Hunter gathering.

Not too good on the hunting side (It was never going to happen in reality) but a full on Gathering afternoon.

Once all the chores were done and lunch was made, eaten and cleared away I put on sturdy boots and a thorn proof gilet, collected various receptacles with lids and a decent bag to carry them in. I set off "down the stones", that is the common term for the disused railway track that runs through the village. Most of the sleepers and track have gone and the ground spread with large chippings or "stones". 

I had eyed up a good stand of blackberries and was hoping that the recent wet weather had not ruined them. I am happy to say that I was soon blessed with about 3 kilos of large juicy berries, purple fingers embellished with a goodly collection of prickles. 
I also spotted a wealth of rose hips that may be coming home with me at a later date.
On my way back I remembered spotting a crab apple tree last year, it had hardly any fruit but thought that I may as well check it out.I am happy to say that I topped up the carrier bag and filled all my pockets with apples. I have just used the last jar of Rosemary and Apple jelly so that is in my to do plan for this morning.

Dinner was a full on winner last night, although it was a bit on the fiery side, I added half of a chilli from my new plant and that was plenty.

The bacon pack had 2 very chunky bits of smoked bacon in and I used the largest. I cut it in half and put one half to cook in one of the cans of fizzy orange, this was after it had been soaked in several changes of cold water. It is now in the fridge waiting to be used later.

The rest I cut off every scrap of fat and then diced up ready for cooking. I then prepped and diced a red onion, red pepper, 3 sticks of celery, 2 courgettes (from the garden) and sliced up quarter of a cabbage that was lurking in the fridge. The chilli and 2 cloves of garlic and the kernels off 3 mini corn cobs and then I measured out 2 Tsps Chinese 5 spice and 3 Tsps garlic powder ( no vampires in this house). Along with half a carton of passata and the can of fizzy I had some fry light and blackpepper.

I sealed the bacon bits in the oil, added the onions and celery with a splash of water and cooked for around 4 minutes. In went the rest of the veg ( minus the cabbage for another 4 - 5 minutes, I then added the passata, seasoning and gave it a good stir. Poured in the fizzy and had another stir up, once it came to the boil I stirred in the cabbage then turned the heat down and let it burble away till everything was cooked and the sauce was nice and thick. Served with a sweet potato it was delicious, there was enough for 3 portions so one is in the fridge.

This morning I woke to a wet and windy day, not sorry as I want a day indoors, I aim to make the most of it. First job is to get those apples chopped and on the stove, I will venture as far as the herbs to grab some rosemary and aim to have the jelly bag set up asap.

Now I am in dire need of a cuppa and maybe a slice of toast.

                    TTFN                                              Pam

Monday Morning Blue.

The sky, that is. Bright blue and sunshiney with a good breeze. 2 loads of laundry pegged out and line dried and a third blowing in the breeze now.

More Eureka watching last night, and more knitting
I am turning into a sofa dweller but that is all part of the "Autumn Effect" and I love it. I have yarn ready to knit my way through to the spring and stacks of books, both Kindle and paper. There are a couple of cooking writers that I found by chance and intend to try some of their recipes. I have their books on my wish list, you never know when Santa starts to check these things out. I will not buy them myself but will happily welcome them if they turn up under the tree.

I am hoping to knit my way through the stash before wonder wool next year. Most of my sock yarn was bought there last year and I did go rather doolally. I stayed within budget though so no remorse there.
I have knitted my way through a small mountain of commercial yarn, some of which was gifted to me. I just love some of the self patterning yarns and Drops 4 ply yarn is very cheap and makes sturdy, hard wearing socks. I just wish that they would bring out a load of new colours. I do ring the changes with contrast heels, toes and cuffs. The SO wears a rainbow on his feet every day.
Head over heels and Heart and Sole along with West Yorkshire Spinners all feature in family sock drawers as do many more. Too many to list here.

