Blackberry Time

Here's another gorgeous image from Herry Perry (see my Thimble Tea post below).  It seems the good weather has returned after a very miserable Bank Holiday Monday when the brambles at the bottom of the garden took a real battering from cold wind and rain.  Now the blackberries are not really worth picking but the garden wildlife still seems to be enjoying them so I don't mind at all.

And I've already harvested plenty of other fruits including cherries, plums, tiny strawberries, a few raspberries and of course there are apples to come.

However my favourite garden harvest this year is going to be the nuts from my Cobnut bushes.  I grew three bushes from nuts I'd forgotten about and found at the back of the fridge.  They had started to sprout so I planted them in small pots and three started to grow.

That was four or five years ago now and last year was the first time they fruited (or is it nutted?)  There were just a very few nuts.  But this year I've quite a good crop and I think there will be a bag full.  I've been buying cobnuts from Allen's Farm for years and I'm really chuffed this year I'll be able to eat my own aswell. That is if the squirrels in the front garden don't find them first.

I tried a couple last evening and they seem ready so I think I'll pick them today - sorry squirrels!  However they are already gorging on and hiding away beechnuts, hazelnuts and acorns from the front garden - not to mention the birds' peanuts!

Pink Gooseberries

The soft fruit season is in full swing in gardens all over the country and I picked a small crop of gooseberries yesterday - I have only one small bush.  They looked so pretty in this vintage Pyrex Cinderella bowl.  The pattern is called Pink Gooseberry! 

I've been enarmoured with my new stamp set Bowl of Sunshine recently arrived from Papertrey Ink courtesy of my very good friend Yuki over there in The States (a million thanks once again Yuki!).  I just love the little bowl that looks like vintage Pyrex and thought I'd try to reproduce my gooseberries in ink.  However there's no gooseberry stamp in the set - do they even have them in North America?  I tried a bunch of grapes stamp instead, masking along the bowl's rim, and I think it does very nicely. 

I can't stop making cards with this set - its so cute.  Here's a few using the fruits that are in the set - apples, lemons and oranges.  I used vivid dye inks from the Adirondak Brights and Earthtones ranges on 3 inch square card blanks. 

Preserving July!

July gone already!  I really like how my digital photo reviews give a flavour of the month that's just passed by.  It seems in July I created a lot, didn't do enough in the garden and didn't travel far from home! :)  As always, if you'd like a closer look right click on the image and open in a new tab.  Then you can enlarge to see each little photo up close.

The next week or so will be about getting my red and blackcurrants gathered in and turned into something for the freezer or store cupboard (if I had one!).  They are so beautiful on the bush I always take lots of photos. 

I've just one redcurrant bush so they are no problem, but I've about six blackcurrant bushes!  I think I'm going to try cordial this year as well as jam as there is a large crop.  I like Sue's redcurrant cordial recipe at The Quince Tree.  Its nice and straight forward and I like her way of simplifying recipes by adding in her own experiences in the kitchen.  Another new blog to follow!

I'm in the process of redcurrant jelly at the moment but I open froze some of the crop to use later in fruit crumbles - my son's favourite pudding.  When I got them out to bag up this morning they were so gorgeous - just like frosted red beads.  I wanted to thread them into a necklace.... but I don't think they'd last long and my neck would get sticky!!!

A (Small) Harvest Home

This week I've been busy gathering in my meagre harvest.  I didn't really get going in the garden this year and missed out on crops I usually enjoy growing - tomatoes, cucumber, beans, sweetcorn, etc.  But never mind - next year will be better.  However I've picked the soft fruit - cherries, plums, blackcurrants, and the first of the blackberries.  The apples are looking ok for September too.  Last year the pear tree did itself proud but this year there is no fruit at all!  Its a very ancient tree and I hope its not coming to the end of its life - we lost the other pear tree in the garden last year.

I managed to stop myself eating all the peas straight out of their pods - something I've been guilty of in the past - and have a bag of them in the freezer ready and waiting for Christmas Dinner.  The potatoes are stored away in their paper sack and the cherries have been stoned and are in the freezer too - I might turn some into jam as I'm on my last jar of 2011 jam.

Unfortunately the brambles have started invading the garden from the hedges as I haven't been cutting them back often enough.  But the bright side of this means there will be lots of blackberries.  I've turned the first berries into crumble puddings - my son's favourite, and there are still flowers on the bushes waiting for any passing insect to pollinate them.

So this is one harvest that is looking good - hmmmm...... apple and blackberry jam has been a favourite preserve in the past so I must look out the recipe - I just wish they weren't so THORNY!!!

May Your Weeds Be Wildflowers

I'm spending a lot of time at my Mum's house at the moment and like to have small stitching projects with me while I'm there to keep my hands busy when we watch TV or sit on the front porch with a cup of tea.  I made this needlecase last week - perfect for portable project making.  The pattern is a fabulous freebie from Australian creative genius Bronwyn Hayes at Red Brolly.

Bronwyn's blog is such a colourful and happy place to visit and no matter what your homemaking or crafting obsession is you will find something to love and inspire there. 

