Living a contented creative life.

It’s been an exciting week. The landscaping was finished and looks lovely. What a transformation. This area of the garden was covered in old crazy paving. It had sunk and was uneven and covered in moss and weeds. Now, it’s sleek, sophisticated and easy maintenance. Here’s how it looked before.

Here’s how it looks now. Photos taken in the rain. The wet stone looks really good.

I’m thrilled to bits! Can’t wait for Spring to come with fresh planting and seasonal treats.

Meanwhile, there are still pleasures to be had from this season. The leaves have been colourful. The acers were lovely for about a week and now their leaves decorate the ground in profusion.

The wind and rain have brought down the fruit tree and beech leaves. They lie in a pleasing jumble.

The sky has been wonderfully blue some days and reflected in the refurbished pond.

A few odd flowers are scattered here and there and Clematis cirrhosa has dainty buds appearing.

November already. Time to be thinking of Christmas. I’ll be baking the cake in a week or so. If you’re thinking of doing the same and need a recipe, here’s mine.

Christmas Cake
I have listed the ingredients in the order that you use them to make it as simple as possible. The brandy or rum can be mixed or one or the other used.
Line a deep cake tin with a removable base with a double layer of greaseproof paper. Line the sides first, then cover the base and push it down inside the tin to hold the side lining in place. This helps to prevent the outside of the cake from over-cooking while it's baking. Grease it lightly with a little oil.

50g Pecan Nuts
1 Orange
1 Lemon
100g Glace Cherries
2 lumps Stem Ginger
50g Candied Peel

Grind the nuts or chop very finely.
Grate the orange and lemon peel.
Finely chop the glace cherries, stem ginger and candied peel.

Heat the oven to 150C/130C fan oven.

4 large Eggs
225g Muscovado sugar
240g Self-raising Flour
225g Sultanas
225g Raisins
230g Sunflower Oil
1 rounded teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1 rounded teaspoon ground Ginger
1 level teaspoon ground Cloves
half teaspoon Mixed Spice
2 tablespoons Brandy or Rum

Put all ingredients, except the brandy or rum, into a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
Add the spirits and mix again. Smells wonderful!
Put the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for one and three-quarter hours.
Test with a skewer to see if the centre is cooked. Should come out cleanly if it's ready.
Allow to cool a little then remove from the tin but leave the paper on.
When it's completely cold, unwrap and rewrap in fresh greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin.

Cream Sherry

After a couple of weeks, pull back the top wrapping, prick the cake with a fork and gently spoon sherry over the cake. Don't over-soak it but be sure to reach the outside of the cake which will be the driest part. 
Repeat in another two or three weeks.
The sherry makes the cake moist and rich and full of Christmas flavours.
I no longer ice my cake. Too many calories and a husband who hates marzipan. It does make the cake extra-special though so you may want to do it.
Brush the top of the cake with warmed jam. Apricot jam is traditional, but any smooth jam will do. Roll out marzipan to fit the top of the cake and place it on the jammy surface.
Cover with royal icing. If you're not good at smoothing the icing, try roughing it up with a fork to resemble snowdrifts. Or use a ready-made icing.
Some festive decorations on top and a ribbon or paper band around the cake complete the picture.

My lovely daughter will be helping me to make this. She enjoys chopping the various ingredients while I organise the lining of the cake tin and find everything else. We listen to Christmas music while we do it.

I hope you enjoy making your own Christmas cake. Many of us have a favourite recipe, but if you need one, you could try mine. Let me know how it turns out if you do. I love to hear from you.

Bye for now. With you again next week.

The garden is winding down. Not much colour now except for a few tiny stray roses and the last of the asters and marigolds.

Meanwhile, the evergreens are doing their job of providing year-round colour and form. The blue-green grasses and the conifers give some structure to the fading garden and still please my eye when most things are a sorry sight.

In the veg garden, the carrots, parsnips and celeriac are providing tasty meals. These are tucked away in the polytunnels, protected from the weather. Such a pleasure to pull up some nice fat carrots or a long parsnip. I do a lot of nibbling while I’m chopping them in the kitchen. The flavour is wonderful.