I cooked a pan of apples today, all windfalls, some from my garden and some from a tree on one of the dog walks. Most will be in the freezer later but I have some Greek yogurt to make a fool for tonight. How healthy is that. I don't add sugar, just a good shake of cinnamon.

Now the clock has ticked round to Ironing Time, there is not too much to do and I must check the line before I consider it finished.

The bathroom has had it's Monday Special and the rest of today's jobs are done and dusted. Happy, happy happy.

                TTFN                                                    Pam

Is the magic on the wane?

Apart from a couple of the "stars" I found last night's batch of contestants a bit on the lacklustre side. Certainly not taken from the B list, never mind the A list. I think that Brucie would struggle to find his favourite, even with his legendary blatant hyper enjoyment level. ( not sure about those words together but I hope you know what I mean)

I carried on knitting for a while as the SO and I had a postmortem, we recorded it and were able to rewind and watch bits a second and even third time.

We are both rooting for Danny John Jules, after loving him in Red Dwarf for years, watched all the reruns that we found, and then in Death in Paradise, it was a done deal.

We followed that with a nostalgic visit to Eureka and fell into bed just before midnight.
 I expected to be tired this morning but not at all, I was up and about before 6 . Plenty of time to catch up with the Little Drops of Wonderful podcast.
I should have watched it earlier as the Strictly sock-a-long does not start yet, oh dear. Never mind I will just have to cast on another pair in 2 weeks time, I even have time to find some more sparkly yarn. 
Cue a quick visit to Rosie's Moments and maybe a side trip to Little French Meadow.

Enough of this, there is more to life than knitting and Strictly, at least there will be after the final. Oh and the Christmas special.

We are having a very abstemious weekend in the food department. Nothing to do with weight loss, it is just that we seem to have eaten more than usual for a few days and felt that our bodies needed a rest.

I have, however, lined up some new recipes to try next week. Tomorrow will be bacon chops, ridiculously cheap from Lidl, cooked in sugar free orange fizzy. Not a brand as I have never fell into that particular trap, just own brand from the supermarket. The recipe is SW friendly and we will have it with sweet potatoes baked in their jackets and whatever veg is in the fridge.

I have promised the SO a Black Banana cake, recipe from Nigel "the magnificent" Slater, a firm favourite in this house. I have 3 bananas ripening on the side for just that purpose, there will be nuts involved I have  some almonds, hazel and walnuts in the pantry. As ever I will adapt the recipe to use what I have.

That's all I can think of for now, I want to get the sleeves finished on my cardigan and that sparkly sock is almost dancing for attention. I usually knit them 2 at a time, in the interest of row count accuracy but this 4 row pattern makes counting redundant. Yarn management and I are strangers at times of excitement and knitting them singly will avoid the odd cats cradle and rats nest of yarn. AKA a Yarn Barf.

                      TTFN                                                    Pam

Strictly glued to the telly

Socks on the needle, cuppa on the side. Who could ask for anything more. 

Cake?

Of course there is cake, ate that in the opening minutes.

             TTFN                                          Pam

Who am I rooting for? here is a clue.

Lazing on a rainy afternoon

With a little apology to the Kinks.

And with a big Thank you and lots of squishy hugs to you all for all your comments. Believe me that I missed you all just as much, I did visit every now and then but the quiet times were few and far between.

I woke to drizzle with the odd outbreak of heavy "racing out of the skies" downpours.
Not that I mind, we have had some full on days in the garden and I am enjoying being busy doing little or less.

Some knitting, I have started the sleeve top shaping. The rows are getting progressively shorter but my interest is waning, I need to crack on with that.
Of course I will be busy clicking away tonight during Strictly but that will be the first pair of "strictly socks". I have the yarn, from Rosies Moments, Almost Sprinkles with silver stellina. A nod to the glitter ball.

It is very sparkly, enough so that you should see some in the photo's.