Its time for the first garden harvest of the year - Elderflowers. This cordial is my absolute favourite summer drink and is so unbelieveably quick, cheap and easy to make (recipe here) I can't understand why its so expensive to buy.  I made a bit more of an effort with the presentation this year and created some stamped labels and hessian tags to decorate my preserving bottles.  I ironed some fusible interfacing onto a piece of sacking (I get sacks for free from our local pet shop) and die cut some hearts, added some felt and threaded them onto garden twine.

I don't belieeeeeeeve it!

Today leaden skies, blizzards on the hill, freezing snow, sleet and rain blowning horizontally across the fields and streets.  Last week blossom, butterflies, birdsong and paddling in the river with little fish.  That's British weather for you! 

Oh Spring, where have you gone?  Time for a treat I think..... waffles, greek yogurt and bottled cherry plums from last year's garden harvest.

A birthday and two recipes

Another family birthday this week and I thought I would make it a practical gift this time.  I found this cook's gift idea in one of my Susan Branch books - an old mixing bowl filled with the ingredients and recipe for Cranberry Apple Crisp.  Well I'd been on the lookout for a suitable bowl for weeks but when time started running out I decided had to buy new and found this blue Melamine bowl at our local Ironmongers.  It was just the right size, very practical - and a bit 50s in style to my mind.

The card is a steal from Cristina's fabulous project and I added my felt leaf pin as an extra little gift. 

Sadly the clocks went back last night and it feels like the end of the summer all over again. Only 2 days ago I was digging up my tomato plants and now have a large bowl of small  red, orange and green tomatoes that I hope will all ripen to red over the next week or so. And I'd like to share this delicious tomato recipe I've used quite a few times since the tomatoes started ripening - its quick, easy, tasty - and just the thing for a glut of cherry tomatoes. You can watch Lorraine Pascale making her Tomato Basil Tarte Tatin here on Youtube.

Lastly just have to post this photo of the garden robin who hops around when I'm digging.  He/she keeps an eye out for any tasty morsels my fork uncovers and enjoyed quite a few while I was digging up the tomatoes and putting in my onion sets on Friday. 

October already.....

.........just where did September go!!  Two posts today as I want to fit in the October children from Children Month by Month, the old book I wrote about at the beginning of September.

Now children, please don't try burning leaves on the garden path yourselves.... this looks a very dangerous occupation and I'm sure this illustration would not be published in a children's book today!  The book comes from the stock of an old publishing house being sold on that well-known on-line auction site recently and is in mint condition. I was interested to see a printing error on this page. The stick or poker the boy is holding isn't there! Probably why the book didn't get to a book or toy shop - bad for the publishers but good for me.  Look out for the next page on 1st November - it will be here before you know it!

We've had another glorious day here in the UK. I spent most of the morning making this mobile, which I want to enter for the Papertrey Ink Make-it-Monday challenge.

That clever Erin Lincoln made some lovely chipboard accents using cutting dies and cereal packet cardboard recently and this week's challenge is to make a project using the same technique. Now I was hoping my September release goodies would have arrived by today as I had an idea for a Christmas mobile - but they haven't dropped on the doormat yet so I decided to make an Autumn mobile instead - after all it is only October!

So here it is - I've used leaf and fruit dies, 5 layers of cereal box cardboard and stamped cardstock for the fronts and backs. I found a suitable stick in the garden and tied it all together with hairy twine. I'll hang it in the window tomorrow.

Oh, and does anybody need any cooking apples! Free to a good home but must be collected - any takers!!

Stamps: Papertrey Ink's Leaf Prints, Fruit Fusion Apple and Pear plus the matching dies.
Cardboard courtesy of Dorset Cereals!

September

This pretty children's book illustration is from a small picture book titled Children Month by Month, published by Birn Bros Ltd in, I would think, the 1940s or early 50s.  Its perfect for posting this first day of September, which has been absolutely glorious here in the UK. Perfect because there is so much fruit on the apple trees this year the branches are bowed down with the weight and I'm wishing I had a little apple store shed like this in which to keep them. I'll be trying to keep as many as I can to use over the Autumn and Winter but I expect the garden wildlife will be feasting on windfalls over the next few months. So I never fret that they are going to waste because they won't be.

The other months in this book are just as charmingly illustrated and I thought I'd try to post one each first day of the month if I can remember. They'd make a lovely nostalgic calendar.

It seems Blogger has had a bit of a makeover and I'm trying to get to grips with it here - it looks like we can post LARGE photos now. And there's a preview screen - which is a big improvement too.

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe.....

