Winter Project Link Party

Hi! if you have just popped over from Thistlebear on the Link party. Thanks for stopping by. I have quite a few winter projects on the go at the moment.

I still can't knit and crochet for more than half an hour at a time but that does not stop me from starting things somehow.

I am currently trying to knit continental style to stop my shoulder from hurting but if I am honest all knitting hurts. However, I am enjoying trying to get to grips with this knitting style as appose to finger throwing as I do at the moment and it is marginally better. (Thanks for the pointers Mary) This yarn is called Cascade Luna and is 100% Peruvian cotton. It is lofty, soft and light - it was also half price.

I also have a crochet project hibernating. It has been in mid flow since the Summer holidays but it has fell out of season for any effort to be sent towards it. Who needs to a crochet a sleeveless poolside cover up in December? It will keep for another day.

I am also making a pair of boot tops with a sock loom to give my arm variety but it is a bit slow going and again really isn't pain free. I have a feeling I will be making a swimsuit cover up in February and boot toppers in July at this rate!

I 'accidently' started another sock yarn shawl but now the rows are getting longer I have popped it in my WIP's basket to pick up and put down depending on how bored I am.

Finally, on a more cheery note, my mum has offered to knit me something for my birthday in January of my choosing. I really wanted to make a fair isle style sweater myself this year but I know I can't do that at the moment so I have ordered the wool for her to make me one. She is a great accurate knitter so I am very excited about it.

I had lots of fun designing the colour combinations for the yoke so it still feels like I am involved in it. I made the chart nice and big on A3 so mum can see it easily and cross off as she goes.

What are you knitting or crocheting at the moment?

Jo x

Summer Harvest

We have been hitting the puddings hard of late. I am in a pleasant but constant battle to continually use our chickens eggs and home grown summer fruit. Last week we ate a pavlova and a tiramisu. This week we are eating a lemon meringue pie and home made strawberry ice-cream!

We have been picking redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries and the last of the strawberries. This week the tayberries are making an appearance and I don't even know what to do with those!

Roll on another week of hip busting desserts.

Happy Harvesting. Jo x

Weekend Smorgasboard

Today's post is a weekend smogasboard of colour and activity.

Brightly coloured allotment fayre for us to tuck into over the next week.

A little light crafting:friendship bracelets and beading.

  
We went to a local folk/arts festival at the Edge in Much Wenlock.

I was dancing there with the Severn Sisters Tribal belly dance group with my friends...I did smile for some bits of it, a skill I need to work on. My concentrating face always takes over.

We danced alongside the raucous Ironmen Morris team. Can you spot my neighbour there wearing his jacket I repaired for him? He made me my yarn bowl.

and the Severn gilders women's team. We all dance in the same spot as their musicians play live music for us at outdoor events.

There were also great activities for the children too: circus skills, storytelling, crafts, a clog dancing workshop and general running around in the sunshine.

Oh how we laughed as we watched bloke having a go on a unicycle. Thank heavens our baby making years are over, that's all I'm going to say!

So the children are yet to find out that tomorrow the mundaneness of Monday will soon be upon them when we all have to go food shopping and do an entire week of washing together. It can't all be fun!

I hope you had a colourful weekend in the sunshine.

Jo xxxxxxx

Vitamin C

We are picking fruit like crazy at the moment. The veggies are looking a bit tired, they never really go going in early summer but the strawberries just keep coming. We have picked 4 kilos Kilos in the last 2 weeks!!

I am trying not to make jam because a)I haven't got time and b)I still have a shelf full of last years jam. We just have to keep eating them - breakfast, snacks, lunchboxes and evening dessert everyday.

I also picked blackcurrants and redcurrants but I froze these ones for winter pavlovas. I cooked up the rhubarb with a drop of rosewater and froze that for crumble too. Yum!

Talking of crumble... here are my top tips:

1. Get children to do it, they make good crumble with their little fingers.

2. Always make twice the recipe. Why dirty a bowl and your hands again another day?

3. Bag up the crumble and freeze it in portions suitable for the dish you normally use. I have cooking notes in my book.

4. Use butter and leave some big chunks to go 'biscuity'

Next up to help with the fruit glut my neighbour lent me her ice cream maker - oh my it was divine.

 

 

I used 4 egg yolks so I made meringues with the whites. 

Did I say I didn't have enough time to make jam?? now I have just made all of this!Oh well at least everyone is scoffing strawberries with ease now.

Finally in my food news, my nextdoor neighbour gave us the most amazing gift to say thank you for being so understanding while they have had builders for the last 6 weeks (we share a drive you see) Flowers, wine, cheese, sun dried tomatoes, olives and crackers.

Get crumbling folks. Jo xxx

BRRRrrr!

Brutal,

bracing,

bounty,

beautiful.

Stay warm folks. I didn't last long at the allotment but I really had to prune the raspberries!

Jo xxxx

Still doing this...

and always will...it is getting less this time of year but it still keeps coming and feeding us...

It is funny because if all the things I make and do, this is the one that blows me away the most. Growing our own food and processing it ourselves will never leave me as one of the most wondrous things I do with my time.

You want to see how proud I am this season?

 Parsnips next... we'll be glad of a change from courgettes! And the next generation of gardeners? We've got that covered.

Happy Harvest Jo xxx

Busy at showtime

Thank you for all your comments on the barbie dress, I nearly didn't post it because I thought it insignificant but I'm glad it triggered such happy memories for people.

So, onto the weekend, it has been fun packed and hectic and of course involves some craft. First up was our local veg and craft show on Saturday.

My entry into the limerick competition.

The girls enjoyed making vegetable models. I mean look how happy this girl is...

Yes, you have seen it correctly, it is a poodle made out of cauliflower! She came second and was thrilled.

We won lots of certificates and the whole family entered a range of competitions.

As soon as the prize giving was over and we had collected our exhibits at 6pm we dumped the stuff at home and raced to the cabin at the farm. We didn't want to miss sleeping over this weekend with all the mild dry weather we have been having.

We celebrated our day with Bloke's second prize apple wine and the children had a fizzy 'wine' too.

Then we had to eat Bloke's second prize courgette cake.

While waiting for the fire to heat up the girls and I opened our prize money. Didn't I mention prize money? £1 for a win, 50p for 2nd and 30p for third prize. Whoooo! They thought they were rich with £2.50 each.

Sometimes you get toasted marshmallows just right...

I reminded them not to burn their lips on the hot marshmallows and as I turned around I saw them cooling them down like this - it amused me.

I left my new bookmark at the cabin as I enjoyed reading Big Sis's nature journal. She records all the wildlife she has seen every time we go to our cabin, she looks them up in the reference books we keep there. We bought her the journal for her birthday. She wanted me to cover up her picture of a frog - I loved it but she didn't.

  

So a little bit of everything: crochet, wine making, baking, learning and ultimately on Sunday afternoon after a long walk with lovely friends, some relaxing in a deck chair. 

Hope you had a great weekend whatever you got up to. 

Jo xx