog.

The last week...

2011-07-10T18:07:00.003+01:00

Just a quick catch up of what has been happening here over the past week or so. I've had a few migraines this week and haven't been bothered with the laptop.

Yesterday was shearing day on the farm. The sheep and their lambs were rounded up and whisked up to the farmyard for shearing, then about five hours later they returned.Only the ewes are shorn, the lambs are left with their woolly fleeces.It must be very confusing for them trying to recognise their mother's once they are shorn. Once again there was chaos and a cacophony of noise as lambs and mother's tried to find each other again.This went on for hours and hours as the sheep regrouped. By bedtime nearly all the lambs seemed to have found their mothers again and were sticking close by them, just one or two stragglers were still traipsing about the field crying for their mums, and sniffing at every sheep they came across.The ewes don't have much patience with strange lambs though so usually they were head butted out of the way.
They were obviously reunited during the night though as all the sheep had their lambs back with them again this morning.
Over the past week or so I also managed to finish my first scrap quilt.

I made a few mistakes along the way but have now started on another quilt and have a better idea of how to go about things now. I'm saving the scrap quilt in the hopes of soon being able to have a puppy to use it :)
One afternoon I did a little bit of baking; tuna ,spinach and mushroom quiches, egg custard tart, and cherry and almond muffins.

At the start of the week I picked my black currants as the birds had started eating them. In all I harvested a total of 5lbs of currants from my two bushes.

I also picked my first four courgettes this week. I have now had rhubarb, gooseberries, strawberries,raspberries, blackcurrants,radishes, lettuces, spring onions,mixed leaves, spinach, herbs, and courgettes from the garden.
I spent some time rearranging my growing space in the greenhouse, and incorporated a growing frame for my lemon crystal cucumbers, after evicting the huge scallopini squash plant that had been hogging the space.

Everything in the greenhouse is doing great this year :)

Goliath the squash plant has been moved outside, he is five times the size of the other plants grown from the same batch of seeds.We are still short of a lot of much needed sunshine here yet though, despite other parts of the UK having heatwave weather.
Two more raised beds have been put together at the back of the house, and late sowings of yellow wax beans and tiny pal turnips made.The turnips have germinated already.

Finally, today I picked my first ripe tomato of the year.Hopefully there will be lots more to come from the many plants I have growing between the two greenhouses and outdoors.So that's about it for the past week.
I hope everyone else has had a productive and enjoyable week.

Gooseberries and eggs

2011-06-29T17:56:00.001+01:00

It was another dry day today so I went into the garden and picked the rest of the gooseberries from my two remaining bushes. The birds had started to help themselves the past few days so I thought I'd better pick them before they all disappeared.
The bushes have been really productive this year and it didn't take long to pick a nice little haul of berries.

These have now been added to the others in the freezer for future use. In total I have picked 11 lbs of gooseberries this year from 6 small bushes, the 7th bush seems to have died in the freezing temperatures over last winter. I'll leave it in the ground though just in case it makes a miraculous recovery next spring.
Yesterday I was given some freshly dug potatoes and some hen and duck eggs by my neighbour over the field, so this afternoon has been an eggy based baking session. First I made a batch of quiches, (bacon, cheese,onion, mushrooms,tomatoes,plus some spring onions and spinach from the garden).

Three of the quiches will go in the freezer and one will be for my neighbour.
Next I made a couple of egg custard flans with nutmeg, these won't get into the freezer as this is one of Ian's favourites, lol.

Meanwhile, out of the kitchen window today is a sheep day :)

and just because I like them here is a few photo's I took on the lane at the front of the house.

Foxgloves popping up everywhere in the verges.

Lovely dry stone walls, or dry stane dykes as they say here in Scotland :)

Ivy growing over lots of the walls and trees.

The field gate next to the cottage.

Lastly, this is my favourite tree in the field alongside the house :)

A bit more growing space

2011-06-27T18:18:00.001+01:00

The corner we started to prepare for planting the other day has now been converted to this -

Today we added five raised beds. These were filled with compost from the chicken pen and from the compost bin and topped with a layer of shop bought compost. i also added some growmore fertiliser to the beds as they were being filled. Finally, some of the plants which have been growing in my cold frames now have a home. I planted out Borecole dwarf kale, Patty pan squashes, scallopini squashes, yellow and green courgettes, runner beans, and a few calabrese. I also sowed some more runner bean seeds into the bed with the runners.Everything was given a good watering to help settle them in, a few plants looking a bit droopy but should perk up.

