Living a contented creative life.

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.

The daffodils are opening their cheerful glowing flowers. Even on a cloudy day they look as though the sun is on them. I brought in a few for a vase so I could feast my eyes on them indoors as well as out.

These are tiny ones, probably Tete-a-tete, although they have only single flowers now instead of twins. I’ve had them in pots for a few years and they always flower.

The garden is waiting for its next flush of colour. The hyacinths are pushing up but not quite there. There are two clumps of Corydalis under the fruit trees which look pretty now and will look even better when the Muscari open their lovely, tiny blue flowers. The perennial wallflower, Erysimum, has one lovely mauve flower and lots of promising buds.

We’ve found holes in some of the borders. I’m hoping it’s not a badger. We had one a few years ago. At first I was thrilled to see it. I sat and watched each night as it turned up and approached the house, completely undaunted by the outside light I’d switched on. The thrill soon wore off as it ripped the garden apart! It dug deep holes in its search for worms and destroyed entire plants.

After a few weeks it stopped, much to my relief, but I think the badger might have been killed on the road. We saw a dead badger nearby and we never had a visit afterwards so we assumed it was the one that had been visiting our garden.

I’m always pleased that I planted some shrubs in the garden. Some are evergreen and give a lovely show at any time of the year. Others have lovely leaves and spring blossom. More pictures of those when the time comes. Some have beautiful berries.

I’ve been sewing together my wreath of knitted leaves. Taking me longer than I expected but I’m getting there. I found I needed three more leaves so I knitted those last night.

I bought a metal ring, then stitched a cover of bias binding over it. I stuffed the bias binding to make a base for attaching the leaves. Not easy! I pushed the stuffing in with the blunt points of my scissors and a knitting needle. Then I marked four points with thread to keep my bearings when stitching. Next I began to stitch on the leaves.

Here are some photos of progress so far.

I bought a set of little reels of thread in assorted colours. So glad I did because I have all the shades I need to invisibly stitch the leaves. I don’t like messy stitching.

After hours of stitching I needed to think about cooking. I had some cooked chicken thighs to use up so I did one of our favourite one-pan meals.

Chicken with Ginger and Rice

Cooked Chicken 
Chicken stock cube
Garlic, crushed
Carrots
Frozen Green Beans
Frozen Rice
Stem Ginger
Soured Cream
Prepare and slice carrots. Crush garlic. Cut
chicken into pieces. Chop ginger.
Put a small amount of water into a lidded frying pan.
Add stock cube. (I used half for two of us but you 
might need more). Add the crushed garlic.
Bring to boil, stir and add sliced carrots,
frozen beans,frozen rice, chicken and ginger.
Bring to boil, then turn down heat and cook
with the lid on for 15 minutes or until vegs
are tender. You need only a small amount
of water but enough not to burn.
Remove from heat and stir in a couple of
spoonfuls of soured cream. Then serve.

I can't be precise about amounts because it
depends on how many you're cooking for. It's
not critical because it works well however you 
put it together.
Quick, easy and delicious.
I use microwave rice but I just tip the frozen
rice into the pan. It's brilliant rice and
makes this type of dish so easy to do. 

I find one-pan meals are not only easy to do, save a lot of washing up and are economical on fuel but they are much tastier because the flavours are enhanced by the cooking process. Plus I’m sure they retain more vitamins because the cooking water is limited and not poured away down the sink.

I’m hoping for some sunny days in the garden again soon but meanwhile I have another project to do. When I covered the dining chairs I liked the fabric so much that I ordered more to cover an armchair which sits in the same room. It has loose cushions so it’s a fairly easy job. I’ve covered these cushions many times over the years. So that will keep me occupied until the sun tempts me out.

Please feel free to comment. I love to hear from you. Keep crafting, gardening and cooking and stay safe and well. With you again in a few days.

I’ve been cutting down the autumn raspberries and weeding the bed. Where did all those weeds come from? So many have grown since I harvested the last of the raspberries many weeks ago.

