Living a contented creative life.

The pear blossom was lovely but it’s fading fast. The petals are scattering around the garden like confetti at a wedding.

The apple blossom will be lovely for a few more days and looking fabulous right now. Delicate pink petals, rosy buds and fresh green leaves are filling out the trees with all the promise of fruit later on.

The crab apple has beautiful, almost crimson petals. Such a show, followed by little red fruits which make a tasty jelly later in the summer.

The kale is trying its best to flower now but I keep nipping the buds off and we eat them. They are so sweet and tender that they’re good in a salad but usually I steam them over boiling potatoes, especially good when I make my easy-peasy fish cakes. Just potatoes mashed with tinned fish and browned in a little oil in the frying pan. Served with our favourite chutney or picalilli.

The vegetable growing is keeping us well fed but the ornamental parts of the garden are important to us too. Every week something new springs into bloom.

We have two potted rhododendrons. A deep pink one with big showy flowers and a mini one with pale mauve flowers. The little one is struggling a bit. Needs some tlc. I resolve to treat is with more care in future so the lovely flowers will increase.

I love colour and especially the colours of flowers. So pure and strong with a sheen on the petals and a translucency which is so pleasing. The wallflowers which I left in last year have flowered really well again and they are a mixture of pink, cream, gold and orange. Beautiful.

Just look at some of the colours in the garden at the moment.

Talking of colour, I got round, at last, to making the cushion covers for an armchair which sits with the dining table and chairs. Now they are covered with the same fabric and although I don’t always go for an overall matching look I’m very happy with the result. I made a cover for the scatter cushion from the offcuts as well. The room is more tied together now and the colours are lovely.

I sewed zips into the cushion covers so they are easy to remove for washing.

There is always plenty to do. Not often that I’m bored. Home is a creative hub where you can do what you like, when you like. Inevitably it leads to an inclination to hoard things which you think you might use for something. I can’t resist buying knitting yarn in sales for possible future projects or packs of felt, saving bits of fabric, ribbons etc. It’s really good when you have an urge to make something when the materials are there at hand. I think it stimulates your imagination.

Drawing and painting are also satisfying ways to pass time. It really doesn’t matter whether it’s technically good or bad. What matters is the enjoyment, being absorbed in a creative pursuit. Consequently, I always have paints, paper and canvases stashed away for a rainy day. Nothing worse than a creative urge which can’t be fulfilled.

I’ve started a new painting. Just at the drawing stage. I shall paint it with gouache this time on watercolour paper. I buy blocks of paper with the sheets glued together at the edges. You paint on the top one then separate it from the block with a knife around the edge when the painting is completed. I’m not keen on all that soaking, stretching and taping down involved with loose sheets. These are really good to use and again it means instant gratification because I can get on with it straight away. Perhaps I need a little more patience.

Here is a drawing I did some years ago. I often like to outline a drawing with pen to give it definition. This was drawn from a photo I took at Elvaston Castle in Derbyshire. The scene caught my eye and it was lovely to draw.

I hope you’re finding plenty to do and staying safe until life returns to some kind of normality. With you again in a few days.

The winter lettuce has finished but I’ve started on the cabbage I’ve been growing over the last few months. Sure sign that Spring is well and truly underway. I cut off a large fresh and juicy head and steamed it with diced apple and leek. It was delicious with a spoonful of soured cream and salt and pepper.

Almost used the last of the kale too. Gathered some leaves, steamed them and served them with my cashew cakes. I find it’s easier to cut kale and snip out any stems with scissors than to chop it . Red Winter is the one we prefer.

Unfortunately I made five instead of four cashew cakes so, as you can see, the pan was overcrowded and I couldn’t keep the shape. Still tasted good though. I added some chopped leek for extra flavour.

With an awareness of climate change and threats to wildlife it has become more and more obvious that it’s important to garden organically. This dawned on me about twenty years ago and now I can’t imagine using any kind of chemicals in the garden. Once the system is established everything works more in harmony. Of course, there are still slugs and insect pests but there are many ways in an organic garden to keep control. Hedgehogs and birds eat slugs and snails, ladybirds eat aphids, growing under cover prevents pests like carrot fly and a little roughness around the edges benefits insects, butterflies and bees. It’s a joy to sit and watch the many forms of life whizzing about in the garden and to know it’s all a good thing.