I will be using a pattern from stash that I have knitted many times. It was the first pair of socks that Mandy published and I love it. So much that I am using it for Fran's Christmas socks, I have used the stitch pattern on 2 cardigans and plan on using it for my next sweater.

I have been reading this morning, using the Kindle app on my tablet. I can not imagine why I resisted for so long, I prostrate myself at the altar of techy tech. Not really but I am loving it.

I felt the need to bake and embrace the Autumnal feeling in the air....Cue a new version of an old recipe.

4 eggs and the same weight of sugar and butter, again with flour plus an extra 50 grams. some milk, baking powder and a shake of vanilla.
 Have you seen that the price of this has shot through the roof, I am so pleased that I bought oodles of it before that happened.
To welcome in the autumn I added 3 apples, peeled and grated, a good shower of ground almonds and a very generous shake of cinnamon.
There was enough mix for 2 x 8" pans and a small pudding dish, I did put a goodly slug of golden syrup in the dish first.

The smell was Am Aze Ing, Craig Revel Horwood has a lot to answer for. The second cake will go to W.

I was sorely tempted to dig a spoon into this straight from the oven. Luckily I managed to resist or the syrup would have given me first degree burns. Enough oral drama going on without that.

Both cakes and pudding have sunk a little, I was very heavy handed with the grated apple. I did not add quite enough ground almonds to compensate, I am sure that they will taste fine though and that is all that matters.

There is a little ironing to do, not enough to make it worthwhile putting the board up, that makes me very happy.
The house was blitzed yesterday and all is still clean and tidy, the bathroom had it's daily doing and the kitchen is always a work in progress.

I am still lapping up the freedom, a bit miffed that my planned final assault on the blackberry picking front had to be cancelled but I can live with that.

It Better Be Fine Tomorrow.

Now I can hear the siren song of my book dragging me back to the tablet, I may have to take a detour through the kitchen. Books are always better with a cuppa, in this house anyhow.

I bid you all farewell, till the next time.


                         TTFN                                         Pam


PS. Don't forget to....................................Keep Dancing xxx.

Free as a bird.

Free to do what I want, when I want to.

Free to wander from room to room without having to consider that someone might be busy working and need privacy.

Free to add lashings of garlic/ginger/spices to the meals without taking anyone's taste in account.

Free to spend as much time in the bathroom as I care to. Not that I am inclined to spend longer than necessary there. Shower, hair wash and out in 5 is my thing.

Free to sing as loud as I like to MY choice of music. Not that I can carry a tune.

We are 4 again and the dogs are loving all the sofa space.

The family have departed to pastures new and the silence is deafening, and I love it. That is the one part of living in a large household that I am very happy to miss. 
I grew up in a busy, noisy environment and until 2004 was accustomed to living in a busy home. Lots of our friends and our son's mates passing through (and sometimes putting down roots for a few nights). 
Then there was work, busy, noisy and very sociable, that kept me in the zone till retirement. 
I took a while to adjust to the peace and quiet but soon came to love it. Now I am not comfortable in busy and noisy places, in fact I do my best to avoid them when possible.

Now for the nitty gritty.

The tooth fairy waved her wand and i t seems that it could be 4 months or so before all is sorted. Luckily I am in no pain or even mild discomfort, speech is still a problem at times. I tend to lisp a great deal and am very conscious that my front teeth are very damaged. My saliva output is hit and miss so my mouth is either awash or as dry as the Kalahari desert, neither of which leads to coherent speech.

I have added more texture to my diet and it is going well. I can not bite into an apple or pear, but cut up and there is no problem. The main change that I had to make was to increase the cooking time when making a stir fry, strips of hard carrot and peppers are beyond me.

That's it. Moan over.

