Autumn, lovely Autumn

 

Saturday there was a definite nip of Autumn in the air.   On the way home from Llandudno we opted to drive 'over the tops' rather than on the busy A55 and were rewarded with long shadows, golden fields harvested of their crops and glimpses of the sea glittering in distance as the sun was setting.  My frequent shouts to stop the car to take a photo were not appreciated!

Time to pick Elderberries ripe on the bush in the garden and the perfect preserve for me is Elderberry and Apple jelly as I've collected lots of windfalls too.  I'm not that keen on making jelly preserves as they always seem a bit wasteful of the fruit, but this one is a tried and tested recipe torn from a magazine many years ago and stored in my Successful Recipes file.  I've put the fruit pulp out for the birds and hope they will find it to their taste.

I was tempted to buy some Joanna Sheen Country Kitchen stamps I spied in the craft shop in Llandudno at a bargain price.  I've not tried this brand before but they were just the job for decorating my jam jars.  I always think I will remember what's in a jar just by looking at it but I have to admit I've opened more than one jar of jam only to find its chutney!

Supplies: Joanna Sheen Country Kitchen Crabapple CL05; PTI Tag Sale #1 die; various Copic markers

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.