Kale and sprouts are coming on outside. The kale is looking good. I grow “Red Winter”, sometimes called “Red Russian”. It’s a very good one with tender leaves which can even be eaten in a salad. I especially like them steamed over boiling potatoes. Saves fuel and then I can add the cooked leaves to my cheesey potato bake. This is simply mashed potato with added cheese, over onion and kale, and browned in the oven. I shall be doing less of these though now that electricity is so expensive. I shall be using my air fryer more. I’m thinking of dishes I can cook in it.

I tried baked apples. Wonderful. Took only about twelve minutes. I did it for fifteen but that was slightly too long so next time I shall try ten and check to see if that’s enough. I think it will be.

I cored two cooking apples and stuffed them with a tablespoon of soft brown sugar and half a teaspoon of cinnamon for each with a few sultanas. I put them in a silicone liner and cooked them on the bake setting at 180C. I allowed them to cool before eating with oat cream. Fabulous!

I didn’t take a photo because I had slightly overcooked them. The sugar had burnt a bit on the outside. Not an attractive picture but I can assure you they tasted divine.

I’m trying to use some of my frozen food because my Christmas baking will be underway next month, and I shall need the freezer space. Swiss rolls filled with cream, mince pies and cranberry sauce. I like to do these ahead of time. They all freeze well and save me from feeling frazzled at Christmas.

Fortunately, Christmas cake doesn’t need freezing. It needs to mature with a few splashes of booze to make it extra special. I prefer it reasonably fresh though, so I make it on or around my birthday in November. My daughter helps me. It’s a tradition which began when she was a teenager. We love doing it together.

For some reason I forgot to put my Christmas cake recipe in my cookbook. I’ll put it on my blog instead. I might have done it in a previous post. I’ll check. My Christmas puddings, cranberry sauce and two cream-filled roulade (Swiss roll) recipes are in my cookbook. If you’d like to pick up a copy before Christmas, you can find it on Amazon with the link below.

https://geni.us/eANQu

It’s hard to believe Christmas is only weeks away with this unseasonal weather. Sunlight is flooding the living room and highlighting my glass and pottery in the cabinet. The houseplants are thriving with the extra warmth and rays of the sun.

The light is also good for painting. I’m working on one at the moment. It’s a view of the garden, out of the window. I took a photo, then drew the image and now I’m painting it with gouache. Here’s a glimpse of the work in progress.

That’s all for this week. I hope you have your own Christmas pleasures planned out. Bye for now. With you again soon.

Another week has flown by. The weather has been mixed but a few nice days allowed a bit of gardening. So many leaves everywhere. The garden looks very untidy and a bit sad as everything fades away. So, lots of sweeping and cutting back to do.

A few lovely marigolds and pansies to enjoy now. The rosemary is flowering with its delicate blue flowers and the leaves are fragrant as we brush past on the path.

The beans have finished producing and are looking bedraggled. I removed the French bean plants, but the runner beans are still to be done.

When the bean plants have been composted, I will prepare the bed and sow broad beans to enjoy next year. I haven’t much room for these, so I grow a dwarf variety called “The Sutton”. Not very big plants but plenty of tender beans. Always best to eat any beans while they’re small. The skins on broad beans toughen as they grow so I harvest these as soon as they reach a reasonable size. Delicious with new potatoes and mint sauce. One of spring’s great pleasures.

The last few French and runner beans were very much appreciated. There is nothing quite like homegrown vegetables. A meal that you’ve grown has all the freshness, taste and healthy nutrition you could possibly want. The carrots and celeriac are delicious, and parsley grows in abundance in the polytunnel.

My husband, Allan, has relined and refilled the pond. It had been leaking for a while and after we had some hard surfacing renewed the water had become contaminated. In Spring I’ll put in a water lily and a few other plants to give some shelter for the creatures who will live in it. It’s surprising how quickly a pond becomes inhabited. Frogs, insects and water beetles find their way to it without any interference from us and the birds drink from the edges. For wildlife in the garden, a pond is the best feature.

I collected some lovely leaves from the garden to appreciate the beauty of their shapes and colours.

Fungi are still appearing here and there. They often look a bit nibbled. Perhaps mice enjoy them. I don’t know. Never caught them in the act!

The strawberries are flowering and producing little fruits. I don’t think they will ripen but the flowers are really beautiful. Far too late for these but plants are becoming confused by the changes in the climate.