I grow the autumn raspberries now instead of summer ones. So much easier. None of that tying in new canes each year. I just need to cut back last year’s canes in February or early March and they will grow up again and fruit around October. Another good thing about them is they avoid the raspberry beetle’s season when they lay eggs which produce little white grubs in the fruit.

The early crocuses were closed today but when the sun warms them they show their lovely insides.

I keep a garden diary. It’s just a plain day-to-a-page one which gives me enough space to record my activities and the weather. I’m not out every day, I don’t enjoy cold weather, but when I do I like to note down what I did and how things are coming along in the garden.

It’s a really useful reminder of what I’ve sown, and when, and the progress, successes or failures of the plants. I make a note of anything I’ve harvested for a meal or preserving. I also like to jot down any special sightings of birds, butterflies and other insects. On nights when I can’t sleep (very often!) I love reading last year’s diary to see how it compares.

The last couple of days I’ve been busy indoors. I bought some beautiful fabric to re-cover the dining chair seats. The old covers I put on many years ago. Although they weren’t too bad they were mismatched and I’d done a rough and ready job of them with some fabric samples.

I ordered online from a local firm so I was excited when the fabric arrived and was even nicer than I expected.

I removed the old covers and pulled out the staples and tacks. Then I measured up and chose a section of pattern to centre on the seat. I made a better job this time of attaching the fabric and they now look lovely.

Ridiculous as it may seem we only have three of these chairs! We bought them for a £1 in an auction years ago when we’d just returned from abroad and were setting up home again. The chalk marks you can see under the seats were the auction lot numbers. We love them and don’t want to replace them. I”ve looked for all these years for another or even three to complete the set but never found the right ones. That is, until last week when I spotted two on eBay. They were a perfect match and in good condition. Sadly when I enquired about them they’d gone! So disappointed. So if you have one exactly like these, by any chance, that you’d like to get rid of please pipe up.

Although we’re all tired of lockdown and this awful virus it’s vital that we’re patient and continue to be cautious. The last thing we want is for it all to start up again and lockdown enforced yet again.

I miss the local plant nursery the most. We’re really lucky to have one close by. It has the most wonderful plants and their prices are unbeatable. I’m usually there every few weeks indulging my passion for anything pretty to fill a space, even if I have to find space, in the garden. As soon as I feel it’s safe I shall be there making up for lost time.

Meanwhile I keep myself occupied at home and enjoy little things that are not perhaps the most obvious ones but give me pleasure when I look at them in the right way. Have you noticed, for example, how lovely an orange is? It’s lovely colour, aroma and the beauty of the juicy inside.

How the sun lights up a room and makes the colours glow?

Little pleasures like these cost nothing and lift the spirits. I hope you are all enjoying these small things while confined to home. Stay safe. With you again in a few days.

We had some glorious warm days so I managed to be busy in the garden. I needed space in the polytunnels for new seeds so I’ve been clearing out old crops. There were some nice carrots in two separate areas so I removed the older lot and stored them. I put them in a bucket with some dry soil over them to keep them from drying out.

I still have some in another bed. I can never remember the variety I’ve grown but it will be recorded in my gardening diary.

I fed the spring cabbages with some fish, blood and bone to spur them on. This month they begin to grow with the extra sunlight from longer days. I grow Spring Hero which I think is the only spring cabbage to form a head. By April they will have formed lovely ball heads which will make tasty salads or a steamed veg.

I sowed celeriac, spring onions, parsnips, mangetout peas and kohl rabi. All these are under cover in the polytunnel where they will grow well and be protected from pests. The garlic is coming along and has been mulched to keep the moisture in.

I wandered around the garden with my camera and spotted several Ladybirds clustered in a sage leaf basking in the sunshine.

The hellebores have been fabulous. I have lots of different ones but don’t know their names. The labels have all faded and my memory is poor. If you look at the individual flowers you will see the differences. Their centres, petal formations and colour have distinctive features.