I am happy to say that my freedom has given me hours in the garden, sorting out pots, getting lots of bulbs in, pegging out strawberry runners and all the early autumn jobs. My miniature apple trees are loaded with fruit, Katy in particular has done us proud. I have picked pounds of fruit, it does not sit in the fruit bowl well for more than a few days so the neighbours have helped out. I have also cooked loads with a squeeze of lemon juice and a shake of cinnamon, these are now safely tucked away in the freezer. 
The Red Windsor fruit is weighing down the branches so crook sticks have been used to prevent breakage, I will be starting to harvest them soon. 
James Grieve has fruited well, just not as heavily, but they are later to ripen. 
Howgate Wonder and the Bramley have both done very well, although I did thin the fruit out after the June drop as it is their first year.

My first Victoria plum gave us a reasonable harvest, the second tree, the Damson and the Czar did not fruit at all. They are a year behind so fingers crossed I will have a crop next year.

I am considering a Peach and/or Nectarine later this year.

The courgette plants surpassed all expectations and we have become very inventive at getting them into lots of recipes. I even had a go at courgette crisps, not a total success but still very tasty and went down well.

The Rhubarb has kept the SO well supplied with crumbles, there is also a stash in the freezer, some cooked with Victoria plums, for the winter. I have a heap of home made compost ready to cover the beds with once the leaves and stems have gone. They are hungry plants and as well as feeding this will protect them from extreme weather, fingers crossed that will not be essential.

I have taken a break from sock knitting and am working on a WIP, there are still a few lurking around, but will be back with my 2.25 circulars and 4 ply yarn soon. I want to start a new tradition this Christmas  ( no apologies for using that word) of 7 pairs of socks each for Fran and the SO. At least one pair will be seasonal, just think of the excitement level, they both love their hand knitted socks.
Fran has a Chunky or Aran weight sweater for her birthday every year, that is done, wrapped and ready to go. This year there are mittens to match and I have enough yarn for a hat.
There is a Carbeth for Christmas, with a hat, along with a quilt and various sewn gifts. 
She does have a thing about Christmas and is childlike when it comes to a mountain of brightly wrapped parcels. The homemade ones are the stars of the show in her eyes though, it is not about money spent but the love that is stitched and knitted in.

That is enough, I seem to have been tapping away for hours. It is time that I got out into the garden for a while.

I do want to thank you all for your comments and well wishes I appreciate every single one. So many bloggers, and you tubers, say the same, the level of support in out community is second to none. There are simply not enough superlatives to use to express my gratitude. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

                     TTFN                                    Pam

Feeling down in the mouth.

Just a quick visit to update and let you know that I am still breathing.
The family are still here, but not for too much longer, all is calm in the house.

I, however, have been the opposite of calm.
I had a traumatic episode and am still ploughing through it.

From out of nowhere I had a slip/trip/stumble and hit the deck, face first, like a sack of coal.
The results were a glorious array of bruises, broken teeth, gum damage and some long drawn out surgery to put it all right. Not back as it was as there is too much damage.
I managed to do some serious work to my right knee as well so I have been doing a good impression of Hopalong Cassidy.

Eating is child's play, nursery food, soups and pureed everything.
Talking is difficult, peace and quiet abounds, and generous servings of antibiotics, painkillers and anti inflammatory pills are the order of the day.

The sole ray of sunshine is that I can knit. The socks are flying off the needles as I do not have to think and can go round and round even with a head full of painkiller fog. The toe up, 2 at a time with the Fleegle heel recipe is embedded in my brain. There will be a plethora of soft and squishy parcels in gaudy, glittery wrapping paper later this year.


Fran has 3 new pairs already and the SO has 4 pairs that have not been on his feet yet. A first as they normally drop onto the table once the ends are woven in and then fly on to his feet.

I am dangerously close to running out of 4 ply yarn, so close that I am knitting DK weight socks for Fran to wear around the house.
There is the bag of left overs, but scrappy socks require too much attention for me at the moment.

Enough of this wallowing, I am going to indulge in some blog reading before my next pill ration.

I hope that you are all keeping well and are enjoying the respite from the heat wave.

                  TTFN                                         Pam