The tree at the bottom of the garden has been groaning under the weight of its fruit this year. Its an ancient tree, already full grown when we moved to the house 40 years ago. Now I've alway thought these were small plums because of the way they grow on the tree, but they also taste like cherries. However it doesn't really matter either way, whatever they are I still have the problem of picking, using and preserving them before they go over. The wasps are already eyeing them up and the birds are feasting on the ones I can't reach - so nature will have its share.We've eaten probably too many than are good for us fresh, I've made crumble puddings, frozen some, given lots away, and my latest effort has been bottling. I've not tried this form of preserving before and I don't think I've been completely successful as at the end of the session there has been so much syrup left I feel I must have done something wrong.
But we tried them today as one jar's seal had failed and needed to be used first. I'm pleased to report they were delicious with some greek yogurt - so my sister will get a jar when she visits on Friday. Of course I have to pretty up the jar and decided this was the perfect opportunity to use my Lunchbox Note die (for the first time!). Inside the note I've written serving suggestions copied from the book. And yes, you've guessed it, the recipe came from Sensational Preserves by Hilaire Walden. Where would I be without this wonderful book!

Red Summer Fruits Preserved

Its preserving time again and I've been trying to keep up with the garden (and supermarket) this week. There was a huge crop on my one redcurrant bush this year. They are such beautiful berries - they glisten like rubies in the sunshine.
Its also a time for using up what's left in the freezer from last year - raspberries and blackberries in my case. So I decided to use a recipe from my favourite preserving book Sensational Preserves by Hilaire Walden (cheaper used copies on ebay!) - Red Summer Fruits Preserve (yes, I know the blackberries aren't red but they needed to be used up).
So along with some reduced-in-price strawberries from the supermarket I cleared most of the fruit in the freezer, used almost all the redcurrants and produced six jars of the preserve. A very satisfying afternoon's work.
I saw this idea to top jam jars with paper cupcake cases and these I got at Ikea some time ago are the perfect colours for my jars. I also made some labels using my new PTI Strawberry Fruit Fusion stamp set.
I photographed the jars outside my back door in the sunshine this morning and I'm really loving the sedum that is spreading itself over the coalhouse roof. Its just started to flower. I've just left it to grow over the last couple of years - another plant that has just popped up from who knows where. LOVE that. But I think I need to add a bit of compost to the roof to encourage it a bit more. I saw a sedum roof on a TV programme last night and its quite expensive to buy so I'm very lucky it decided to pick my coalhouse to grow on.

Elderflower Cordial 2011

I've just come in from the jungle that is my back garden (not my mother's garden which is the one I usually show on this blog) where I picked another bunch of elderflowers to make second brewing of my favourite elderflower cordial. I never seem to have enough cordial for the summer so this year I'm hoping to make as much as I can whilst the flowers last. As you can see from the photo of the flowers above, it was an absolutely glorious morning with an azure sky showing off the elderflowers to their best advantage.

Elderflower cordial really is the easiest summer drink to make. You can find the recipe here on my post last year. All you need are the flowers, a lemon, sugar, citric acid, and boiling water. It then makes itself over the next few days and all I need do is strain and bottle in something pretty.








And its ready to drink straight away and will keep for ages - if you can keep it!

I wanted to make some labels for my bottles - but what to use as an image? In the end I think I've managed to create an approximation of elderflowers with stamps from Darkroom Door's Wildflower set and Papertrey's Pondlife. I used Bundled Sage and Antique Linen Distress Inks, inking different parts of the flower stamps to give the effect of the flowerheads.

October beauty

There's still plenty to photograph in the garden in October - berries, late flowers and ripening fruit and veg - so I'm still out snapping when the sun shines - and it has shone recently even though the last couple of days have been dull and misty.

My lovely Clematis "Bill Mackenzie" has been absolutely covered in those pale yellow bells since early June. And you certainly get value for money with this plant as the seedheads are perfectly beautiful; in the beginning they look like a silky tassle and later turn into a feathery star.

My Mum hates the two huge Pampas Grass plants behind the house. I have to admit they are untidy and dangerous plants for most of the year - their leaves are like bread knives, making them very difficult to cut back. My Dad used to burn them when the leaves were turning brown but I'd be scared to try this as I'm sure I'd set the house on fire! But when they start to flower in September you can forgive them anything. I love those tall translucent plumes - especially when the sun is low and they light up like lanterns.

Another fascination for me is the crop of tiny toadstools in front grass platt at this time of year. Definitely homes for fairies!








In the veg patch I've a beautiful Globe Artichoke plant but I'm afraid I never eat them - there are only one or two Globes each year and I tend to leave them on the plant and use them as decorations for the house once they've dried out - they look really pretty at Christmas sprayed with gold. But there is still much to harvest - I can't keep up with the Runner Beans, especially as no one else in the family wants them and its down to my son and I to eat as many as we can while they are small and stringless. I've harvested the Potatoes, Carrots and Apples and put them away for the winter - I tried the short and round varieties of carrot this year and they've been more successful - but still some have been attacked by the dreaded carrot root fly - horrible thing! In the next few weeks I'll be hoping to enjoy my first Butternut Squashes too - something I've not tried growing before.

Well that's the garden diary up to date! I've had a hard time keeping up with my blogging friends this week as I've been so busy with a new job and an order for some crafty items, so I must apologise profusely for my lack of commenting - hopefully I'll get back into my blog hop routine next week.