The fruit tree blossom is buzzing with bees and other pollinators. My favourite, the apple blossom, is just beginning to bloom. So pretty.

It’s been exceptionally dry. Lovely in many ways because flowers look so perfect when they’re not damaged by rain and wind but a big job keeping everything watered. Some small pleasures though. The lupin leaves looked like they were studded with diamonds after they’d been sprinkled.

Most of the early show has finished and there will be a short gap before the summer perennials take over. But the shrubs are lovely. The rhododendrons are opening their flowers and the berberis is a picture.

There are still a few lovely flowers in the borders too.

I had hoped to grow cranberries in the garden but sadly the plants were accidentally removed when we were doing some work. But bought cranberries are very good and I love the dried ones sweetened with fruitjuice to use in baking. I often add them to cakes and one of our favourites is my banana and cranberry loaf.

I have tried many banana loaf recipes from books and magazines but whatever I did they always seemed rubbery and disappointing. So I invented my own recipe and I was very pleased with the result. Perhaps you’d like to try it. It’s very easy. I always make two and freeze one. Not economical to use the oven heat for only one cake but, of course, you can easily halve the recipe if necessary.

Banana and Cranberry Loaf
Makes 2

4 Ripe Bananas
4 large Eggs
150g Caster Sugar
400g Self-raising Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
30g Bran
200g Sunflower Oil
1 packet dried Cranberries (Whitworths or Ocean Spray)

Whiz bananas in a food processor or mash well until smooth.
Put all other ingredients except cranberries in a bowl, add bananas. Mix well. Stir in cranberries.
Put mixture into two loaf tins.I use liners to make it
easy to turn them out.
Bake at 180C/160C fan oven for 40 minutes.

Serve sliced and spread with butter.

This has been a difficult time for all of us but the sun is shining and the moon last night was wonderful. I caught a glimpse with my camera.

I hope you have been well and kept busy doing enjoyable things. I’ll be with you again in a few days. Feel free to comment. I love to hear from you.

This is the time of year gardeners call “The Hungry Gap”. That is, the gap between last year’s crops and this year’s new ones. With a bit of management though we can spread a few things over the gap so there is always something fresh from the garden.

Last October I planted lettuces in the greenhouse, a kind called “Winter Density”. We are still enjoying them although they will soon have to make way for tomatoes. When I first started gardening many years ago I thought it was necessary to pull up a whole lettuce. Then I discovered you can pick individual leaves without damaging the centre where they grow and leave the plant to produce more. This way one crop can last for ages.

I also grew salad leaves, like the frilly ones you can buy in bags from the supermarket.

They have been really good and lasted all winter in the polytunnel. I’ve just pulled them out because they were shooting up and flowering. They will make good compost.

As the lettuce ends the cabbages are ready. These are delicious in salads. I use them more that way than cooked. We still have some kale as well. The plants are producing flower buds but these are so good to eat, either raw or steamed. I’ve used the first show of buds and left sideshoots to produce some more.

Not such a “hungry gap” after all. Good, healthy and tasty things to enjoy and plenty of other goodies coming along.

The rhubarb was tempting me. It hasn’t grown much yet and there is only a little patch but I couldn’t resist having some of those ruby red sticks for a bowl of Spring freshness.

If you don’t like that feeling on your teeth with rhubarb try my little tip. I bring it to the boil then tip the chunks into a colander and rinse with cold water. Tip them back into the pan and stew for a few minutes before adding sugar.

It doesn’t spoil the flavour but it reduces the acidity and makes it much more pleasant to eat. Nice as it is or made into a pie or crumble. Good with custard, ice-cream or greek-style yoghurt.

The other day I did a little refurbishing job I’ve meant to do for a while. We have a footrest which was filled with awful polystyrene beads. Terrible stuff which is not recyclable. I also hate them because they make an irritating noise when squashed. So I finally bought some soft stuffing, emptied out the beads and got on with the job. Here you can see the result from saggy item to springy, comfy puffiness.

Comfortable and quiet at last!