The day was dry but windy and quite cool, I had a sweater and jacket on whilst I was doing all this, not much sign of summer here at the moment. I hope July brings us some better growing weather.
Someone was keeping a watchful eye on me whilst I was taking my photographs.

I was keeping a watchful eye on the huge black and grey bull that was heading towards her!!! It's a cow day today, sometimes it's a sheep day, sometimes both together, sometimes the field is empty, but today is definately a cow day :)
This is the view out of the kitchen window just now -

Sewing workshop

2011-06-24T19:37:00.000+01:00

I went to another sewing workshop today. We made fabric postcards to begin with using assorted scraps of materials and bits of ribbon etc. It was interesting seeing how everyone had completely different ideas,colour schemes and designs.
This was mine

I'll be popping it in the post to my mum tomorrow :)

After the postcards we set about designing and creating a journal panel. This was supposed to represent something meaningful to us. I chose to depict the view at the back of the cottage in a very simplified way.I love looking out over the rolling hills. I was really happy how my panel turned out and decided to add a border and turn it into a picture to hang in the cottage.When I got home I looked out an unused print and used the frame for my picture.

So that's my version of Galloway hills and forests, farm land, dry stone walls and the ever present sheep, all done in scrap materials.I'm really loving the creativity of these workshops, and I even get to pay part of the class costs through the LETS system instead of using cash, how good is that ?

Small harvests

2011-06-23T19:04:00.000+01:00

I love it when the garden gets to the stage that you start being able to harvest little bits and pieces.Today I picked gooseberries from another two small bushes, some red and black currants, yet more strawberries, spring onions, chives, a lettuce, perpetual spinach and a few eggs from the hens...........lovely :)

Almost sunshine

2011-06-22T19:56:00.000+01:00

Today we had the first dry day we have had for ages so managed to get out into the garden and greenhouse and get a bit of much needed work done. The weeds have gone beserk with all the rain so my raised beds all need a good weeding now.
Into the greenhouse first, the tomatoes I planted in the new raised bed are romping away now and really flourishing.I also planted some lettuce seedlings between the plants which are coming along nicely too.

I also have two bush type plants in pots and these are already cropping heavily with green tomatoes.

The spring onions and basil are doing well and I have another crop of lettuces almost ready for harvesting.

There are pepper plants and cape gooseberry plants doing well in the greenhouse and a scallopini squash that I potted to see the difference between the indoor and outdoor grown plants.The greenhouse grown one is already huge and about 5 times the size of the outdoor one.

Most of my seedlings have been moved outdoors now but the greenhouse is still looking pretty full.

I have just started sowing some winter veg seeds so I will be ready to plant stuff out once the summer growing is done. I have really made use of the greenhouse this year for getting my plants started.
Later in the afternoon we started another project.Ian is now renting the property next door so I have plans to expand my growing space and set up more raised beds at the back of the house.
First part of this entailed removing the fence between the two properties to open up the growing space.This is what we started with.

The base of the old duck house then had to be removed.

After a bit of hard work we ended up with a pile of wood from the fencing which will be recycled and used on other projects.

The wood from the base and around the fence perimeter was mostly rotten but will be dried and chopped for firewood, and any useful bits saved for future use.

So the area has now been opened up and is ready to start clearing for adding the new raised beds. Hopefully we will get some more dry weather tomorrow so more progress can be made, we almost had sunshine today.

LETS trades

2011-06-11T11:10:00.000+01:00

It was the monthly LETS trading meeting yesterday, there were a few less people attended this month than usual but I still picked up some goodies from trading.

These two kits contain everything I need to make two quilted cushion covers, so they can be a little project for me to do at one of my sewing classes :) The colours are much more vibrant in real life.
I also picked up a little hand made tapestry bag which will be used for holding clothes pegs, and a lovely bone china gateaux plate, which I couldn't resist.

It was a good excuse for a chat , a coffee and a home made scone with friends, along with doing the cash free trading.