We may have to wait until next Summer for strawberries, but our apples are plentiful. I made more apple and cinnamon squares. These are probably my best recipe, or at least our favourite. The sweetness of the cinnamon and sugar topping is delicious with the tang of the apple, and the crumby texture of the cake is so satisfying. They freeze perfectly so I make full use of the oven by baking plenty at each session.

There has been a lot of talk about air fryers. I was intrigued and did a little research. Apparently, they use half the electricity of a conventional oven. That matters to me as we don’t have gas and our electricity charges are terribly high. My daughter has one and is pleased with it so I thought I would buy one. The one I chose is very small but versatile. It can air fry, bake, roast or reheat. I’m really pleased with the results.

It takes just two minutes to come to temperature, then the food is added, and the timer set. It tells you when to turn the food halfway through. Salmon fillets were really good. Frozen french fries take seven minutes in mine, cooked to perfection. Pork sausages take ten minutes with a turnover half-way through cooking. Superb. It’s not just the speed, of course. It’s the fact that it uses half the electricity. Something worth considering with the cost of fuel.

But in case you think it can only do junk food, I whipped two eggs with milk and sugar, poured it over apple slices and sultanas and baked it in the airfryer for twenty-five minutes on the bake setting. It was lovely. I intend to experiment more. I’m excited by it and will probably buy a larger one later on so that I can bake cakes and larger quantities.

Autumn always seems a bit melancholy to me because I’m not fond of Winter. However, I love the changes of the season. The colours, the mists and so on inspired me to write another poem. I hope you recognise the feelings I express.

Autumn Thoughts

Silver threads hang on the hedges,
Revealing a secret spiders' world
On mornings when the mist dredges
All the land with moisture pearled.
Apples lie beneath the trees,
A blackbirds' generous feast,
And heady scents our noses tease
Of leaves and earth and fruity yeast.
Mushrooms add a mystic mood
To a time of pleasurable decay,
When the body has ample food
And the soul is satisfied in every way.
Despite regret that Summer's ended,
Our senses give us every reason
To never be offended
By the gentle melancholy of the season.

I hope you enjoy autumn and find pleasure in the ending of the year.

With you again soon. Bye for now.

Halfway through October with misty mornings and sunlit days. Leaves drop and drift around the garden and collect here and there in damp, scenty, heaps.

The acers are changing colour in a lovely way but usually hang on to the leaves until next month, when they shed them suddenly. The fruit trees are losing theirs much more rapidly and covering the ground beneath.

Still some pleasing green leaves, here and there, especially the silver-leaved brunnera and the patterns on the cyclamen hederifolium are a pleasure to see. Hederifolium means “ivy-leaved”. This is because the shape resembles those of ivy. The patterns on them are really lovely.

Asters, known as michaelmas daisies, are a beautiful feature of the Autumn garden. They are one of my favourite plants with their lovely shades of mauve. Sadly, this year, they suffered in the drought and their leaves are not at their best. The flowers are still a pleasing sight though. I brought some in for an arrangement in a pretty pottery basket given to me by my lovely daughter.

They make me smile each time I look at them.

When I went into the garden a few days ago I was delighted to spot a beautiful pansy. I hadn’t planted it. It had sprung up from a stray seed dropped by the birds or blown there by the breeze. Absolutely lovely, with its combination of colours and perfect shape. Like a pretty little watercolour painting.

Not many flowers now. Summer perennials are fading fast and no longer producing flowers. Just a few strays pop up now and then, like this lovely campanula.

I bought more pansies. Planted most. Still a few to put in.

The robin joined me while I was planting some in pots. Hopping from pot to pot, he investigated thoroughly.

What a pleasure it is to see these beautiful little creatures so close. I even hear a little song as he perches and watches my movements. Such fearless and delightful garden companions. One of life’s simple, yet satisfying , experiences.

I’ve planted my onions to grow outdoors over Winter. Last year I bought plants and had a nice small crop, so this time I intend to increase my yield. I bought seeds and started them in my own compost in the greenhouse. The onions are called “Toughball”, but this name refers to their hardiness while growing in the coldest months not their eating qualities. They’re deliciously sweet and tender when cooked.

I’ve sown “Arctic King” lettuces to grow in the greenhouse bed when the tomatoes come out. I still have a few tomatoes on the plants so I shall leave them until heavy frost sets in. The seedlings will be ready to transplant by then. The lettuces will grow slowly until the days lengthen in February, then they’ll put on a spurt. Meanwhile, I can take a few little leaves now and then to have with a sandwich.