I’m knitting again

but with this lovely weather there is much to do in the garden so I’m trying to go outside as often as I can. I like to walk around when I’m not actually working in the garden. My camera is busy. Flowers are at their best when viewed close up and I try to focus on the beauty of each individual shape and colour.

The pear blossom looks lovely from an upstairs window, sillouetted against the blue sky. Close-up, the flowers are so beautiful on the tips of the branches. Creamy-white petals with a hint of pink.

The apples are only in bud yet but they are so pretty. Deep pink before they open and the most beautiful delicate pink in flower. Here’s how they look right now.

I noticed some lovely lichen in the garden. I read somewhere that lichen indicates clean air. Not sure about that but it’s pleasing to look at.

Lots to do now Spring is here. A busy time ahead in the garden but what better place to be. There are pleasing scents, birds singing, flowers glowing and good things to eat.

I hope you’re enjoying all that Spring has to offer. Stay safe while you’re out and about. With you again in a few days.

I’ve been writing my blog for 6 months now. My hope was that my experience was worth sharing and that I might encourage others to have a go at the little things which bring satisfaction and meaning to our lives. It must be obvious to anyone who reads my blog regularly that I’m very much a homebody. I enjoy being in my home, the things around me and my garden.

I suppose I’m fortunate that such things give me immense satisfaction and I don’t crave big experiences. I’ve had those when I was younger, of course. Having children, living in another country, going to university as a mature student with a family to care for and many different jobs. But even then I loved to be at home, making things, creating a garden, painting and writing.

So I hope that you have enjoyed the photos, the recipes, poems, paintings and crafts and I can continue to enjoy sharing them with you.

The weather has been very cold and shocked us all out of our belief that winter was well and truly over! It hasn’t been easy, has it? My thoughts took shape in another little poem about the ups and downs of waiting for Spring.

Waiting for Spring

Longer days and shorter nights,
Sunny spells then chilling storms,
Swaying trees or flower delights,
As the earth tremulously warms.
Spring tempts but often teases,
Lifts us up then drops us down,
As warm and gentle breezes
Turn cold and make us frown.
But nothing lasts forever,
The icy wind at last gives way,
Each gardener's endeavour
Blossoms in the month of May.




Here is a photo of lilac buds waiting to burst into flower in May.

Meanwhile the vegs are tucked up inside the greenhouse and polytunnels so every bit of sun is concentrated and makes them grow. The spring cabbages are almost ready. I grow one called “Spring Hero” which, unlike most spring cabbages, forms a ball head. We love these thinly sliced and tossed with a drizzle of ginger syrup. So delicious, especially with an egg and mayonnaise sandwich.

The spring onions are growing well now. The salad leaves are bolting, in other words sending up flower shoots to produce seed, so I must harvest the last few and make space for other seeds. The mange-tout peas are shooting up. I’m growing a different kind this year so I hope they will be good.

Outdoors the kale has stood through the winter with just a bit of a setback when we had the extreme spell of cold weather. I grow “Red Winter”, sometimes called “Red Russian”. They’ve been growing for months so now they’re beginning to flower. I shall nip the flower buds and lightly steam them. They’re really tasty, sweet and tender. A bit like broccoli but I think they’re nicer. Even good raw in a salad.

It’s satisfying when seasonal vegs come along. Later during the summer I try to preserve as many as I can. My store of picalilli is going down but I made more last year because I really enjoy it. Just got out another jar to spice up meals which need a little kick. My easy fish cake, for example. It’s actually very tasty but I love to have it with chutney or picalilli. The sweet and sour piquancy really enhances the flavour. I hope I have enough to last until late summer when I can make some more with beans, courgettes and cucumbers from the garden.

Here are some lovely things which feed the soul.

Meanwhile there is plenty to do and some of it just for fun. Knitting little toys recently, for instance. I gave my tiny knitted doll to a lovely little neighbour. Her mum says she loves it. That is so good to hear and makes the pleasure of knitting it all the better. The pattern called it “Alice in Wonderland” but I don’t think it really looks like Alice. Cute though, so what does it matter? She’s left her little friends behind and gone to a good home.

