Wednesday, 30 October 2013

A Little Distraction

Hasn't the weather been lovely the last couple of days?! We were spending a very wet and blustery Sunday afternoon giving our three bedrooms a spruce up and a tidy. You know the sort of thing, clearing out the piles of things that accumulate in corners, dusting under the beds (shocking amount of dirt under there) and moving things up to the loft that had been waiting to be put up there for months.  As...
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Sunday, 27 October 2013

October in the Chicken Coop

This month in the chicken coop.... ... Frog learns a new trick: A quick hop up onto the windowsill and she neatly avoids the fence we've built. We don't think she gets into the veg patch this way - we've seen her squeezing through holes in the fence again - but invariably this is how she chooses to get out when she sees us coming (or is bribed!). Typical. The fence still does the trick with the...
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Friday, 25 October 2013

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Fruit of the Garden - October's Harvest

This month we've been clearing down the garden ready for the winter. There are some plants still happily producing fruit and veg but some we've decided to just take what we can and leave it there. We've dug up the last of our potatoes (the pink fir apples): We've harvested the rest of the tomatoes - mostly ripe and a few green: Joe cleaned up the shallots ready for moving into the kitchen. We've...
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Sunday, 20 October 2013

Making a Sticky Mess

This week has been preserves week in our house. We've made jelly, marmalade and chutney resulting in a lot of pan shuffling, using of every utensil and and a lot of stickiness. It's been great! It all started with the tomatoes. We've been watching our tomatoes fail to ripen for weeks and had come to the conclusion that rather than sit patiently and wait for it to happen we'd make green tomato chutney....
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Friday, 18 October 2013

Photo Friday - Buffet Lunch

The photo Friday this week is a picture I took recently as promotional material for a friend who is starting a business doing cold buffets. I can definitely recommend him - if you are in the area and in need give Geoff a shout on 07564 902 91...
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Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Summer Knits: 6. Moving On Up

Hooray, I finally did it. Two sleeves completed, joined to the rest of the body and I've now started to work on the yoke. Progress is slow as each row contains 409 stitches at the moment, but its good to be working on the main body again. It's all downhill from here. ...
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Sunday, 13 October 2013

Garden Blogger Blooms Day - October

Ill just leave these here... Why hello mr buzzy bee! Our beans did awfully this year - those ones behind are as big as they have got. New seed for next year I think! The last of the sweet peas, guaranteed. The plants are in the compost heap now! The cyclamen are starting  to bloom. It must be getting cold... And another month where I shall say the last clematis flower...
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Friday, 11 October 2013

Photo Friday - Machir Bay

Another panorama - this time a view over the dunes of Machir Bay on Islay. And for those of you who would like to see it at full size - here is a link to download it. If you want to use this or any other image on this site for anything more than personal use please ask my permissi...
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Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Kitchen Gadgets: 2. Zester

This months gadget is a very simple one - it has no moving parts and is entirely mechanical. It is a zester. I use it for baking and cooking in equal measure. I am sure many of you have attempted to use the "zester" side of a box grater and cursed at the amount of rind left stuck between the barbs. This method doesn't have that problem. It produces lovely long strands of lemon zest that you can either...
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Friday, 4 October 2013

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Summer Knits 5. Must there be two?

While it's definitely autumn now our Summer Knits are still progressing but I must admit I'm getting a little impatient with mine at the moment. It's an impatience that I'm sure that everyone who's ever knitted socks, gloves, mittens or a jumper can probably attest to.... I'm knitting the second sleeve! I really want to get working on the yoke, which is going to be by far the most interesting bit...
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