September in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop the hens have been.... ...enjoying windfall apples by the beak-full. They love anything sweet and have been delighted this month to find such large quantities of treats just landing at their feet. I'm not sure how many apples they got through, but it certainly inspired us to go and pick all the ripe fruit every few days! ...moulting. I know I said Fizzy was last...

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Photo Friday

Saligo Bay, Isla...

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Fruit of the Garden - September's Harvest

Another month has passed and we're starting to notice that we planted all our veg to see us through summer months rather than planning food for different seasons. We've still working through our salad potatoes, and the tomatoes are slowly ripening, but this month has mostly been about our fruit trees. We have two really productive fruit trees in our garden - one apple, one pear - along with four young...

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Confessions of a Tea Addict

Dear Reader, We're not sure how to tell you this. We don't really know how to begin. It's come on so gradually. First it was just some English Breakfast, loose leaf. The teapot and the strainer, a favourite mug. We just couldn't help ourselves. We went and found a second type and a third. It wasn't just about the drink, but the collection, oh the collection. Comparing the leaf size, the length of...

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Photo Friday

West Loch Tarber...

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Holiday purchases and a question...

Last week we were indulging ourselves in some time spent in the middle of nowhere. We were staying in a remote part of Islay, Scotland and had a lovely relaxed time gazing at the scenery. I'm sure we'll have a couple more Photo Fridays for you to demonstrate just how beautiful it all was. While we were there we found a delightful little craft shop. The lady who owned it was sat in the corner spinning...

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Kitchen Gadgets: 1. Oil Spray and Potato Wedges

Did we mention we like gadgets? You can find them in all corners of our house, but no more so than the kitchen. We're real suckers when it comes to a good kitchen gadget. So we thought we'd write a series where we tell you all about them, why we love them and we'll also try and include a recipe where we can. Joe carefully prepared all the photos for today's post but has found himself a little busy...

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Photo Friday - Islay

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Garden Blogger Blooms Day

So we are a few days early but we are joining in anyway! Here are some pictures of what is blooming in our garden: Love in a mist Geranium Sweet Peas - still going! Another sunflower Sweetcorn - a bit late but definitely in bloom! Nasturtium And another nasturtium - twin coloured this time Rudbeckia gloriosa, sewn from seed this spring Penstemon keeping up the pink...

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Summer Knits: 4. Bust Shaping

You may have noticed that as I've been making more clothes for myself of late I've been paying a little more attention to how they might actually fit rather than blindly following the pattern. My current knitting project is no exception. Reading around on the internet I recently came across the concept of bust shaping when knitting jumpers. The theory is that if you knit the front and the back of...

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Photo Friday - Ober Heath at Dusk

There are two challenges I battled with today's photo Friday. Firstly, how wide can you go. I have always been fascinated by panoramic photos as a way to capture a landscape ever since my parents had one from our regular camping slot - 5 4x6 photos stuck together with book mending tape. This particular photo contains 18 separate images brought together (I use autostitch as a free tool) to give the...

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One Potato, Two Potato....

On a completely unrelated topic, writer and blogger Chloe Banks has just launched a flash fiction series on her blog based on the signs of the zodiac. Joe and I have volunteered our somewhat dubious fiction writing skills to contribute Pisces and Capricorn to her collection. You'll find us hanging out over there on 15th October and 19th November, but I'm pretty sure the whole series...

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Summer Knits: 3. A Long Weekend of Progress

We spent a very relaxed bank holiday weekend camping in the New Forest. There were barbecues, sunsets, coffee shops, large quantities of tea, cooked breakfasts, plenty of the infamous ponies and naturally lots of knitting done. New Forest Pony Since we've both made quite a bit of headway with our respective projects we thought it might be time to share an update on the knits we started in June....

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