Pretties

2011-06-10T22:58:00.000+01:00

This cottage is on a stock farm, we get to live in a beautiful place surrounded by green fields, forestry, cattle and sheep. The trade off for having all this beauty around us is that we can expect some minor nuisances like flies in the summertime, when the cattle are in the field behind the house. No problem there, but I do object to flies in my kitchen, especially when they have just come straight from a cow pat, lol.
So today I have received a package containing some hand made pretties, lovely jug and bowl covers to keep the flies away from foodstuffs this summer. They have been made by an online friend who creates all sorts of lovely sewn and crocheted items for sale kim.cranson@tesco.net
This is the recycled vintage material they are made from

Around the edge they have been crocheted with a lovely cotton, and an assortment of recycled vintage glass and metal beads added.The beads pick up the colours on the material,they weigh down the covers, and they make a lovely chinking noise against the bowls. They remind me of murano glass, I saw lots of similar beads, when I visited Venice a few years ago.

I have one which is jug sized and one which fits my most used mixing bowl. They are handmade,use some recycled materials, are practical, reusable and much prettier than cling film :)

Take that flies !!!

Bottling the chive blossom vinegar.

2011-06-10T08:23:00.000+01:00

This morning I strained off the flower heads from my jar of chive blossom vinegar. It has been soaking up the chive flavours now for the past few weeks and smells delicious.
A few weeks of this

Strain off the flower heads

Then pour into some recycled bottles, these orangina ones from my stash of recycled jars and bottles are quite cute :)

Voila ! Two bottles of chive blossom vinegar, which will be great for making salad dressings etc.

Catch up post

2011-06-08T21:44:00.002+01:00

Just a quick catch up post on bits and pieces of things that have been happening the past few days. The boys did a great job of re weatherproofing the shed roof, this was re felted with heavy duty mineral felt and some rotten battens replaced.Hopefully this will have stopped the leak which has been dripping onto one of the freezers inside.

Whilst the boys were busy sorting out the shed I finally harvested my rhubarb.

I pulled up every stick of rhubarb until the crowns were not visible at all above ground. When I looked this morning a whole new crop had started already!

Amongst the rhubarb I found a lone leek, no idea how it got there as I have never had leeks planted in this bed at any time. Unless it is a mutant spring onion,although it is 2 feet long lol, I did plant a packet of spring onions in there last year before the rhubarb was put there. They were dug over and never grew, so either a leek or mutant spring onion -it has more of an onion shape, what do you think?

I also harvested the gooseberries from one of the 7 small gooseberry bushes.All the fruit bushes are heaving with fruit this year and even the strawberries have been excelling themselves with heavy crops.

Ian is getting a bowl of strawberries regularly from the covered beds which he likes with cereal or ice cream..
Lots of the flowers are putting on a colourful display now despite the weather not being very consistent and despite some gale force winds recently.

Today the boys are refelting another shed, and Ian and I are sorting out the new tomato bed. So far it has had a layer of stones for drainage,a layer of weed control fabric to stop the compost washing out,and two barrow loads of well composted mulch from the chicken pen.

The next layer was the contents of the tumbler composter,

Followed by another two barrow loads of chicken pen mulch.

and then it was topped off with three bags of multi purpose commercial compost.

There should be plenty of nutrients amongst that lot for a good crop of tomatoes.

Once all that was done I planted up the tomato seedlings I have been growing, Amish Paste, Purple Ukraine, Gardener's Delight, Roma, Garden Pearl etc. I already have some Outdoor Girl, and tumbling toms outside in pots, and some Totem bush tomatoes in pots in the greenhouse, along with more tumblers.The totem bush plants already have small green tomatoes on them.

I'm experimenting this summer with some of the tomato growing rings.

With these you water the outside rings and feed in the inside ring. I'm trying 6 plants in the rings and the rest just planted into the raised bed.The ones in the rings are heirloom varieties, Amish Paste and Purple Ukraine which I am trying for the first time this year.

If the ones in the rings do significantly better I will buy more rings for next year.I'm also trying more denser planting in the raised bed than I usually do in pots.It will be interesting to see how the plants grow this time.
The mushroom growing kit I planted up on May 20th has started to show signs of life. The first mushroom popped up a couple of days ago and three days later it had grown to 4 inches in diameter and weighed 5.5 ounces! .I swear it was growing as I watched.

No signs of any other mushrooms yet though.
It does seem to have been a week of mutant veggies here this week, lol.