Next job is a sewing one. Making loose covers for an armchair. Got the fabric but need a couple of big zips. Will be on the case in a week or so when the mood and the opportunity are right.

I hope the weather will be kind to us all very soon. Take care, stay safe. With you again in a few days.

The weather is being very unkind. I’m not a cold weather person. I want the gentle Spring sun on my back as I work in the garden. Can’t be too long now though. Give it a week and hopefully we’ll all be basking again.

The newly opened plum blossom is lovely. We have one big old tree which only bears a few purple plums these days. The other is just a few years old and I hope it will have fruit this year. It grows my favourite Victoria plums, so sweet and flavoursome. I could eat them till I burst. Last year was its first fruiting year and I had one solitary plum! Tasted good though.

The plum blossom is pure white and flowers first. Next will be the pears but they’re not quite ready yet. The creamy white flowers will be open in a few days if we have some sun. After that we have the apples. My favourite blossom. It’s a fabulous pink, so delicate and yet so full of colour with the buds emerging with a deeper tint and petals fading later to almost white.

Meanwhile more lovely sights are appearing. The Berberis is smothered in golden flowers like mini daffodils and the snakeshead fritillaries in pinky purple and white are nodding their drooping bells.

The wallflowers are flowering again. I left last year’s in the border and although they produced lots of seed during the Summer they survived and are so pretty again. It was difficult to take good shots of them because it was so windy. One advantage of the breeze though is that the delicious scent wafts around.

Here are some other treasures making me smile.

So much pleasure in a garden. Flowers lift the spirits and feed the soul.

I was thinking again about alternative recipes. We try to cut down on meat for our health and environmental reasons but it’s too easy to fall into the trap of eating cheese all the time. So many lovely vegetarian meals depend on it but variety is important in our diet. So I try to think of ways of introducing nuts into meals. Here’s my latest nut meal idea. We really like it.

Nutty Sausages
Makes four.

50g Cashew Nuts
60g Breadcrumbs
Onion, sliced
Small amount of Parsley
A few Sage leaves
A small Apple, peeled and sliced
1 Egg
S & P
Small amount of Flour

nb. I used Spring onions because I had some to use up but a small onion will do.

Grind the nuts if you like them fine.
If you prefer texture just crush them a bit.
Remove any woody stalks from the sage and rinse.
Not too much sage or it would be overpowering.
Destalk the parsley and rinse.Pat dry on kitchen
paper.
Put bread pieces or crumbs, sliced onion,sage,
parsley,apple,egg,salt,pepper and nuts
into the food processor.
Whizz until combined.
Put flour onto a plate and have another plate
ready. With floured hands make four sausage shapes.
Put onto the clean plate and put in the fridge
for about half an hour to firm up.
Heat some oil in a frying pan, hot enough to 
sizzle the mixture. Slide the sausages
into the pan. You may need a flat spatula to 
slide them in in order to keep the shape.
Brown on all sides.
Serve with vegs and chutney or your favourite sauce. 

These would be good with green beans, broad beans or even baked beans for extra protein.

Sage, especially the purple variety, also looks lovely in a vase with some pretty flowers.

For a few hours I had more fun knitting another small toy. This time a tiny doll. I will give her to a lovely little girl I know. It’s such a pleasure watching these patterns come to life.

I’ve found plenty to do over the last few months. I know it’s been hard for many people but lockdown is gradually easing. We are having our second jabs this weekend so will feel more confident in a week or two. Meanwhile, staying safe and hoping you are too. With you again in a few days.

The Easter weather has been kind to us. Plenty of gardening and some sitting on the bench in the sun enjoying a beer. The Pulsatilla, or Pasque flower to give it it’s Easter meaning, opened its first bloom right on cue for Easter weekend.

I used to have a few of these but the plants have faded away and need replacing. Such a beautiful plant with its purple flower and silvery , soft, feathery foliage. I must replace them as soon as I can.

The Spring show is in full swing now with plenty of colour rippling across the garden. I wish the flowers didn’t have to fade and yet the fleeting nature of them makes them seem more wonderful each year. Something precious to be enjoyed to the full while we can.

The fruit trees have swelling buds. The plums are always first and are beginning to open their white flowers.