I make my seed compost from mature home-made compost and well-rotted leafmould. Roughly equal quantities mixed together. I keep a supply in a bin in the greenhouse ready for sowing. Works well, although I do find a few weeds pop up. Not a problem once you’re experienced enough to identify the different seedlings. I just pull out the weeds.

Time to be thinking about indoor jobs like Christmas gifts and baking. I usually make some gifts and I always bake a Christmas cake. Need to put my thinking head on and summon up some creativity.

Last year I knitted novelty cat cushions for my daughter and daughter-in-law. They were fun to do and were received with pleasure.

I hope I can rise to the task this year. I would like to reduce the amount of plastic in my gifts. There is so much useless and polluting packaging. That’s another reason why I try to make some. I usually bake my daughter’s favourite fruit cake and my daughter-in-law’s favourite pecan pie, along with preserves, in a food hamper for them. These things don’t take any more time than Christmas shopping and for me that’s a bonus. Knitting and sewing are pleasures for the long dark nights and it’s fun to see the items coming to life.

Haven’t done much painting recently but the urge is building. Here’s a very old one I drew and outlined with pen before filling in the colour with gouache paint.

I hope you have plenty to keep you pleasantly occupied. With you again soon. Bye for now.

I missed writing my blog last week and yet the time has flashed by. So here I am again with all the latest.

Lovely autumn days, which are sometimes wet and windy, fresh mornings and early nights, are upon us. The garden is full of changing leaves, seedheads and berries. The asters are just beginning their show of purple shades while the rudbeckias are still a blaze of golden glory.

A few hangers-on are giving me a glimpse of pretty colours.

The fungi have been fascinating. First, smooth white forms, later flaring out to give a canopy over the stems. Fading now to dullness among the scattered leaves.

The glowing colours of autumn are developing by the day. Some leaves enhance the plants and others fall on the ground in a pleasing bundle. Here are some which caught my eye.

We have a very friendly robin this year. He’s following us everywhere. He even goes inside the shed to see what’s going on. I managed to capture his beauty as he posed obligingly on a post next to where I was working.

We even had a heron visiting. Sadly, for the heron, our pond is just an empty hole right now. It’s a project waiting to be tackled. At least we could rest assured that our frogs were safely tucked away under stones around the garden. The bird was a magnificent sight, standing on top of our woodstore as we ate breakfast and watched through the kitchen window. I couldn’t take a photo through the wet glass but here’s one I caught a few years ago from an upstairs window. I was lucky that day.

The plums are ripe and falling from the tree. Allan gathered as many as he could reach. I froze some and made a plum pie with the rest.

They are sweet and delicious raw. I also like them cooked but they do become piquant and need an awful lot of sugar. Not really healthy but a tasty treat even so. I put breadcrumbs underneath the fruit in the pastry case to soak up the juice. A nice idea passed on from my lovely sister.

I’m making some parsnip wine. A warming winter drink and easy to do. Although I have parsnips in the garden, mine need a lot of cleaning up which is very tiring when you need two kilos of them. I prefer to buy the supermarket ones for this because they’ve had a preliminary wash. I only need to give them a light scrub and top and tail them before chopping and cooking.

It’s been fermenting in the wine tub for just over a week. Now it needs a further period of time in a demijohn with an airlock to release the gas. A very pleasing process watching it bubble away. It looks very cloudy at this stage, but it will clear beautifully as it matures. No chemicals used. If you do it properly, they’re unnecessary.

The cooked parsnips don’t go to waste. When I’ve strained off the juice for the wine, I cool them and freeze in small tubs. Great for adding to winter soups or casseroles.

The recipe for my parsnip wine, with step-by-step instructions, is in my Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook. Find it with this link. https://geni.us/eANQu

Looking ahead, I’ve planted next year’s garlic in the polytunnel. Best put in around now because it needs a cold spell to stimulate it into growth. Fingers crossed that the dreaded allium leaf miner won’t find it in a few month’s time and wipe it out like my leeks. Gardening is always a bit of a gamble, but the rewards outweigh the problems.

Still some jobs to do in the garden before Winter. I hope you’re finding your own way of keeping busy and enjoying what the season has to offer.

