A Farewell To My Summer Garden

It is sad to see the end of my summer garden.  Knowing that from here on in there will only be grey as I look out my kitchen window.  But some of the flowers and plants are giving quite a grand farewell.  How brave they are to bare their heads during the early frosts and the pounding rain.

The ever reliable nasturtiums that always add wild colour to my garden in late summer and to the salad bowl too.  And I'm not the only one to love them.  They are great to attract butterflies and bees to the garden.

I really love the colour of these dwarf lupins.  Even the little furry seed pods are very attractive.  I took some of the seeds this year and put them under our laurel hedge and I hope that they will add some colour to it next year.

I love the way that these ganzias are the colour of fire.  They are reluctant little flowers as they only like to open in the warm weather.  I think that this year they just got tired of waiting and finally despite the cold they flowered in all their glory.

This poor little lone geranium flower is all that is left on the plants that flowered all summer long.

My elderberries have finally ripened.  One month late.  I was beginning to think that these little black beauties would just fall from the tree still red as often happens if the summer has been too wet or cold as it was this summer.  I must have a jam making day soon.  They make wonderful elderberry jelly.

The Japanese maple that sits just outside my kitchen window in all its golden glory is very slowly turning red. Worryingly I must move this tree next year in order to build my studio.  I'm hoping that it will survive the move.  Would you know what is the best time to move it?  Winter or early spring?

And finally the tree at the end of my garden.  I can never remember the name of it but as my mother gave it to us when we first moved in here, we call it Ma's tree.  It is wonderful and changes colour throughout the seasons.  In spring it has vibrant red berries and soft yellow leave in the summer that slowly turn green and then to deep red in the autumn.  Fantastic display.
Well thanks for taking the time to visit my garden with me.
Rosie xx

Undecided!

Can I get your opinion please ladies?  This is the dress that I bought for a wedding (looks nicer on, honestly) and I want to knit a shrug for it.  I started one with a lace stitch but then ripped it back thinking that it would be much with the beautiful lace at the top of the dress.  But when I said that I was going to make a plain shrug instead, my Mum said  "NOOOO! a block of colour wouldn't be as nice."

What do you think ladies?  Can you help point me in the right direction?

Rosie
xx

Wiggly Teeth Scones

Both of my kids are loosing their baby teeth at the moment, ahhhh. They are finding it hard to bit into most things so I have to be really careful about what I give them to eat.  We call these Wiggly Teeth Scones because unlike normal scones the outside is not very hard and the inside is lovely and light and fluffy.  Perfect for lunch boxes.  I got the recipe from a Good Food magazine a few years ago and they called them The Ultimate Scone.  I don't think that I would because they don't rise very high like most scone recipes but they are perfect for little mouths.

Ingredients:
16oz self raising flour
1/4tsp salt
4oz butter, cold
2oz golden caster sugar
8floz buttermilk
4floz full fat milk
2 handfuls of sultanas
1 egg for glazing, slightly beaten
a little granulated sugar for sprinkling

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 220°C
• Tip the flour into a mixing bowl with the salt and butter.  Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Stir in the sugar and sultanas.
• Mix together the buttermilk and full fat milk.
• Pour in most of the milk into the centre of the flour mixture.  Not all of it because it may make it too wet.
• Using a round bladed knife gently work the mixture together until it forms a soft dough.  If it is too dry you can always add in more milk but be very careful a little can make it too wet.  If it is too wet add in another handful of flour and work it in.
• Take the dough out of the bowl and on a lightly floured surface knead 3-4 times to remove any cracks.
• Pat the dough gently with your hands to the thickness of no less than 2,5cm.
• Cut with a floured cutter and place on a baking tray.
• Brush with the egg and sprinkle with a little granulated sugar.
• Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
• Serve with butter and jam to kids with wiggly teeth and watch a lovely jammie smile appear on their faces.

Short Row Craziness

First of all I'd like to thank everyone who left such lovely messages and words on my last post about the sad passing away of poor Nutmeg.  It was very kind of you all.