I bought a nice pot of basil from the supermarket. These are as good as homegrown and with a little care will keep going for a while. I give it a dribble of tea most days. It seems to like that.

I made one of our favourite salads with it. Now, I believed this to be my own invention but when I put it on Facebook someone said it was a classic Italian recipe! So perhaps I’d seen it somewhere and the idea was planted in my mind. Whatever the reason for this, it’s a delicious salad.

I put a little olive oil in a dish with salt and pepper and a bit of crushed garlic ( not enough to overpower the other flavours). Cut some bread into cubes and put them into the dish, then I tossed them thoroughly to coat the bread with the oil. I added sliced tomatoes, black olives and torn basil leaves and mixed well.

It’s a really good way of using dry bread. I find a white bloomer loaf works well. It has the right taste and texture. Serve with grated cheese. A good organic cheddar is excellent.

No need for Italian cheeses. They are very tasty but we have some really good ones in Britain. Cheddar is good for grating, especially with the salad I made. Lancashire is excellent for toasting and our blue cheeses like Stilton and Shropshire blue are fabulous.

I’m waiting for a metal hoop to be delivered so that I can make my wreath from the leaves I knitted over the winter. I’m itching to get it done. I think I will cover the hoop with bias binding and stuff it slightly then stitch the leaves, acorns and berries to it.

Meanwhile, I’m painting an acrylic picture. Bit of a challenge but I’m determined to do it. I mostly paint with gouache. People often ask me what that is. It’s a more opaque form of watercolour. It gives a much bolder look to the painting which I prefer. I’m not much for watery paintings although some do have an appeal. To give you an idea of what I mean here is an early painting I did of water lilies.

Enjoying Grayson’s Art Club on channel 4. Very stimulating. If you haven’t seen it, give it a try. The variety of styles and talent is fascinating and it’s not all sophisticated. Anybody can have a go. Art doesn’t have to be professional and accomplished to please.

I hope you are finding lots of enjoyable things to do. With you again in a few days.

A lot of activity in the garden now. The frogs have appeared at last in the pond and the first lot of spawn appeared yesterday. They are late this year.

It was good to hear them croaking and splashing about. We have a lot of duckweed, as you can see, but it never seems to trouble the frogs. In fact, it hides them from the eyes of passing Herons who are always on the lookout for a meal.

I saw several insects about. A Shield Bug was on a sage leaf in the sun, Ladybirds were wandering around and a lovely Bumble Bee was feasting on Crocus nectar.

The Broad Beans are just peeping out of the seed compost in the greenhouse. So relieved they made it after the big freeze.

It was time to move the wine on to the next stage. I sterilised a funnel, a straining bag, an airlock and bung and a demijohn. These all needed thoroughly rinsing before using. Don’t want any steriliser in the wine. I gave the wine a stir, then tipped the contents of the wine bucket gently into the demijohn using the funnel and straining bag.

I filled it almost to the neck. It was time to insert the bung with an airlock attached. I use the small airlocks, not the fancy curly ones but they seem to work well. I wiped the neck of the demijohn and the bung, put a little water into the airlock then pushed the bung in to seal out the air but allow the fermenting gas to escape.

It looks completely cloudy at this stage but will eventually be crystal clear and look perfect. It has to stand now for several weeks to ferment. When all the bubbles have stopped it can be siphoned off the yeast into a clean demijohn to mature for a while before bottling.

I wish I could show you the bubbles coming up. It is a lovely thing to see and sometimes if the yeast is particularly vigorous you can hear it constantly popping as it escapes through the water in the airlock.

The apples in the shed have kept well but a few are going past their best now and need using. Might make an apple pie. If I’m not in the mood I’ll just stew them and we’ll have them with some greek yoghurt.

Don’t forget when you prepare apples you only need some salted water to stop them going brown before you cook them. No need to have a lemon handy. Just a rinse, then into the pan, the pudding or the pie.

