Random Piccies Around the House

Hi everyone! Sorry haven't posted for a while - just been busy. Took some photos of latest harvesting and then wandered round the house, whilst I had the camera in my hand, taking more images to share with you. I know I like peeking into other blog friends' houses this way, so thought you might enjoy it too.....

The climbing beans that I'd almost given up on, having re-planted them 3 times, have finally produced! Also in this piccy are courgettes (zucchini), and my first ever apple (Jonagold).

This is a cute doorstop I bought at Laura Ashley. I could have made it myself, or purchased it somewhere cheaper, but I had a gift voucher to use up.

Two beautiful wood carvings now that I picked up from the artist herself at a healing fair in Penzance. (I bravely ignore the capital 'E' in the first one....)

One of my Purry Panthers came to have a look..... (I think this is Luna, the girl.)

Some lovely fabric I picked up at a charity shop (old curtains), and the pattern I bought on Ebay which I intend (someday) to use with it.

This painting hangs over our mantelpiece in the living room. It was painted by my late Father-in-law some years ago. He was in the merchant navy in his youth and adored old fashioned sailing ships. As he was red/green colour blind he had to ask us if he'd got the colours right - the sky was green originally!! He named the boat after his late wife, Irene Rose.

I bought these beautiful ceramic tile pictures at Caithness Crystal. It was difficult to choose which ones, but I love the brightness and joy of these two.

These hang in my hallway. The picture of the wren is another charity shop find.

In two weeks' time my beautiful Daughter will be off to Aberystwyth (I have to type that name slowly to get it right!) university. As she has chosen to be self catering there are a lot of things to buy. Naturally, she doesn't want the old fashioned stuff from the house that I've offered; only new stuff will do! This is just some of it. How on earth we'll fit it all in my car for the long drive to the other side of the country is a mystery still to be solved!

And finally, here is the tv on the ultra modern glass table hubby loved but I hated.....

And here's the much better, natural, wooden replacement I found in yet another charity shop...

Ahhh, that's better! By the way, that monstrous tv is going too. The rental place can have it back and I'll buy a much smaller one, since I hardly watch the thing and Daughter will be at uni! (Don't worry, she does know what I've planned!)

Well, that's it for now - hope you enjoyed the piccies. Blessings to you all  x x

July goings on.

July has been a busy month so far. 


Inspired by this book:

I thought I'd have a go at bottling (or 'canning' in America) gooseberries. I bought some from a PYO farm I came across to eke out the ones I grew myself.

I used my new preserving pan to sterilise the jars and lids, with a tea towel folded at the bottom as instructed. 

Topping and tailing the gooseberries was rather tedious, but necessary. Miss Read, in her Fairacre series of books, says she uses a pair of nail scissors but I prefer my knife.

I packed each jar with fruit then added hot syrup (Just sugar and water). I screwed on the lids and slightly loosened them, then lowered them into the hot water and brought the water to 88 degrees Celsius for the amount of time it said (20 mins I think - it varies, depending on the fruit used).

The finished result. Now that the fruit has softened there is loads of room left in the jars!

 I was amazed at how the jar lids dimpled down, indicating a vacuum has formed. When you think about it this is just the same process as tinned fruit that you buy in the shop. 


I'm very excited about all this! I love seeing the pictures of Amish cupboards filled with jars of produce, and I love the thought of preserving food without needing a freezer. I've bought some smaller Kilner jars to preserve rhubarb, chopped peaches and chopped pears. I would like to preserve vegetables, soups and stews this way too but, due to low acid content and the danger of botulism therefore, I would need to get a special canning pressure cooker for these.


This month in the veggie garden, after weeks of rain:


First potatoes dug up.

Courgettes (zucchini) are forming. Had to pick these a bit smaller than usual due to slugs nibbling the skins off!

My one remaining Pumpkin plant is now flowering. It always amazes me just how big Squash flowers are! I caught this one in the morning; by midday it had curled up again.

The mint plants, which grow wherever the mower can't reach, are also coming into flower. The bees LOVE them!

And finally my 3 'helpers'....


Bramble,

Luna,

and Flopsy.

What have you been up to this month?

Veggies, water and washing

Some piccies from my garden today...

Busy washing day! Boil washed my un-paper towels, then hot washed towels, hand washed 3 things and ordinary washed the rest - 3 linen lines worth. I love to see washing blowing in the wind. It connects me with all the women all over the world, all through the past, who have cared for their families by washing their clothes.

I have two water butts but they have yet to be connected to the drain pipes. Still, I leave the lids off to collect what they can and......

.... I leave all this out to collect more rain then pour them into the water butts. This has really transformed my attitude to rainy days from gloom to excitement. I love harvesting the rain God sends!

The St. John's Wort is living up to its name by blooming in time for St. John's day. (June 24th) Picture is slightly blurry, sorry.

Mint grows wherever the lawnmower can't reach.

The potatoes are flourishing - looking forward to the first dig!

By contrast the beans are really struggling. This is the second sowing, 24 bean seeds each time, and only 3 have made it. 

The strawberries are beginning to ripen, a few at a time; not enough for a bowlful yet.

Apples are swelling on my new Jonagold tree.

The onions are coming along nicely - apart from the one I accidentally chopped with the hoe. Oops!

The courgettes have survived the slug attack....

..... but this is the only one of 3 pumpkin plants to survive the chomping molluscs.

The gooseberries are almost ready to pick!




And finally, two nosey pets who just had to come and have a look....

Luna, our little girl cat....

...and Flopsy, peeking coyly over his shoulder.


