Last Week of Our English Summer

I can't believe how fast this Summer has gone, maybe it is because I am growing older.  But don't they say the older you grow the quicker it goes!
                
The children are back to their studies this week so life will change. I have enjoyed the carefree days & days outside, we have had a truly blessed Summer.

Kitty & Mary planted these sunflowers, they have done so well in this spot. I know the hens will enjoy the heads once they have dried a little.

 

A friend gave us some Victoria Plums from his garden so I made a plum pudding with them.

 

 

I love the colours of these plums, so pretty.

 

 

We enjoyed it warm with some cream. These photo's look very Autumnally, how quick Summer is ending.

                   Kitty is busy collecting leaves in the garden to make a wreath.

 

 

We are off out for a day on Tuesday to a working museum so I made a batch of Toll House Cookies to take with us. I have had this recipe for nearly ten years now, it was sent to me from a friend Karen in MA. If you look above the inglenook fireplace you can see the girls wreath, they loved collecting all the leaves, chestnuts, rosehips & hazelnuts to decorate it.

 

 

I thought you would like to meet Bobby our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel , he is such a gentle loving soul.

 

 

Kitty with a pot of raspberries, they have done so well this year.

We have a late fruiting variety & they just keep fruiting. You have to be quick though before the birds get them.

I have frozen so many & the girls can not get enough of them on their porridge.

 

 

I made the meat loaf out of Tasha Tudor cook book for dinner, we had it with noodles & green beans.

This is the first time I have made it & we had an empty plate.

 

 

Sweetcorn just picked from the garden, perfect with our chicken, potatoes & beans for Sunday lunch.

 

 

 

Rock cakes for tea, we enjoy them with butter on top.

I make these every week it seems, we love them & they are quick to fill the cake tins as they never stay full for long!

 

 

Andy took this photo of me in the garden the other day.

I thought you might like to put a face to the name.

 

 

Enjoy your day.

Michelle

 

                                                      

 

Celebrating Tasha Tudor Day

                                 Tasha Tudor Day 2014

Photo from my Richard brown book's.

                                 Today Tasha Tudor would have been 99 years old.

             The day is drawing to a close here in England & what a wonderful day we have had remembering Tasha Tudor.
                                                     

The twins & I celebrated by watching the Take Peace dvd, reading many of her books, painting, a dolls tea party & enjoying a lovely cup of English tea with a piece of fruit cake.

 

I do love boiled fruit cake. This is the cake I will be making for Christmas but with marzipan & royal icing on.

 

 

These are a selection of the twins books, the Christmas one's we only read in December.

 

 

Painting in Tasha Tudor style.

Such concentration from Mary.

 

They are always together.

Kitty loves to paint, she says she is going to be an artist when she is a big girl.

I wish she wouldn't become a big girl, this age is so perfect.

 

Here are their finished paintings.

 

How many hours have I spent going through these books again & again!

 

 

Dolls tea party.

It was so wet today so they had to play indoors.

 

 

I do enjoy knitting, back done & am on the front now.

 

 

So such inspiration, Tasha taught me to be happy in the way we live & be comfortable in who you are.

 

Photo taken from my Richard Brown books.

 

Tasha Tudor ~ Rookery Ramblings Blog

 We are not the only one's celebrating, so please pop over to Rookery Ramblings for their blog link up.

 

Hope you all enjoy this post, we had a wonderful day.

Fondly Michelle

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of Summers Country Walk, Preserving & Baking.

 

 The sun was shining, so out the back gate & across the grave yard to the country lanes we went.

 

The church path right next to our garden is such a magical place, full of imagination for children & so much history.

Can't you just imagine those fairies coming out of the trees.

 

Down the lane

Not many blackberries left now, so many have gone in to preserving in our home.

 

The wheat has long gone but the poppies in the field still hang on for the last of the Summer sun.

 

Across the field looking back at our little church, nestled down in the trees is our little cottage.

All I can see of home is the wood smoke coming from the chimney.

 

Back along the path to home.

 

A bit of baking

This is our twist on Empire biscuits, all ready for Sunday tea.

I made a wholemeal & a white cottage loaf, the wholemeal one was for tea to go with beef & garden tomato stew.

 

                Homemade apple & sausage rolls, apples are ending up in everything at the moment!

 

Freshly picked beetroot from the vegetable patch.

I was making beetroot pickle yesterday, a Christmas favourite.

 

 

All washed & ready to be cooked.