New tomato bed

2011-06-05T19:22:00.000+01:00

My youngest son Tom and his friend arrived early this morning for a week's visit. They are helping us with a few jobs around the place whilst they are here. This afternoon they put together a new permanent tomato bed for the greenhouse, this will maximise the growing space in there.The bed was made of tannelised decking planks which should last longer and withstand moisture better than plain timber.

The bed was made 9.5 feet long by 18 inches wide, and uprights were added to the sides which will hold a horizontal wire for tying up the tomato plants.

This is the bed just completed in the garden.

This is it moved into the greenhouse ready for filling and planting tomorrow.

Whilst I was clearing the space for the bed I found these little stowaways hiding in the greenhouse.

Newts. There seems to be quite a few of these around the garden, we have another little group living amongst the strawberry beds. These must love the humidity and moisture in the greenhouse, but for now I have moved them outside to the back of the greenhouse, they might find their way back in again over the next few days.

There used to be lots and lots of newts like these and also the crested ones, as children they were everywhere, but I haven't seen any for years until this past year. Some species are now protected as their numbers have fallen so dramatically.

Sewing workshop

2011-06-03T22:16:00.000+01:00

I went to another sewing workshop today, this time to learn how to make a bag and a sunhat. This is the bag I made, which I will be using to carry library books.

Then I made a sunhat which I will be using in the garden, so I went a bit adventurous with the fabric choice, after all no one is going to see me in it except the chickens, sheep and cows lol.

It was a glorious sunny afternoon today so I tried it out whilst I planted out my marigold seedlings. I'm really enjoying the sewing workshops and learning lots of different techniques. I'm also meeting lots of new people too.A great way to spend a Friday :)

Incommunicado

2011-06-01T17:01:00.000+01:00

I'm getting so frustrated with blogger and not being able to post comments on people's blogs. It's like having a one way conversation with friends, you can listen to what they have been up to but can't respond. It's only when this break down in communicaion comes along that you realise just how much you are connected to other people through the web.

So to my fellow bloggers and cyber friends a few messages.

Congratulations on the safe arrival of baby Zander over at The Napping House http://unprocessedfamily.blogspot.com/   xx

Huge pat on the back and congratulations to Dannie at   http://myultimatelifelist.blogspot.com/   on finally taking the well deserved leap to total self employment xx

Fay at     http://orkneyflowers.blogspot.com/    - Good luck with the final leg of the PHD xx

SFT at     http://sftandthe101challenge.blogspot.com/                                                                - Loving reading the blog and all the photos xx

Football on the telly ...... you'll find me in the kitchen :)

2011-05-29T08:53:00.000+01:00

I don't watch a great deal of television and I especially don't watch sport. Ian on the other hand lives for his sport on television. So usually when sport is on, especially football, you can usually find me in the kitchen, or on the laptop, or reading a book.
So while Ian was watching a recording of Barcelona beating Man Utd ( 3 - 1 )in the early hours I was busy in the kitchen making flapjacks, toffee muffins, cherry fairy cakes and a granary loaf.

Once the cakes were done, the oven was switched off and the residual heat used to "bake" some washed egg shells.

These were then crushed into shell crumbs with a rolling pin and will be added to the chicken's feed to give them some extra calcium, so they can lay us more eggs, and round and round it goes :)

Sewing workshop

2011-05-28T19:49:00.001+01:00

Today I spent the day at a sewing workshop, learning a few new skills and techniques and getting more used to my new sewing machine. I had a lovely day, met up with someone who was on my last workshop, and also met some new people.
The workshop was to make a "summer" themed wall hanging.It was really enjoyable and by the end of the day I had managed to produce this ;

The blue is for shades of summer sky, the green and patterns represent grass and different summer flowers.The appliqued tree shows it full of green foliage. In the other season's the tree will range from bare branches to the browns and golds of autumn, and the sky and grass will change shades accordingly.

It is actually supposed to be finished off with a frame of wide bias binding but I have left mine unfinished as I am planning to use it as a panel in a patchwork quilt. I am going to do a catchup session for the "spring" workshop and have booked up for "autumn" and "winter", eventually I will use all four panels to make a quilt depicting the seasons. I am only just getting started with quilting so I'm quite looking forward to having a specific idea to focus on.

This is where I have been doing my workshop.
http://www.linda-woodfield.co.uk/index.html

Apologies to anyone who has left comments recently , I haven't been able to respond due to blogger problems, I am reading your comments though, thanks for posting :)