Bye for now. With you again soon.

That Autumn feeling is in the air. The scent of golden leaves underfoot and a certain change in atmosphere. So difficult to describe, yet a sensation we all know so well.

From September onwards, the perfume of apples greets me when I fetch garden tools from the shed. Now and then a ripe, juicy plum will drop from the tree. If it’s undamaged I bring it in and enjoy the combination of sweet and sharp tastes. Will have to harvest soon and freeze them for jam. Especially good with apple. A pleasant job on a cold wintry day.

At this time of year fungi pop up around the garden. I love it. They’re so fascinating. Only white ones so far but sometimes I find something a bit more surprising. I’m keeping a look out.

The last photo shows a nibbled one. Probably a mouse has gnawed the surface by the look of the marks.

The colours are deepening on some leaves which helps to make up for the lack of flowers.

We visited our local nursery and brought home a boot load of lovely plants. Winter pansies, cyclamen hederifolium, dianthus, tiny campanula and a gorgeous hydrangea.

A little friend has been joining us around the garden. Too elusive to take a good photo but here’s a glimpse.

Runner beans are still producing. If I find swollen ones I just remove the fat seeds and cook those instead of the stringy pods. Just as delicious. Their lovely rosy colour is lost, unfortunately, when they’re cooked but they taste good.

The seeds inside are kidney beans and they’re nutritious. Simply remove them from the pods and cook them for at least ten minutes. The discarded pods will make excellent compost.

I keep thinking the cucumbers have finished and then I find some huge ones hidden by the leaves. So, I’ve been pickling again. Mixed with sliced onions they have a good flavour. Can’t have too many pickles, in my opinion!

As I promised last week, I have a new recipe for you. Using seasonal cooking apples again but this time I thought I would mix them with walnuts. A really nice combination and easy to make.

Apple and Walnut Squares

500g Cooking apples
200g Brown Sugar
4 large Eggs
225g Self-raising Flour
2 rounded teaspoons Baking Powder
25g Bran
200g Sunflower Oil
75g Walnuts

Grease a large baking tin or roaster,30x25cm (12x10 inches).
Half fill a bowl with salted water (roughly 1 tablespoon salt to 500ml water).
Peel, core and quarter the apples and place in the salted water until needed.
Break the walnuts into pieces and set aside.
Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan oven.
Put the sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, bran and oil into a mixing bowl. Beat well, then add walnut pieces and mix again.
Drain the apples. No need to rinse. Chop them into small chunks.
Add the apples to the mixture and mix in.
Spread in the baking tin and bake for 30 minutes.
Allow to cool, then cut into squares. Lift out with a cake spatula.
These are even better when a day or two old. Freeze well.
Make a good pudding, warm or cold.

A lovely way to spend an hour on a rainy day, with a tasty reward later. One of life’s great pleasures. A warm, fragrant kitchen, the satisfaction of doing something creative and a delicious cake to eat when you relax.

I hope you’re finding your own pleasures. Enjoy all that the season offers. I’ll be with you again soon, but I’ve decided to do another post a bit later because I don’t want my readers to be tired of my blog. I still love doing it but I know we all have busy lives and sometimes things can lose their appeal. So, I will be with you again in a couple of weeks. Bye for now.

Our Queen has been laid to rest in a moving ceremony. Time perhaps for us all to move on and think positive thoughts about our own lives. Time to appreciate those things which really matter.

Regular readers will know how much I value my home comforts, creative pastimes and self-sufficiency. As Winter approaches once again, we need these things even more.

Because the weather is cooling, I’ve gathered in my small crop of squashes. I grow a type called “Buttercup”. They have sweet orange flesh which is lovely roasted with a drizzle of olive oil.

The cucumber plants are showing signs they’re missing the warmth as much as I am. I was surprised, though, to find three fat cucumbers hiding beneath the leaves. I thought I might pickle them with onion slices in cider vinegar. The seeds might need removing because they will be mature and chewy, but the flesh will still be very good.

These outdoor cucumbers have been generous. Their knobbly, bitter skin protects delicious, juicy flesh. They need to be peeled, then they’re very tasty.

The cooking apples are always abundant. The shed is full of stored ones to last through Winter (providing the mice don’t find a way in) and the windfalls which drop from the highest branches of the tree are making delicious cakes.