So many lovely things to see. I often paint flowers because I love the colours and the way the light plays on them. Here’s a painting of daffodils I did a few years ago. Painted with gouache.

I fancied a bit of knitting and thought I’d try my new book.

Although I don’t have any little ones of my own now to knit for I thought it would be fun to try some of the patterns for small toys. They use up odd scraps of yarn and only take a couple of hours to make. Putting them together is great fun, seeing them come to life as I sew them up and stuff them. The toys are only tiny, hand-sized and so cute.

First I tried the monkey.

The hardest part was sewing his eyes. I’ve made him a bit googly-eyed. He’s still quite cute though and feels very tactile.

Next I made Humpty Dumpty. He was lovely to knit. An interesting and easy pattern with bright colours. I did a better job on his face and he looks very cheerful.

A lovely way to spend a few hours. Very relaxing and something to show for it at the end. There are lots of nice patterns in the book which I will eventually try.

It reminds me of when our children were small and I used to make things for them. I found a little pottery mug in a junk shop when we were living in Canada. It had the figure of a boy attached and was very appealing. I bought him for a few cents because the mug had a crack. I made him into a bedside lamp for my little son. Later, when he was older, I removed the fittings and kept it as an ornament in my kitchen.

Then I had a lovely surprise. Years later, back in Britain, I went to an antiques fair and saw the same mug with a little girl attached. I was amazed. I’d never considered there would be a matching pair. They are very similar to the Hummell figures but these were made in Japan.

The seller wanted £30 which I thought was excessive. But, of course, I just had to have it so I handed over the cash and they stand in my kitchen looking very pretty.

I hope you’ve all had a very happy Easter and been able to enjoy the sun, flowers and chocolate. With you again in a few days.

My lovely daughter brought me a little posy from her garden. So pretty and so much appreciated.

Easter treats are on my mind. I was thinking I might make some hot cross buns. I could make the dough in my bread making machine and then allow them to rise before baking. I might just do that but as an alternative I also fancied making some spicy cakes. Got my thinking head on and when I ‘d invented the recipe I got baking. Very pleased with the result, so here is the recipe.

Spicy Easter Cakes

140g Raisins or Sultanas
50g Mixed Candied Peel
100ml Water
4 large Eggs
200g Caster Sugar
200g Self-raising Flour
20g Bran
2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon Dried Milk
1 teaspoon ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
half a teaspoon ground Cloves
200g Sunflower Oil

Icing Sugar

You will need a large baking tin. I use a roasting tin.

Put 100ml of boiling water into a heatproof jug and add the fruit and peel. Leave to soak while mixing other ingredients.
Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan oven.
Beat eggs and sugar. Add other dry ingredients ( except icing sugar). Add oil. Add the fruit and water. Mix well.
Spread into the greased tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until it springs back in the centre when pressed.
Allow to cool, then cut into squares. Mix icing sugar with a drop or two of water to make a spreadable but not runny icing. Ice each square.
Will freeze well, before icing.

They are light but satisfyingly textured with a sweet spiciness. Nice as they are but the icing gives them a special kick.

The garden continues to delight with flowers opening every day. Vegs are good too with some really tasty salad leaves, lettuce, carrots, leeks, kale and turnips to enjoy.

Parsley and chives are green and fresh again. So appetising and full of goodness, chopped and added to a sandwich or sprinkled over a cooked meal. The kale took a bashing during that cold spell but has revived. I harvested some, added a few sprout leaves and some leeks, to make our favourite cheesy potatoes.

The Ladybirds were out in full force with the sunshine. They seemed to be everywhere and many had obviously found mates. Butterflies were visiting the hyacinths.

The hyacinths’ scent is amazing. It wafts around the garden and sitting close to them is very pleasant, especially when we can watch the butterflies enjoying them too.

When the garden comes back to life I’m spoiled for choice when I take out my camera. There are so many lovely things to see and Summer hasn’t even started yet. Here are some little treasures I snapped this week.