Now down to something a bit more cheerful, knitting.  I've been working on this waistcoat for some time now.  It is a beautiful design by Kyoko Nakayoshi.  And oh boy was it a learning curve.  It was a first for a lot of stitches and techniques.  It was the first time that I attempted doing a reverse cable stitch but slowly got the hang of it and by the end I didn't even need to look at the pattern.  Here I also learned to perfect my wrap and turns.  They always drove me crazy because I hated the way that they looked when I had to pick up all the wraps at the end.  And I think that I must have ripped back this knitting about five this because I was so unhappy with my short row shaping.  But I eventually got a link on the internet and it said to always lift the wraps up from the knit side and place them behind the stitch to be knitted.  On the knit side the two stitches should be knitted together from the back of the loop and on the purl side they are just purled together normally.  It leaves the wraps totally invisible.   

I'm still not sure about the colour of this though.  That's always the danger of buying yarn over the internet, you risk not getting the colour that you expect.  What do you think?

Now just being so close to finishing this, I have to put it aside.  I have a wedding coming up on the 20th October and I need a wrap to go over my shoulders and keep me warm.  So I'm knitting against the clock.  I love knitting to a deadline if I'm honest.  It makes me work a lot harder on it.

I chose the Illyia Shrug from ravelry and Garn Studio Merino Extra Fine.  I love the colour.  And it matches perfectly with the trim on my dress.  Now that was a lucky internet buy!!

Anyway I better go now.  I've got the Hubby's jeans to mend too.  

Rosie

xx

Goodbye Nutmeg

It has been a very sad week for our family as my mother's cat Nutmeg passed away on Thursday night.  She was 12 years old and so had become a big part of our family life.  My children will especially miss her as they spend as much time in my mother's house as in ours and Nutmeg has been around them from the time that they were born.  Beforehand with my son because she loved to sit on my belly and purr gently when I was pregnant.  She was the most gentle, affectionate and friendly cat that I have ever known.  She spent her days on the garden wall saying hello to all the passers-by with her funny little purr-meow that she always did when she saw a friend, of which she had many.  There was no child, teenager nor adult that passed our house without stopping to cuddle her or pet her on the head.  And the funniest of all to see was a big Husky that refused to pass by the house unless he saw her.  Not to chase her or bark at her but just to have a 'kiss' from her where she would rub her head on his face and neck and lick his nose!
Telling my kids was heart-breaking.  They screamed and cried for a very long time.  We kept them away while my mother buried her under the cherry blossom in the back garden.  But yesterday morning we went and bought a beautiful pink rose together and planted it to mark her grave.  A very sad, sad day.
Goodbye Nutmeg. You brought a lot of love into our lives.  Thank you. We will all miss you a lot.

Making Dinner With Lucy

I have to be honest and say that I'm really just a big child.  And one of the best thing for me was when I had the kids was realising that I could let my inner child run wild. I can't resist a game of hide and seek or eye spy or even stuck in the mud.  So when Lucy took out her box of Playdough and asked me if I wanted to play, I was in there as quick as lightening.  We decided to try and make something resembling a dinner.

We decided to try and make something resembling a dinner and we made steak, carrots, beetroot, peas and sweetcorn, tomato and spuds.  It's amazing what you can make with palydough!!

Coconut And Apple Oaties

We all love oaties here in this house and I think that they are a great source of fibre for the kids.  With this recipe I thought that I'd combine a couple of my favourite ingredients; coconut, cinnamon and apples. The apples are a little soft after baking. This may not be to everyone's taste and if you prefer you can always leave them out.  They will taste just a good. I hope that you like them as much as we do.  So here goes...

Ingredients:
110g butter, softened
100g caster sugar
100g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
2btsp water
1/2tsp cinnamon
110g self raising flour
125g porridge oats
125g coconut
1 granny smith apple, peeled and chopped into small pieces

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Soften the butter in a food mixer or a large bowl. 
• Add the soft brown sugar and cater sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
• Next add in the water, egg and combine well.
• Using a wooden spoon mix in the flour, porridge oats, apples and coconut.  This will form a mixture like dough.
• Take pieces of dough the size of walnuts and roll in your hands to make balls.
• Spread these apart on two papered baking sheets.
• Bake for 20mins.  They should be light golden brown but still slightly soft to touch in the middle.
• Let them cool on the trays for a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack.
• Sit with a lovely cuppa, put your feet up and delight in what a wonderful domestic goddess you are.