Sloe Syrup

I have been looking at the sloes in the hedges around the field for some time now, and trying not to get ahead of myself and pick them too soon. Some books say wait until you have had a frost, but we are quite mild here, so that might be a while. But the other day I noticed that quite a few were starting to shrivel, and looked a bit like raisins, so decided it was time to pick.

My son and me both picked a colander, so we had about 3kg between us. Although I have made sloe gin other years, I decided this year it might be better to make sloe syrup. We could put this in gin, but it might also be nice to have on porridge, or yoghurt, or even icecream. It is meant to be packed full of vitamin C and antioxidants, so hopefully will ward off any winter colds.

Samite Silk Blend - Morte d'Arthur

I almost forgot that I have one more series of photos to show you that I took to illustrate Blacker Yarns new Samite silk blend. This book was my father-in-law's school prize, Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory. Volume 2 - so I wonder if he also won Volume 1?

 

I decided to use some of the new range of Samite yarn to make some patches with an Arthurian theme, and sewed them together to make a bookmark.

The beautiful plates in the book were part of the inspiration for the patterns used on the wool bands and colourcard.

 

Walking the Tamara Way

My son and I have decided to walk the Tamara Coast to Coast Way. A route following the River Tamar, with a few detours, from the south coast of Cornwall and Devon to the north. The River Tamar is the border between the two counties. We are planning to do it in eight sections over a few weeks. 

I have been posting photos on my personal facebook page, but then thought why not do some posts here. We are doing the walk in a stage each week, and picking days with nice weather. 

For the first stage my husband kindly drove us to the start at St. Cremyll, did half the walk, and then walked back to the beginning to get the car to meet us at the end Totally exhausted and put off by a rain shower, we did not quite finish all of stage one as written in our guide book, but made it across the Torpoint ferry.

I have my camera with me, and with the aim of getting on with the walk I am trying only to photograph large scenic views, not every leaf and petal, which apparently is a bit annoying in a long walk, when I find myself left behind. 

Setting off from St. Cremyll Beach

Passing Empacombe Garden gate

View acros the estuary to Plymouth

View from Millbrook Lake Dam

View from the Torpoint ferry

View from the ferry of the ferry going in the other direction

 

The second stage of the walk we had a bit of catching up to do. This time we got the train to Devonport, which was an adventure itself. My son was very insistent that we return to the exact spot where we ended last time, and I guess (grudgingly) he is right.

Walking out of Plymouth was a bit of a slog, with our first highpoint being the views of the Tamar rail and road bridges at Saltash Passage.

 

Tamar rail and road bridges

Detail of the rail bridge built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel

 

The bridges from the other side

 

It was a walk of bridges and crossings, as our walk along the Tamar and then Tavy shores took us under the Tamerton Bridge, which we had earlier crossed on the train.

 

Tamerton Bridge

 

Eventually we made it to the Lopwell Dam, which is quite a narrow stone walkway, that can only be done when the tide is low. This crosses the River Tavy, a tributary of the River Tamar. Very proud that with some handholding I made it across. A photo of us crossing would be hysterical.

 

 

From Bere Ferrers Quay

We walked much further than last time, and despite being exhausted we walked up the hill from the quay to Bere Ferrers railway station, our starting point for the next stage.

Hawthorn Berry Jelly

 

There seem to be more than usual hawthorn berries around this year. Is that a sign it will be a cold winter? So I decided I would have a go at making some hawthorn jelly. I used this recipe from Practical Self Reliance.

I am not sure why my hawthorn berries were not particular juicy, but it took me three colanders before I thought I had enough juice to add the sugar. In the end I made this single jar of hawthorn jelly. Plenty of hawthorn berries were left for the birds.

And now I can hear the rose hips calling to me. Recipes say they will be juicier if you wait until you have had a light frost, which we haven't yet, so I am trying to be patient.

Little Pumpkins

I have been busy working on a pattern for some little pumpkins for Halloween. The pattern contains instructions for two sizes of pumpkins, which are really quite simple and quick to make.

 

The pictures above are knitted in DK, but searching through my stash of oddments I found a lot of pumpkiny (is that a word) wool in other thickness. It is very simple to adapt the pattern to whatever wool you have simply by changing the needle size. For DK I used 4mm, for 4ply 3.5mm and for the scrummy thicker wool 5mm.

 

So here are some photos of some individual pumpkins that could be used as decorations. 

 

 

The pattern is available here on ravelry, and Etsy and will be on Loveknitting in due course.

 

One other idea that I think would work well would be to make a bunting mixing the pumpkins with my knitted bats. Still working on this, but here is a link to the Bat Pattern on ravelry. 

 

Just to show that you could make your pumpkins in any colour here is a photo of my own homegrown pumpkin and squash.

 

 

Garden Diary - Tidying Up For Winter

 

I have been busy tidying up the garden. Bean poles are down, potatoes have been dug, and all the sweetcorn have been harvested. Quite a lot of areas have been weeded and covered with sheeting until the spring. I thought I would do one last post. Above are two vegetables which came from the village plant exchange. The aubergine plants have been looking healthy with lovely flowers for ages, but I had thought that it was a bit late to develop into full veg, but then hiding under the leaves on one plant I found these lovelies. They are in the polytunnel so I am leaving them to grow and ripen a bit more.

And above are some cucamelons, also from the plant exchange. I had not really known what to expect with these. They look like very tiny watermelon, but taste like a mouthful of cucumber. To show you the scale here is a cucamelon next to the only cucumber that I got this year. Fun to try out some new plants!

 

I am really pleased with the leeks, which I had not grown before. As you can see below they do look like proper leeks. They like the onions don't seem to be troubled by pests, which is a bonus. I lifted the onions fairly early, as it was raining so much they seemed to be going rotten, but as you can see below they have not turned out too bad.

The other plants that have done well, are these Heart of Gold squash, and the pumpkins not as well as last year, as I only have one large one. But perhaps that is enough.

Although my husband and I garden together, we tend to also have our own areas. I do most of the veg plot and polytunnel, while his area is the greenhouse. Tomatoes are still doing well in both places, in fact so well that we are getting a bit tired of tomato soup, and yesterday I made some passata for the freezer. He has also had success with a variety of chilli pepper, which you can see below.

His other special project are the six grape vines, which were planted at the edge of the veg garden. I notice that he always gives them extra attention when watering. This year we were not really expecting fruit, as they were just getting the plants established, but there have been a bunch or two of very tasty little grapes.

Apples have all been picked, and some of the best I have wrapped and stored for eating in the winter. Following the technique shown on my new favourite gardening programme The Beechgrove Garden. It has lots of very practical advice, and also reminds me of when I lived in Aberdeen for a year. The rest of the apples are destined to be pressed for apple juice and cider. So pretty soon there will be a day of chopping and pressing.

One vegetable which has again not gone well are my celeriac. The plants tops look really healthy, but I have dug one and just as last year it has not really developed the root underground. Last year I thought that perhaps I had not watered enough, so this year despite all the rain I have watered nearly every day. So my next thought is that perhaps there is not enough organic material in the soil. So despite saying I would not try again, I may give it one more go next year, with my new special weapon. I am still collecting the girls poops, and am hoping they will really help in the veg garden next year.