Summer's End

Summer has come to an end once again & the kitchen garden is giving up it's wonderful delights. It is delightful to see how well the marrows, beetroot, tomatoes & potatoes have done.

The days are becoming shorter & have a faded deep glow to them. Hay & wheat is all harvested now & the fields all now have their earth all turned & ready to lay bare all Winter.
There has been an abundance of hedgerow fruits this year & the robins are back in the garden watching you work.
Holly berries are everywhere on our trees that line the front of our garden although at the present they are hard little green berries waiting to ripen into the pretty scarlet colour that we know so well.
The Hazel trees in the lanes & our garden are fruiting well, the squirrels & rabbits are making the most of the fallen nuts.
~
Tomatoes from our garden.
~

Harvesting beetroot.

~

We have an abundance of raspberries so I made some muffins.

~

The girls sunflowers have been blooming lovely.

~

I made a honey cake from Beatrix Potters Country Cooking Book.

It was a lovely cake, I used honey from our village. We have a man who has bee's & just lives behind the church.

~

Molly Cake.

A lovely lady on Instagram made this so I looked it up & used the Waitrose recipe online.

It turned out lovely & uses no fat or eggs.

~

A lovely walk last week over the wheat fields, the weather was warm & breezy.

We have never seen cows before in this field, it was lovely to see them.

~

The twins enjoying a ride on their scooters along the lane.

~

The simple beauty of golden wheat.

~

Daisies & wheat.

The wild flowers are beautiful in the fields around us.

~

One of the wheat fields halfway through harvesting.

~

We spot some blackberries on our way home almost ready for picking.

~

Home grown Victoria plums, hedgerow blackberries & home grown raspberries make such a pretty colour for chutney.

~

I have never used berries before in chutney. The colour was so pretty & it smelled wonderful when cooking. It is quite a runny chutney, we will see in a month or so when we try some if I will make it again.

~

Daisy passed all her GCSE's, we are so proud of her.

She is now going on to study her A levels.

~

Over the Summer we have been decorating our bedroom.

There were ten layers of old wallpaper over the beams so it took some work.

The quilt is very precious to me, I made it over a few pregnancies all by hand.

~

I thought you would like to see our little 1930's electric cooker, we use this when it is to hot too light the wood fired cooker.

~

Victoria Sponge.

I make this using the sponge recipe I have posted before.

~

The apples are nearly ready for harvesting.

~

The end of our garden is such a magical place.

~

Sun shining through our hazelnut tree.

~

Fresh eggs.

Thank you ladies.

~

The twins enjoying the last week of Summer after we hung the wash out.

~

Sweet George.

~

Fresh raspberries for the twins breakfast.

~

The marrows have done so well this year, I am trying to think of different ways to use them.

~

Plum & greengage Crumble.

A few ladies on Facebook & Instagram have asked for the recipe.

This is the crumble recipe I use all the time, sometimes I add a few oz's of oats.

Rub 5 ozs of self raising flour & 3 ozs of butter together.

Then add 3 ozs of sugar, if using oats then mix them in now.

Sprinkle sugar over fruit & then crumble mix.

Bake in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes.

We had it served warm with cream.

~

Ruth Mott's boiled fruit cake.

I make this often & would advise anyone to get her book.

~~

Victoria Plum Jam.

~

I do love the sweet taste of this beautiful jam.

~

All ready for the pantry shelved.

Both our eldest Son's gave me pretty Cath Kidston jam covers as gifts, they look to pretty on the jars.

~

A few readers have asked for a selection of my favourite cookbooks so here they are.

I do have a cupboard full of cookbooks but these are the one's I use all the time, as you can see Ruth's book is in there.

Sorry it has taken me so long.

~

I love this time of year when we harvest the fruits of our labour.

It has taken me a while to do this post sorry, the laptop lost it & I had to rewrite it.

Fondly Michelle

~

Golden Cottage Days & a Trip back to the 1940's

Our cottage garden has a golden glow about it as hot Summer days turn the foliage into mellow yellowness.  The garden has a sunny silence, the birdsong has now dimmed as young birds have fledged to start their lives soaring the skies.