I couldn’t live now without a garden. In the past we had lots of different homes, some without a garden and some with a very tiny one. This garden is our biggest. Big enough for our needs but not so big we can’t manage it now we’re getting old. It’s never perfect and weed free but it has enough beautiful flowers and delicious food to keep us very happy. The best kind of exercise in my opinion. Bending, stretching and walking about and all in the fresh air, listening to the birds and observing the natural world.

I hope you are enjoying the Spring sunshine and lovely sights. With you again soon.

The Spring flowers are bursting out now. More Daffodils, Hyacinths and Primulas. Lovely little Violets, buds on Clematis “Freda” and bright blue little Muscari. I love checking on them each day to see how the show is improving.

The sky has been beautiful too. We are lucky to have some lovely tall Silver Birches and a gorgeous flowering Cherry as a backdrop behind ours and a neighbour’s garden.

It rained this morning. The garden needed it and I love to take photos of flowers and leaves with glistening drops. Here’s a few I snapped today.

I saw a Butterfly resting on the house wall but sadly it has a very damaged wing.

Winter takes its toll on the wildlife in the garden but this may have been attacked by a bird looking for a meal. It seemed able to fly even with the damage and was flitting about among the Hyacinths.

You may remember the parsnip wine I am making. It looked very cloudy when I put it into the demijohn to ferment but now it’s clearing nicely as the yeast settles. The bubbles have subsided and soon it will be time to rack it off. That means drawing it off without disturbing the yeast at the bottom. Then it goes into a clean demijohn to finish maturing. Looks promising and I’m confident it will be a lovely golden wine for next winter, if we can resist it for that long!

This is how it looked at first and then how it is now.

So if you’re having a go, I hope by now yours is looking more like the finished product. All it takes is patience and attention to detail while you’re doing the various stages.

Talking of patience, you might recall the landscape painting I put on last time. It was one I had painted with acrylics from a photo I took on a visit to Arley Arboretum. I decided to redo this scene with gouache. A much smaller version. I’m quite pleased with the picture. I think it captures the light through the trees better than the acrylic version.

Here’s the original version painted with acrylics on a canvas board.

Spring is a wonderful time of year. I hope you have the opportunity to see the buds swelling and the fruit blossom preparing to burst out in a couple of weeks time. If you can’t, then here are some buds in my garden. The Lilac flowers just peeping out from the bud and the Pear fattening, ready for lovely blossom.

Stay safe, take care and enjoy the little things if you can. With you again in a few days.

I’ve had a lovely new book, “365 Days of Colour in the Garden”. Full of inspiring photos of beautiful plants to fill the garden with brightness all year round. That’s my aim.

I can’t wait to get stuck in and plan how I’m going to improve the seasonal displays with flowers, berries and colourful stems.

I have made a start with Winter flowers such as Hellebores, Cyclamen and Snowdrops. These have made such a difference during the drab dull days of winter when most of the plants have disappeared from view. Now I’m hungry for more ideas from my new book.

Meanwhile the Spring display is slowly developing.

I sowed some flower seeds in the greenhouse in trays and plugs. Purple Hollyhocks, Oriental Poppies in mixed colours and a few Sunflowers. It will be exciting to see what colours develop when the Poppies eventually come into flower. Oriental Poppies are so beautiful with their huge silken petals and often with dark markings on the inside near the centre. I have a deep orange one and a red one. I love all Poppies. I have the Welsh ones, Mecoconopsis cambrica, which you can see here in yellow and on the right in orange, and opium Poppies in lovely shades of pink.

Still a bit cold for most seeds and I’m not keen on cold weather either so I stayed indoors and baked. I made my date and ginger squares. You might remember them if you’ve been following my blog.

If you’d like the recipe you will find it on my previous post called “Eggshells and Sprout Tops”. Very tasty and satisfying. They make a nice pudding too with a dollop of greek yoghurt, cream or custard.

Baking on a cold day is one of my favourite things. I think most people love their kitchen even if they don’t bake. It’s the heart of the home, warm and welcoming, especially if you’re lucky enough to be able to sit in it.

Some of my treasured bits and pieces belong in the kitchen. My little Toby jugs, for example. They live on the windowsill with a few other things.

They’re a bit old, battered and perhaps a bit ugly but I just love them. I found the one with a green hat in an antique shop and the other two at bootsales. They’re only about 3 inches tall, not like the big antique Ralph Wood Tobies. Their diminutive size is part of their charm.