Hope you've had a good day too!  x x

Reminder

Just a quick reminder that I have a second blog, Patchwork Musings, where you can see this piccy of my beautiful girly when she was a babby.....

Note the TWO spoons.  She used to be so eager to taste the delicious food that she insisted on having a spoon in each hand! She didn't yet have the co-ordination to actually get the food from the bowl to her mouth, as you can see. Meanwhile we would be attempting to avoid the waving hands to feed her. Bless her heart!

A Country Evening

Do you know that feeling when there's something inside you, a lump of emotion, that needs to come out but you don't know how? With me, fleeing to Nature is the way to deal with it. My family know me well and don't even bat an eyelid when I tell them I've been sitting under a rhododendron bush in the woods!


Anyway, I went for a drive this evening, filled with this urge to get out and deal with all the feelings churning inside. I didn't know exactly where I was heading. The beach maybe? The woods? Luckily I live near to both habitats. I just drove and followed my instincts.


As I drove slowly down a country lane I saw a hare peeking at me from behind a hedge - a hare! The Lady's creature! So I knew that was where I was meant to go. I parked on a little track between two fields, rolled down my window and watched through my binoculars, listening to a cascade of bird song. Having brought with me my notebook and pen, another way to get those unnamed feelings out into the air, I wrote the following:


A chilly but sunny June evening.
Two hares lope across the bare earth.
A cock pheasant pops his head up
out of the long grass.
All around the songs of birds:
Blackbird, Chaffinch, Pheasant, Wood Pigeon
and many more that I can't identify.
A hen pheasant disguises herself
as a clod of earth.
Two little birds fly over - Linnets perhaps?
If only I'd brought my bird book!


I came out with aches in my heart,
grief,
the need to weep,
the need to do something,
to get out,
to go somewhere.
And I followed my heart's leading -
and a big hint from a hare -
to this beautiful place.


A Goldfinch sips from a puddle just ahead.
Further off comes the crack
of a gun - hunting pheasants no doubt.
But, ah, they do not know
the bliss of this little haven.


And no-one to share with,
no-one to remember this with,
no-one to take out this photograph
from our memory
and say "Do you remember 
that beautiful June evening..."


My Friend is gone.
He went a long time ago;
long, long before his body went
my Friend left me - 
ran off with his Mistress*
who killed him.
Slowly.


A Yellowhammer
has a splashy bath in the puddle.
A little moth
comes out to play.


And the world turns on and on.
Someone dies,
someone is born;
someone weeps,
another laughs.....


A BARN OWL!
A BARN OWL!!!
Gliding silently by,
its supper gripped in its claws.
And another hare passes
so close I could almost touch it!


And these are my Father's gifts,
my Mother's comforts,
to kiss me
and help me through.


Amen.
Amen.

*alcohol, not a woman

Singing again!

Thirty or so years ago my late husband and I, with a friend called Joey, used to play guitar and sing for our prayer group (Which later became a house church), and for monthly meetings of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International and other Christian meetings. The 'band'  broke up when I went to teacher training college and Joey joined British Youth for Christ. When I began to teach in Primary Schools, my singing and guitar playing was channelled into music lessons with the kiddies - what fun we had we had with '5 little speckled frogs' and the like! After several years a music specialist was brought into school so I stopped playing and singing.


Now that my life has changed so much, and I seek new directions, I find I am yearning to play and sing again, so I have begun to pick up my beautiful guitar and practise again. My hands had not forgotten where to place themselves, although my fingers creaked a bit with chords like B7! My finger ends, though a little sore, are beginning to harden again as I play the old songs. Oh what joy to greet those old friends! (Even if I have to change the key down a bit sometimes!!) 


Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a song I wrote way back in 1983. Bear in mind that I am rather rusty and have never made a video on my laptop before!


Here are the words:


All for you


Jesus,
You have come into my life.
My Jesus,
You have taken all the strife.
You are changing me, and making me
Into your likeness true.
My Jesus
It's all for you.


Jesus,
You have come into my heart.
My Jesus,
Giving me a brand new start.
You are changing me, transforming me
Creating me anew.
My Jesus
It's all for you.


Jesus,
You have made a promise true.
My Jesus,
That one day I'll be with you.
By your spirit free, complete in me
The work begun by you.
Lord Jesus,
My Jesus,
It's all for you.

I don't think Graham Kendrick needs to worry yet.....  ;-)

Green deodorant update

Well, I promised you an update after a week and.........IT WORKS!!! I can't believe it but it really does work!  (In case you didn't catch the original post, here's the link...)


I mixed one spoonful of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda in USA) with 6 spoonfuls of cornflour (cornstarch in USA) in a little container which I keep in the bathroom. Each morning, when I've done my usual ablutions, I dampen my underarms then use my still damp fingers to pat the powder on till it feels dry. I do this leaning over the sink in case I spill any. It doesn't mark my clothes and it keeps me fresh and dry all day. It even worked when I did my exercise class - the rest of me got hot and sweaty (as it should if it's doing me any good) but there was no smell and no pit stains! (sorry if I'm being gross here) AMAZING!!!


And, of course, as well as needing no throwaway plastic container it is so cheap to buy. I reckon the amount I mixed will probably last a month or so, easily; and there's loads left in the packets I bought. Wow!


Sorry if I'm sounding a bit evangelical about all this but I can't believe how well it worked.  To think of all the money I spent on useless chemical formulas in planet polluting packaging.... (Ooh, good bit of alliteration there.)  Bet this is something the cosmetics companies want to keep veeerrrry quiet!   ;-)