I have invented another cake recipe for apples and walnuts. I will share it soon as it’s easy and scrumptious. I baked the mixture with a little wheat bran and brown sugar to give a crumbly texture and complimentary sweetness.

I have some basil plants just about hanging on in the greenhouse, so I made my nutty sausages which include herbs. I vary the herbs according to what I have available. Parsley is good because I have it all year, but basil is my favourite for these. A simple vegetarian meal and very tasty.

My recipe is in Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook, available with Amazon. Just click this link: https://geni.us/eANQu

My colchicums, known as “Autumn Crocus “, are so pretty. I love their fabulous pink colour. Under the trees they stretch too much as they struggle towards the light and then flop over. The ones opposite the kitchen window are better. They have lovely double petals. These are called “Water Lily ” for their resemblance to those flowers. They stand up well because they’re receiving plenty of light. They’ve given me a week of pleasure already. Here are some photos of them.

The garden is disappointing this year, but a few pretty flowers pop up here and there.

Seasonal colours and fruitfulness are developing every day.

I brought in a selection of seed heads, grasses, berries and flowers to fill a jug with the beauty of this month. It’s so nice to see these close up in the house for a few days.

Although roses and dainty flowers look perfect in cut glass or a pretty pottery vase, a jug looks so right for simple flowers like daisies. With this kind of arrangement, the width of the jug allows for the bulkiness of all the stems as well.

With you again next week with my new recipe for apple and walnut squares. Meantime, enjoy the changing season. Bye for now.

It’s been a week of great sadness and yet, also, a time of hope and renewal. The death of our Queen shook the nation but the ascension of King Charles offers hope and continuity in a time of turbulence and trouble.

At times of social upheaval, we take comfort in the familiar things in our lives. For me, like most people, first and foremost my family but then my home and garden. My home represents not only shelter but a sense of stability where our belongings are treasured and kept as long as possible. My garden provides renewal where each new year brings new life, change, and optimism.

Although the year is fading gradually, there’s so much going on. The welcome rainfall has revived many things and stimulated others.

I thought the runner beans had given up but suddenly their scarlet flowers are blooming again and delicious pods are growing. The purple beans are growing well too. Their lovely purple flowers giving way to tiny green beans which darken to almost black as they grow to maturity.

The strawberries finished fruiting weeks ago but a few snow-white blossoms have popped up here and there. Probably won’t amount to much but there just might be the odd berry to savour.

Even my clematis “Freda” has a spray of new flowers. Never known that to happen to it before at this time of year.

Sadly my leeks seem to be dying. A few weeks ago, I found they’d been attacked by allium leaf miner. I tried an experiment. I cut them down to a few centimetres from the ground and they seemed to thrive. The leaves grew back and they looked promising. However, this week they’ve flopped and the leaves are withering. It looks like we will be without leeks this winter. Gardening is always a gamble. When it works it’s wonderful but sometimes, despite, best efforts, it just goes wrong.

There are always pleasures in a garden though. I caught a few snaps of flowers and leaves dripping from the refreshing showers. Here are some of them.

Under the trees, despite the dryness of the soil, pretty little cyclamen are appearing.

The apples keep coming. I’ve given some away and baked cakes, made chutney and this week I’ve made mincemeat for Christmas. It has time to mature. In December we like a warm mince pie with a glass of sherry on a cold afternoon.

As with all preserves, scrupulous cleanliness is essential to prevent moulds developing. The jars should be washed and rinsed carefully and placed in the oven. The oven needs to be switched to a low heat and the jars allowed to dry. Lids should be carefully dried with kitchen paper and kept clean until the jars are filled.

There are lots of recipes for mincemeat. Here’s mine.

MINCEMEAT

240g / approx. 8ozs Vegetarian Suet

340g/12ozs Raisins

340g/12ozs Sultanas

225g/ 8ozs Cooking Apples (peeled and cored)

225g / 8ozs Brown Sugar

115g/4oz Candied Peel

1 Lemon

1 teaspoon Salt

1teaspoon ground Cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground Cloves

1 teaspoon ground Ginger

2 tablespoons Brandy or Rum

The amount and type of spices can be varied to suit your own taste, eg. nutmeg or mixed spice.

Mince the apples, raisins, sultanas and candied peel. I mince them with an electric mincer/juicer but a hand mincer works well if you have one.