I’m working on a painting I’ve done before. This is the second time I’ve used the photo for reference. I took it at Arley Arboretum in Shropshire. It was Spring and the Azaleas were flowering. The light through the trees and along the path was lovely. I painted it with acrylics the first time, as you can see here.

This time I’m using gouache for a smaller painting. I enjoy using acrylics for larger paintings or to achieve a certain effect but I love using gouache for a bold crisper look to my picture. It’s basically watercolour but it has added texture to give it more definition. I will put the finished painting on my blog when I’ve done it if it’s half decent.

I hope you’re enjoying plenty of Spring flowers. With you again in a few days. Please feel free to comment. I love to hear from you.

I have finally finished my wreath of knitted leaves.

It took hours of stitching to put it together, much more than I expected. I’m quite pleased with it but now I have to find somewhere to put it. Most of the pleasure was in the making. It will eventually settle somewhere on a wall at home to remind me of the time I spent happily knitting on winter days and nights.

The garden is a bit in-between right now. The Hellebores are still pretty but the Snowdrops have finished flowering and the Crocuses are looking a bit ragged.

Most of the Hyacinths have yet to flower but there are some lovely pink ones showing off already.

A few pretty Primulas are making a show and a few more Daffodils here and there.

The other night I was thinking about the garden and how Spring is not long now. A little poem began to grow in my mind. Here it is:

Spring is Coming

Anticipation fills the air
And all around us glows
The golden light of daffodils
As Winter's dark days close.
The fattening pear tree buds
Are almost fit to burst
Yet the plum's pure white blossom
Will entertain us first.
Seeds, with all their promise,
Fulfil a vital role,
With veg to feed our bodies 
And flowers to feed our soul.
Spring days are fast approaching,
We're longing for them now,
When life seems so much better
and we blossom like the bough.

With a new growing season beginning I need to think about using my fruit in the freezer. I have some gooseberries to use up. They’re something I have a love-hate relationship with. I love to eat them but the thorns on the bushes are awful and topping and tailing them all is a miserable chore. I got rid of my gooseberries for a while but a few years ago I relented and planted some more.

The fruit is lovely when you can leave them until they’re ripe. Last year I made some gooseberry jelly and I froze some of them. So I got some out the other day and made tarts. Perhaps not to everybody’s taste but I really like them.

I’m not the neatest pastry maker when it’s just for us. I press the pastry into the tins without rolling it. No need to flour the work surface and the rolling pin. Might look a bit rough and ready but it works for me.

I was very disappointed with the pastry. I usually use my own recipe for shortcrust but I wanted some sweet pastry so I used a recipe from a cookbook. It baked very hard and wasn’t the sweet treat I expected. I shall stick to my own formula in future.

I had some juice left in the pan after cooking the gooseberries so I thickened it slightly with a little cornflour, brought it to the boil while stirring. ( When it boils it clears and loses that milky look). Then we ate it with ice-cream. Very nice.

My final thoughts on cooking today are about using stock cubes. I find them an essential ingredient in so many meals. They form the foundation for my one-pan meals, savoury puddings and soups. Because they are slightly salty it’s not usually necessary to add extra salt.

I made my own a couple of years ago but it is a big job. I dried all the ingredients such as carrots, onions etc and then ground them to a powder. I used a teaspoon or two when I needed stock. I haven’t done it since because I prefer the taste of the bought cubes.

Without a good stock, vegetables, gravies and soups are bland and uninteresting. For most things I use Kallo organic ones. They have lots of flavour, keep well and dissolve easily in water. They are perhaps a bit more expensive but I buy a few packets when they’re on special offer.

For most of my one-pan meals or savoury flans, puddings and soups I use vegetable cubes. The chicken ones are tasty for any chicken dish. For beef or lamb gravy I use Oxo. Oxo cubes have the best beefy taste and give a rich delicious gravy. I never use gravy browning. I just don’t think it has an authentic taste.

That’s all for today. I hope you have found it interesting. Stay patient and stay safe. Spring and freedom are on their way. Bye for now. With you again soon.