The purples & creams of the Canterbury Bells fill the flower beds as the Oxe Eye Daisies mellow until another year. Hollyhocks now bloom everywhere, how I love the dear Hollyhock & its many blooms standing gracefully tall, elegantly swaying in the cooling Summer breeze. Honeysuckle fills the air from that same Summer breeze, it has such a heavenly smell.

~

The beautiful wild cherry trees will soon be laden with red cherries ripe for the picking as long as we get there before the birds. 

Golden wheat fills the many fields around us ripening unto the near harvest. The wheat stands tall with it's heavy ears waiting for full ripeness. as we walk through the corn fields scarlet poppies are still plentiful. Soon our lanes with be busy with farm traffic & we will be thankful for the harvest.

~

Banana Chocolate Muffins.

I make these quite often, the children love them.

Fork together 10 ozs plain flour, 1 teaspoon of soda & a teaspoon of baking powder.

In another bowl mash 4 medium bananas, add 4 ozs sugar, a beaten egg, 2 floz whole milk & 3 flozs vegetable oil.

Pour wet into dry ingredients & stir to just combined. Do not over mix.

Cut up in to rough small chunks a 100g bar of milk chocolate & add to mixture.

Fill tins & bake for 20 minutes or a little more at 375.

These are delicious warm from the oven.

~

Andy has quickly put up a temporary fence to keep our little friends out of the vegetable patch.

We hope next year to do a permanent fence.

~

Our first potatoes from the garden.

They are later this year.

~

A funny little chocolate cake.

This recipe came from one of the books I found at Belton House, it is dated 1952 & you can see from the recipes that rationing was still a big part of people's lives.

It did turn out a funny shape but was a nice little cake.

~

Our first raspberries picked.

They topped a cheesecake.

~

Last weekend we went to Woodhall Spa's 1940's Weekend.

~

This event happens every year & has got bigger & bigger.

It is now one of Britain's biggest's 40's event's & what makes it so special is the many fly pasts from the Spitfires, Hurricanes & Dakota's. The Lancaster is not flying at the moment & she was very much missed.

Everyone dresses up & it is such a wonderful happy weekend.

The air was filled with sunshine & many happy faces.

~

The butchers shop all decorated for the day.

~

A lovely vintage shop selling many beautiful things, I treated myself to a handbag.

There were stalls everywhere selling everything 1940's with live music & dancing.

~

A sweet little caravan made by the owners of the classic car.

~

Playing on the swings.

~

Some of the many pre war cars that came to the event.

~

All dressed up for the day.

~

Cherry sponge for Saturday tea.

~

I have just started knitting a 1936 pattern for a cardigan.

It has long sleeves & a long body & is knit using 4 ply, so it will take me a while as I am a slow knitter.

~

The beautiful photo of the cardigan inside the magazine.

~

I have just finished reading The Cranford Companion.

I have had this book for a few years now & have never read it fully, it was a great read with snippets of life & manner's from the 1840's.

I don't know why it has taken me so long to read a Miss Read book, I am hooked & am enjoying it just as much as I do the the Nella Last books.

Now I am on the hunt for the whole set, I do love the first edition one's with the beautiful cover's.

~

A couple of Sunday's ago there was an open garden day for the Red Cross at our village Manor House. Sybil is a lovely lady & friend who opens her gardens up many times during the year for good causes. Her son has a large collection of classic motorcars, this car was once owned by Cary Grant.

~

Sybil has many acres here, some set to gardens, farm land & a perfect lake with boat house.

~

Bantams running around with the sheep.

Can you see the sweet dove at home.

~

Going in to one of the little gardens.

~

One of the many beautiful rose bushes in the Manor House gardens.

~

The twins sitting in a  1904 Cadillac & they didn't even notice that big horn!

A beautiful dwarf wall looking down towards the lake.

~

Playing in the beautiful sunshine before we walked home.

~

I wish everyone a beautiful Summer.

Fondly Michelle

~

Linked with

http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.co.uk/

http://strangersandpilgrimsonearth.blogspot.co.uk/

&

http://theenchantingrose.blogspot.com/