Add the suet, spices, salt and sugar.

Grate and then juice the lemon, sieving out any pips. Add the zest and juice to the other ingredients.

Add the brandy or rum ( you can add a little more or mix the spirits).

Stir thoroughly and cover. Leave for a few hours or overnight to allow the fruit to absorb some of the juice and brandy or rum.

Stir well again and put into clean sterilised jars and store in a cool dry place.

Usually keeps for 2 years and improves with keeping.

I usually add a little more brandy when I open a jar to make mince pies and stir it in carefully with a fork.

If you have a mincer, this is so easy to make. It doesn’t have the sharpness of bought mincemeat, which for me is an improvement. The spirits in it give it a delicious flavour and depth and it needs no preservative. Alcohol and sugar ensure it keeps well for over a year.

I have a new recipe buzzing around in my head. It will use more of the apples and I intend to add walnuts. Not tried it yet but might bake it this week. Been working out the quantities and I shall use one of my favourite ingredients, wheat bran. For fruit cakes, it gives a lovely crumbly texture and soaks up the juices.

With food in mind, here’s an old painting of a homemade loaf of bread ready for some butter and marmalade. I painted this with gouache.

I hope you find some lovely and satisfying Autumn jobs of your own to do and enjoy the coming season. Bye for now. With you again next week.

September, the beginning of the season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness”. A little change in the air, cooler nights and a bounty of good things to eat.

Some of the apples and pears have been gathered in. Some are high in the trees and will need a bit of effort to reach them. Plums are almost ready but need a while longer to plump up their sweet juiciness. A few have fallen but they’re not ready yet. Blackberries are glistening in a hedge and scarlet berries are everywhere.

Someone kindly asked for my apple and cinnamon squares recipe so I gave her some of our delicious windfall apples. Although they bruise when they fall they’re too good to waste. Lots of juicy flesh left once the bruising has been cut away. Sliced into salted water, they keep their colour until they’re added to the recipe. I’ve been gathering them up to make my cakes and next week I hope to do this year’s mincemeat.

Meanwhile, there’s much to do in the garden. Clearing up after the fence was installed, cutting back dead stems and watering thirsty plants, to name just a few. Some late flowers have appeared and others are flowering again. Here’s a selection.

The marigolds have been a cheerful sight all Summer and are full of seedheads. The seeds will drop and provide next year’s flowers. Always welcome in my garden.

The beautiful and delicate colchicums, known as “Autumn Crocus” are appearing beneath the trees and opposite the kitchen window. I love their fragility, but unfortunately, their slender stems do flop. I need to grow something for them to stand among so the stems are supported. Wonderful though.

I managed to capture them looking lovely in a shaft of evening sunlight.

Still lots of feathers about but they look so appealing that I’m forever snapping them with my camera.

The little green shield bug is still on the peas. Not sure what he’s doing there. I hope it’s nothing naughty.

I’ve had plenty of cucumbers so I pickled some more this week. It’s good to see the winter preserves stashed away for later. It’s very easy to do and it saves having to eat cucumbers every day while they’re fresh. I love pickles, so it’s a bonus for me.

I have some tiny “Toughball” onions and spring cabbages coming along in the greenhouse. When they’re big enough I shall plant them. The onions will go outside to grow slowly over winter and the cabbages in the polytunnel. Despite the name, the onions are sweet and tender. They cook to a transparent softness and have a lovely flavour. Spring cabbages can be grown outdoors but I find they’re earlier and nicer when they’re grown under cover. These have a ball head, not the loose leaf kind, so they’re delicious shredded raw or cooked in a steamer.

With so much going on I’ve been making the most of my one-pan meals. So simple after a busy day, nourishing and full of flavour. Recently I’ve been stirring in a spoonful of soured cream to the reduced stock at the end of the cooking. With rice, or potatoes, and vegs it makes a delicious sauce and yet it’s so easy to do. Creme fraiche is just as good.

Essential for my one-pan meals is a good stock cube. I use an organic vegetable one in a small amount of water as a savoury base in which to cook potatoes or rice with vegetables and fish. I use a chicken stock cube when I cook chicken or turkey.

The vegs partly steam so all the flavour goes into the stock and retains the vitamins. Frozen fish fillets cook on top of the vegetables. So simple and convenient.

