Wednesday 29 June 2011

ERTF Exhibition




For more information go to the ERTF website

Sunday 26 June 2011

Feast

Yesterday afternoon we went to the 'Feast and Fayre' at Horndon on the Hill, James and Becky's brother in law, Jon played his guitar and sang. It was lovely sitting in the sun and watching the world go by, as the fayre wound down we strolled through the village to Jon's parents house for a BBQ. Sadly the cheesecake didn't make it, it cracked across the top and I wanted to make a good impression, well you do don't you? (note to self, need to practise) It was a dash to the supermarket yesterday morning and the purchase of strawberries, cream and meringues and an Eton Mess was taken to the BBQ,  it went down very well! We still have the cheesecake in our fridge, would you like a slice?

This afternoon I took time out and sat on a sunbed in the garden and read a book...... not me at all, there's always something else to do. Well, I deserved a treat I had spent the morning deadheading, and weeding, I was serenaded  by a blackbird that sang almost continually from mid day until 4pm without a break it was beautiful, what with that and a perfect blue sky, a great day.  A few photos of my garden taken this afternoon.


Thalictrum 'Elin'



Bottle Brush




Why the image above has a line through it I don't know, it must be a blogger thing. I've uploaded it on flickr without any problems. http://www.flickr.com/photos/77belle/5873691182/
Aubergine
Beetroot
Marrow
The marrow will be tomorrow's dinner, the little veg patch is doing well. Last week we emptied the first bag of early potatoes, it is enough for us for a week, the spinach and chard is providing enough for us with enough to give some away. As for the lettuce I've given some to my neighbour a few times and Dave took some to his Dad today. During the week we'll also be eating peas and courgettes, I can't believe how much a little patch provides. Oh yes, on Friday we had a bowl of blueberries after dinner, brilliant, next year I'm going to try growing strawberries.

Friday 24 June 2011

New Neighbours and New Books

Since my last post I have met my new neighbours, 6 girls have taken up residence with Bert who is an elderly gentleman living across the road. He took me into his garden to show me his new friends something that he said he'd wanted for years, I think he's 82 so it's taken him a while to get around to it! (sorry it's not a brilliant photograph, but I'll be visiting again soon)

Then there are the 7 new books I bought to see me through the summer, but after all the reading planned I thought a treat was in order, two Christmas's ago I gave Rachel and Becky the Hummingbird Bakery book, they both have been using it a lot  and saying how good it is. Occasionally Rachel sends home a cake for me, so it had to be the new Hummingbird book, was it a mistake?
Apple and Oat Cookie
Honey and Walnut Loaf
Baked Strawberry Cheesecake, a Fathers Day special
Today I'm  making a Berry Baked Cheesecake to take as our contribution to the BBQ we've been invited to tomorrow. The favorite cake so far has been the Orange and Almond Loaf but it went so fast there was no time for a photo. I've really got back into baking, sadly it's not doing my waist line any good!

Between all that baking there's  been creativity going on too, I've finished a Material Girls project, sorry no images until the exhibition, now I'm working on the next piece.  I can show the two baby quilts that are completed, both quilts are waiting for the 'Happy Events' so I can sew the labels on, both babies are due at the end of July, so I'm ready! To make my life easy I used the same fabrics and design for both.   To preserve my sanity and keep me from getting bored, I appliqued circles on one,  although with the bright colours and jazzy patterns I don't think that would have happened. My only problem will be which Mum to give which quilt to, they don't know each other so that's not a problem.






Puppy update, two weeks ago I went to visit a lady that has Miniature Schnauzer's, and guess what, one of her bitches is expecting pups, they are due on Sunday, soooo we will be having a new addition to the family in September, fingers crossed.

Apart from that, not much else has happened apart from having a verruca blasted, I've never had one before, painful is all I can say!  And we had a wasps nest take up residence in our roof, hopefully the 'Wasp Killers' will be coming this afternoon to remove them, sadly it's in the flat part of the roof so there wont be a lovely nest for me to see, it will have to stay where it is without the wasps hopefully.
 Just a moan here, trying to keep things local I telephoned a company in the area I live in, they could come the next day, I waited and waited, then I phoned 'sorry the van had broken down, and they were so glad I'd called they had mislaid my number' MMmm! They would be there the next day, did they turn up, did they call? NO.   Today I phoned another company so we'll see what happens. At this time when financially times are tough and every day there's news of businesses going to the wall, why would you let a customer down,  I know it's only one small job but it would have been £65.00 earned in about 30 minutes.