 

They have just been cooked & are ready to be sliced with the onions.

There was plenty of crying going on with slicing onions & boiling vinegar!

I used my collection of old English Kilner jars for this recipe as the pickle does not need processing.

                                                I made five 2 pint jars & one 3 pint jar.
                                                            How jewel like they look.

I managed to catch a photo of some the many squirrels that are gathering hazelnuts for the Winter.

 

Enjoy your day

Michelle

Summer's End & Harvesting

 

Canning Applesauce.

We picked our first apples of the year from the tree in the chicken run, we had to be quick as the hens were enjoying the first one's to fall.

                     This is our solid fuel range, it does our cooking, heating & hot water. 
             I love my Esse range, although this time of year it does get so hot in the kitchen.

 

The recipe I always use is from the Ball Home Preserving book, this book tells you all you need to can & preserve.

 

I use a mix of Kilner & Mason jars which I get from America.

 

 

All done, 7 pints of applesauce for the pantry shelves.

We try to can & preserve as much as we can from the garden.

 

Summer's End in the Garden.

How I love our garden with our pretty church next door.

We have many fruit trees & an Old English walnut tree.

I feel like I am in a period long ago when I am in the cottage & garden.

 

 

Pretty soon all those leaves will be falling, I love Autumn.

 

 

Our old pear tree.

I will be making pear butter with them.

 

The sweet peas have done so well this year, one of the best smells in the world.

 

Another apple tree laden with fruit, these will be made in to apple butter.

 

A favourite fruit cake of ours.

I love this old cook book from Ruth Mott.

Do you remember The Victorian Kitchen & Garden.

We have the box set of dvd's to watch this Winter.


 A rustic cobb loaf for tea.

                                                          
            The twins love decorating cakes & baking. At homeschool they do a lot of baking.

                              

 

Gingerbread, another recipe from the wonderful Ruth Mott.

This is best to keep for a week, so we will enjoy it for Sunday tea.

 

 

 

A trip out to Helmswell Antique Centre, the biggest antiques centre in Europe.

We found some vintage buttons, green being Mary's favourite so we will have to find something to knit for her so she can have some of the green buttons.

The twins love going antiquing & they came home with some vintage dolls house furniture & an old Enid Blyton book.

I found this lovely old sewing basket.

 

 

We have another engagement in the family, our second eldest son Harry has got engaged to his lovely girlfriend Kate.  How times flies, it seems not long ago he was a baby.

 

Being at Home

Just a few things I have been up to in the past couple of days.

My husband & two of my boys have been out blackberry picking, so many bags have gone in to the freezer & I made blackberry & apple jam. My son bought me some Cath Kidston jam labels, so the jars are sitting pretty now on the pantry shelves. This is a recipe I use every year, it has such a strong flavour & everyone loves it.


Empty Kilner jars waiting for the beetroot to ready for pickling.

A new jumper for me from a 1940's pattern.

 

I started a new 1940's jumper, I found the pattern thanks to Forties Knitter, who purchased the pattern from etsy. It is called bows bows bows & I have chosen a nice camel colour with a navy bow. I found some vintage navy buttons from an antique shop in our local town Horncastle.

Here is what I am reading at the moment, I read the first book & I couldn't put it down. I am halfway through Nella Lasts Peace & really enjoying it, I have Nella Last in the 1950's sitting there waiting. I love Housewife 49 & am finding the books so enjoyable & full of idea's too.

 A little bit of baking.

I bake almost everyday, we have five hungry children here & three that have grown & flown the nest. So as you can imagine the baking doesn't last long. Brownies are a favourite & I bake bread at least five times a week. We try to not buy processed food & cook from scratch as much as we can.









This is the basic white bread I do, I also do a half wholemeal & half white one too. I love old vintage kitchenalia & use it all the time, it cooks bread & cakes wonderfully.

Vegetable Garden & Hens.

We have been in this cottage since Spring last year & with work inside & out we only managed a small vegetable patch this year. We have so many plans for next Spring & hope to make the vegetable patch twice the size.
I took a photo of our eight hens this morning as I noticed the sheep were out in the back field.
The twins planted the sunflowers & beetroot, I can't wait to pickle that.

Sweetcorn, Beetroot, Currant bushes, Rhubarb, Gooseberry bushes, Raspberries & Sunflowers.

Cleft gates we bought at Beamish Georgian Fair, they are handmade out of ash.