Ideas for my one-pan meals are in my Earthy Homemaker’s Cookbook. If you’d like them, you will find them by clicking this link:

https://geni.us/eANQu

Also contains lots of my recipes for cakes and other tasty treats.

If you try my recipes I would love to know how you go on. I’ve had some very positive feedback so far and it’s really heart-warming to know that others enjoy them.

To finish off this week, here’s a photo of a favourite little tile. I bought it from Jackfield Tile Museum in Shropshire. Sunflowers are always lovely and the glossy brightness of these is so cheerful.

With you again next week. I hope you’re enjoying treats and satisfying activities as the Summer comes to an end. Bye for now.

It’s been a week of mixed fortunes.

Lovely warm days, some rain to revive the plants and the gardeners, a new fence and the excitement of planning for a flower border. On the downside, the garden is full of wasps around the fruit and my husband had a very unpleasant sting with an allergic reaction. I’m usually very relaxed about garden insects but it’s made me a bit jittery.

We have had an ugly and useless privet hedge replaced by a fence. So now I will have a border in which to plant lovely flowers. Also underneath the adjoining soil is an old path which will run alongside. This was hidden by the overhanging hedge. Much uncovering to do yet but here’s a glimpse.

You can see in the last photo how far the hedge spread on our side. The fence is paler where it had been covered by it. The potted shrub was standing in the corner and hasn’t been moved. You can see the area that was taken up by the privet. It’s given us a lot more useable space.

Another small problem this week has been the killing of birds by a neighbourhood cat! The garden and the drive have been covered with feathers. Natural, I know, but sad too. We love to see the birds enjoying all our garden has to offer so we don’t like to think we’re putting them in harm’s way.

Already the garden is hinting that Autumn is close on Summer’s heels. Leaves under the fruit trees are crisp underfoot and cyclamen are popping up through the dry soil.

The asters are beginning to flower and although the Japanese anemones have fewer blooms this year they’re still a pretty sight.

My red salvia has continued to thrive in our dry soil for about three years and is still putting on a bright show. Red seems to be the colour at the moment, with pelargoniums, red haws on the hawthorn trees, tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse and other berries swelling with juicy ripeness.

I pulled up the first of this year’s parsnips and had to laugh at the length of the root. Took a photo with my veg trug to give the scale.

The purple climbing beans are just developing their pods. The lovely flowers are nice too.

Green pods when they’re tiny, colouring to a deep purple when they mature. They turn green when they’re cooked. The colour of the pods on the plant is not just striking, it’s also easy to see them among the green leaves. Less likely to miss them hiding among the foliage. I will freeze some if the crop is good.

Although I never want Winter to arrive it’s time to think ahead. With energy prices rising and threats of power cuts we needed to restock our wood supplies. We only have electricity so we value our log stove to give extra warmth and back up. Our logs were delivered and are stacked in the wood store now. A pleasing sight.

This year we decided to try some long-burning compressed wood-fuel briquettes . Naturally we haven’t tried them yet as it’s very warm. Fingers crossed that they were a wise investment. They’re ready and waiting.

The apples are as abundant as ever this year although they’re a bit smaller. I made more apple and cinnamon squares for the freezer. While they were still warm we had them as a pudding with greek yoghurt. A taste sensation.

Here’s a poem I wrote last year but its still relevant as the air stirs up our feelings at the end of the season.

Changing Seasons

The fragrance of the damp earth 
Mingles with each fallen leaf 
And lavender wafts its sweet scent
Now Summer's days are brief. 
The wasps are feasting on the fruit 
Which drops upon the ground 
And butterflies with their dainty tongues
Sip without a sound. 
Toadstools, mushrooms, instantly appear 
Spontaneously in the night,
Their ever fascinating forms
A strange but pleasing sight. 
Blackberries glisten in the hedge. 
Despite their ripping thorns 
They're gathered eagerly and eaten
As early Autumn dawns. 
Each season has its pleasures 
And Summer's soon will end 
But another one will take its place 
And our melancholy mend.

The sky has been magnificent this week. Azure blue with cotton-wool clouds. Framing the tops of the trees beautifully and silhouetting our neighbours’ Chusan palm.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Summer and are looking forward to the more mellow days of Autumn. With you again next week. Bye for now.