Now Wearing Purple

M is heading to the Reading Festival with her boyfriend and buddies and has spent the last two days making her festival dreads.  Luckily her cousin's a hairdresser and put them in for her.                                                         Of course she had to have pretty nails too! As I waved her off, my heart was tinged with sadness. She will only be returning home for two days after the Festival,  then she's off to start a new life with her boyfriend in Corby, some three hours away.  She has worked abroad for six months of each of the last two years and I've always loved her return, but it is time for her to fly the nest. It helps that she has found such a fantastic partne...

We planned to go to Ikea on Friday, but then I discovered this little fellow in the garden. I went out to the dustbin and Elsie followed me, saw it and decided it was lunchtime. I bellowed at her, which stopped her in her tracks and I was able to haul her inside. This poor little bird looked so bedraggled and I wasn’t sure if it was a fledgling or not. It flew low over the gravel, so it’s wings were ok. I spent the day  checking on the bird and having to take the dogs into the garden on leads for toilet breaks.  Of course Pearl saw it straight away on her toilet break and after that haunted me, her eyes boring into me ‘Please let me into the garden Mum, I won’t hurt it, honest’.   I checked the garden mid-afternoon, no bird to be found.   I assumed it had managed to fly off, so we went to Ikea as planned. Man had his meatball fix and we bought two bags back for the freezer plus other much needed items. M informed me the next day that El...

......a rose, name unknown,  Ox Eye daisies, wild geranium, buttercup, chive and mint, to brighten up a dull day.  It helped to have some delicious asparagus, bought from a farm four miles away, and picked this morning. So fresh and no air miles, which always makes me happy.  We adore this vegetable, and eat it most days during it's season. Yes, it's very indulgent, but we don't do indulgent very often. Griddled on the bbq, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, cracked black pepper, sometimes a grating of parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil... summer heaven. Had to make sure we were well supplied for the next few days!

THINGS YOU DO FOR LOVE! The one thing M absolutely loves is liver, well he loves all offal really,  whereas I find it quite repulsive especially the smell when cooking it. It's one of those Marmite things, you either love it or hate it.  I have tried it many, many times cooked in many different ways, but I'm afraid it just makes we want to barf. I even have to wear rubber gloves when handling it! Cooking is one of M's favourite things too, he finds it relaxing but loves it when I cook him certain dishes, liver and bacon being one, so every  now and then I gird my loins and make it for him. This is a very good value meal, which makes about three portions, two of which I freeze (saves me having to cook it too often, so win, win).       In a large casserole fry two chopped onions with two crushed cloves of garlic together. I also add two of M's favourite additions to this recipe, 1 large fresh chilli chopped and 2 teaspoons of...

PUDDING TIME I'm ashamed to say I have been remiss with my store cupboard contents. I am laying blame with the Mr. as he is the packer and putter away of shopping. We are also in a state of chaos due to home improvements, and various purchases being put in some odd places. Anyhoo, I found a big jar of dried mixed fruit lurking in the depths of the cupboard of doom (named because every week he crams more in there and due to the height of it I cannot reach easily. We had a sort out and found said fruit, which was probably past its best. We tried it, and he said it was lovely (a bit crystalised) so it went into the big bowl with a generous slug of sherry and brandy, and the juice and zest of an orange and lemon.  I was going to throw everything else in too, but thought it would benefit from a bit of time to plump up. The fruit weighed in at just under 12oz, and I added a tablespoon of mixed peel (for him, not a fan myself) covered it with cling film and left it overnight. Thi...

My lovely man decided to service and light the Aga at the weekend and not a moment too soon as damp washing was backing up.  Also, I am starting to feel a bit chilly in the evenings. Talk about lying down on the job! We don't use an Aga engineer as it would be too darned expensive, but it is a palaver for him, and requires quite a lot of upper body strength to lift the inner barrel out through the hot plate. I know there are those who think that an Aga is not eco friendly because of the amount of fuel they use, but ours cooks our food, dries our clothes, and provides all our hot water.  It also keeps our house warm enough for us not to have to use any other heating until it gets bitterly cold outside. We do have oil fired central heating, but due to the cost of the oil, we choose not to use it at these times and rely on our multi-fuel burner.  In the last 10 years we have only paid for one delivery of logs as somehow every year someone wants a tree removed...

BLOOMING OCTOBER I don't know, because I haven't photographic evidence of the garden mid October last year, but I'm pretty sure it didn't look like this...               By the end of September last year all pelargoniums were removed to the greenhouse for frost free safe keeping, with bacopa, begonias, lobelia etc,  having died off and been pulled up and composted. This is the first year I've planted osteospermum, and I'll definitely be doing it next year, as it just goes on and on flowering. You would almost think that summer is still alive and well!