It’s been a difficult twelve months for all of us but I think all this time at home has made me even more appreciative of little things. My home has always been important to me so I cherish the bits and bobs which make it feel right for me. The longer I’ve had something the more I love it. Here are a few more of the jugs I have picked up over the years.

I also like contemporary studio pottery. I usually buy these from a craft fair or gallery but occasionally I have a look at eBay. Here’s one I bought from a lovely little local gallery.

Pretty things are nice though. I love flowers so anything flowery catches my eye.

I hope you are enjoying your own treasures and looking forward to Spring. With you again in a few days.

The garden is busy. Flowers are appearing by the day and birds are flocking to the food we put out. We’ve had a pair of Blackcaps visiting. The male lives up to his name with a little black cap on top of his head. The female is paler but still very pretty.

When I looked out of the kitchen window I saw a male Blackcap on the ground taking sunflower seeds. I called Allan and when we both looked out a beautiful male Bullfinch had joined him. The male Bullfinch is a fabulous deep pink. Such a lovely sight. Unfortunately by the time we fetched the camera they had flown.

We also had a Sparrowhawk. It landed in the Hawthorn tree above the spot where some of the birds feed. I think it was after the little Blackcap. They both flew across the garden. Don’t know if it caught the Blackcap. I hope not but then again the Sparrowhawk has to find food too.

It has been very windy again. It’s been howling around the outside of the house and causing some draught indoors. The other night, I was awake in the night and a little poem came to me as I listened. Here’s what I wrote.

Listening to the Wind

The house rattled,the wind blew,
Whistling, moaning,
Ever new.
Never still, it poked around,
Rasping, grazing,
Restless sound.
The chimney sang a sad song,
Whining, ringing,
All along.
And while it blew, I snuggled
So warm, so safe,
Untroubled!

The parsnip wine is diddling along in it’s bucket. Each day I give it a stir and replace the lid securely to keep out anything that could spoil it. Dust could introduce moulds and a summer wine-making attracts fruitflies which would turn the wine to vinegar if they got in.

It smells really nice and if I remove a sip it tastes a little more wine-like and pleasing every day.

If I put my ear to the lid I can hear it bubbling. A really pleasing sound. It will stay in the bucket for another few days and then I’ll strain it through a sterilised bag and funnel into a demijohn to finish fermenting. More details and photos when the time comes.

On Sunday we had a few hours before the rain when we could do some work outside. Allan washed the polytunnels inside and out. I’ll be ready to sow some seeds soon now that the tunnels are ready.

I cleared away a lot of old foliage from the Erigeron at the edge of the path behind the house. These are lovely plants with tiny pale pink daisies which flower all summer. The bees and other insects flock to them. They self-seed readily so I don’t put the stems into our compost, otherwise I’ll have them growing everywhere.

One of the things I love about gardening is the way it keeps you connected to nature. As I worked I found some lovely things. A big worm appeared from below. I uncovered a tiny green caterpillar. I wonder what that is destined to be? A moth or a butterfly perhaps? A Ladybird crawled out with it’s beautiful shiny red back on show. A lovely pale yellow snail shell lay under the tangle of stems and a pure white downy feather lay on the path.

Of course my camera was in action.

And I was surprised to see a bee feeding on the early nectar in a crocus flower. A welcome sign that warmer days are on their way. If you look closely at my photo you’ll see that the bee has pollen all over him. He will be carrying that when he visits other flowers and pollination will take place. A neat little trick!

I make no apology for talking so much about the garden today. A garden gives you hope. Life can be a struggle at times but if you have even the tiniest garden there is always something to look forward to. Those bulbs planted in Autumn, just about to come up and open their lovely faces to the sun. Maybe the satisfaction of producing something good to eat. The birds visiting the feeders, eating berries on your shrubs or showing signs of pairing up.

I saw a Dunnock land on the top of the hanging basket pole yesterday and sing two bursts of a lovely song. Then a female flew towards him. He fluttered his wings in a courtship dance and then they flew down together and pecked around. A lovely thing to see.

