Getting on....

Ok, so today I have been getting on and doing stuff.

The house is all hoovered and clean and all the washing is done. I have also made some jars of red onion marmalade. These are popular as gifts - friends and family seem to like it so it must be good! Here are some pictures of the marmalade cooking.............

and the finished article............

I also made a lemon tray bake ............



mmmmmmmmmm.........cake:-)

(05.09.09 - edited to add link to Lemon Tray Bake recipie)

Sadness

We are very sad here at the moment.
Our lovely hens Meredith and Isabel are no longer with us. Isabel died on Thursday morning and Meredith on Friday morning. We don't know why this happened, it was very sudden but we think that it was probably a combination of underlying conditions associated with their former lives as battery hens.

Here are a few of the pictures I took of them recently having fun in the sunshine.
If you click on the picture it should take you to an album.

Meredith & Isabel

Dyeing to knit...peas anyone?

Hi there,
Recently I went on a dyeing workshop run by Jeni from Fyberspates with about ten other folk from the knittyverse. We had a great time playing with wool and colour and amongst other things I dyed up some yarn in green (my favorite colour) and called it "peas!"

So, I have finished the first thing knit with yarn I dyed myself - yay!
Here is my "Peas Hat" knit in the round on 4mm cirs. It's kind of my own pattern but really simple as I sort of made it up as I went along.

Thinking ahead.......Winter Solstice!

Hi there!,

Ok, I know it's summer and today we are actually having a load of sun - yay:-), but I am already thinking of Winter Solstice and making plans for what I will be cooking for the Winter Solstice Dinner Party. Anyways, the plum tree in next doors front garden is loaded down with plums .......



..............so I have decided to make plum vodka with them this year. I've never made it before but I'm guessing that it's going to be a bit like sloe gin and will be a nice wintery, solsticey sort of drink for after dinner.

So, as you can see, I picked a load of plums, washed them and slashed each one with a knife a few times. Then I popped them into kilner jars with about half a cup of sugar and then filled each jar up with vodka.

I will leave them in the spare room to brew and give them a shake every now and then and we will see what happens.....

Playing with my new toy..........

Hi there!

I have been playing with my new toy...............and here are some of the results............






........bit of a bee theme going on, but there are loads of them at the mo and they are so cute, so there you are!

Beans!

Hello,
Just a quickie, as it's a school night.

I've just picked these..............


..........................super, aren't they? and they tasted soooooo good:-)

There are loads more on the way as well.
From plant to plate in less than 10 mins, total food miles = about 20 meters!

New camera and other stuff

Hello!,

Well first of all I have some very exciting news..........

I have bought myself a proper camera. Yes, a proper camera, and it's a bit fab really - it's a Canon EOS 20D and I'm having great fun with it.
So hopefully there will be better pics on here in future.

Anyway, what have I been doing? and what have I been taking pictures of?
Well, yesterday we went to Bristol to see Lessa, drink tea and eat cake (yum) and here is what we had with our tea........
While we were enjoying our tea and buns the Red Arrows went over! But they were too fast for me, lol. Lessas tomatoes are doing ok, they just need some sunshine now so that they can ripen. Hers are futher on than ours, we have flowers but as yet no fruits. Here's a pic of hers - well done Lessa:-)
I also went to Get Knitted to pick up the chicken knitting pattern so that I can make DH a chicken tea cosy. Get Knitted is such a fab shop, if you can go do.

Back at home the veggies are growing well and the sweetcorn is now flowering so I am hoping that with a bit of dry weather polination will happen and we will get plumptious cobs of sweet sweetcorn.


The beans are also coming along......


Also, the buddlia has been absolutely covered in beautiful butterflies. They let me get very, very close and they were even landing on me! so I took some pics.
The camera is very cool and I have taken loads and loads of pics with it, it's fun to use and I'm so pleased to have it........................ and while I was snapping away Meredith was peeping at me from the undergrowth................lol:-)