The garden is responding to the warmer days now and is looking prettier all the time. Here are a few of my latest photos.

I discovered one of my snowdrops has a double flower. A pretty frilly centre when I tipped it up and looked inside to see the fresh green marks on the petals.

One Spring we were at Attingham Park in Shropshire and they had lovely tulips for sale. I didn’t buy them because we had tulips at home in the garden but I took a photo and later did a painting of them.

I hope you are enjoying your garden if the weather is kind enough. There is nothing so uplifting. Stay safe. With you again in a few days.

The weather has improved tremendously. I’m so relieved. I thought the garden had been destroyed by the freezing wind. Was so pleased to find most things had survived. Even the drooping hellebores are standing up now.

Look at the difference in these little crocuses. I took the first photo when they had just emerged and the second when the sun was coaxing them to open.

The snowdrops, of course, are as dependable as ever. They are the most beautiful winter flowers. No matter what the weather throws at them they always look lovely.

I have a few leeks to use up. Just a few small ones but they will still be tasty. The garlic is growing well in the polytunnel but I’m getting a mossy surface on the soil. Will have to stir it up a bit. The Winter Density lettuces withstood the low temperatures in the unheated greenhouse. They had a seaweed feed today. I have sown some broad bean seeds in coir compost in the greenhouse. Not sure how they will do. They got very cold. We shall have to wait and see.

We were so glad of the log fire at night this winter. We hardly needed to use it last year but the last few weeks have been so cold that it was a pleasure to put a match to it every evening and watch the flames dance. Knitting happily in a cosy room, lovely.

At this time of year I like to make parsnip wine. I started winemaking about 35 years ago and I have tried many fruits and vegs but parsnip and ginger are definitely our favourites. I haven’t made ginger for a long time. Perhaps I will soon. It’s a very good wine. I do usually make an annual batch of parsnip though.

I didn’t have enough homegrown parsnips so I bought 2kg. They were lovely tasty ones and were so amazingly clean I only needed to check, trim and thoroughly rinse before chopping them. I’m glad of my chopping knife for this. I have a self-sharpening chef’s knife. A really good tool. I’m hopeless at sharpening knives but this one sharpens everytime I slide it back into its sheath.

I bought my wine bin many years ago and it’s been so good. It has a well fitting lid which is important because it’s essential to keep the wine as clean as possible. I couldn’t find my long plastic spoon so had to use my jam spoon with a long handle. I think I might have thrown away the wine spoon because it flaked after so many years of service. Need to buy another.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of my method. I used 2kg parsnips, 1 and a half kg of sugar, an orange and a lemon and a packet of all purpose wine yeast.

I sterilise the bucket and the spoon with Bruclens steriliser then rinse well. I cook the parsnips for 15 minutes to release the juice. No longer, or the finished wine might not clear. When it has cooled a bit I pour the juice into the bin. I fill the pan a few times with cold water over the parsnips to get as much juice as possible from them, adding it to the bin until I have just over a gallon. Then I add the sliced citrus fruits and sugar, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Then check to see it is no more than blood heat (clean finger) and sprinkle the yeast in and stir. Put the lid on ,well secured, and leave in a warm place to ferment for 10 days, stirring once a day with a sterilised and rinsed spoon.

It is really quite easy to do and the wine is a warming, not oversweet, golden drink. I never add stuff to make it clear. If it’s done properly it clears perfectly by the time it’s ready to bottle on its own.

I don’t throw the parsnips away. I freeze them in plastic pots. Very handy for adding to soups or for a mashed, buttered veg.

Here’s a painting I did a while ago of my jewellery box. (No diamonds here!!) Painted with gouache.

I’ve got an acrylic painting on the go at the moment but it’s not going well. Will have to sort it out soon. You win some, you lose some! Just like gardening.

I hope your garden survives the temperamental weather and you find lots of enjoyable things to do while confined to home. With you again in a few days. Stay safe and well.