Glimpes of Autumn at The Cottage.

I love this time of year, all the warm colours & a crisp feel to the air in the early morning's. I do love to walk into the garden early in the misty morning & just take in all the beauty that is around us. Our Old English Walnut tree has lost all it's leaves now & stand's tall in all it's bare beauty with squirrels running up & down it's branches. They are such fun to watch carrying on with their busy little lives.

 

A little rabbit hiding something in the ground.

Our garden is full of rabbits & squirrels this time of year hiding all the nuts from our tree's.

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Where I write.

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I love small old bibles & have them tucked away in the bureau.

The larger one on top of the bureau was sold in Horncastle our nearest small town & dates from 1838.

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Beautiful handwriting.

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Fresh wholemeal bread for tea just out of the oven.

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Gourds & wax corn sitting on Grandad's dresser.

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The mantle piece in the parlour with small touches of Autumn.

I found the little Georgian cup at an Antique shop in our small market town.

They have a big outside yard & a lot of items are 50p.

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This is the back of our garden with hazelnut tree & a small gate which leads to the side grave yard of the church.

It is such a pretty area with so much history.

There is a small pine spinney there were rooks nest.

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Our hydrangea's are late this year, I am watching them to see when they are ready for drying.

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The roses are still blooming, we have so many old varieties in our garden & I have planted some new one's. Oh I do love roses, the old one's smell so beautiful.

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We are overflowing with apples this year, this tree has done so well.

Luckily I have a small cook book with just apple recipes.

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I made a cinnamon apple pudding this week, it feels so good to use your own produce.

It is a simple recipe just sliced apples, sugar & cinnamon then topped with a sponge mixture which is 4 ozs self raising flour, 4 ozs of butter, 4 ozs of sugar & 2 eggs, a little milk if needed.

Bake for around 45 minutes at a medium heat.

We had this with custard as Kitty loves custard.

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Apple slices for tea.

I bought the little apple recipe book when we went to Woolsthorpe Manor last year which was Issac Newton's birthplace & home.

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Apple slices with a lemon glaze.

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I found some check fabric the other week the same as the other two curtains in the sitting room.

We had the fabric in our old house for the hall window so I had cut them in half when we moved to the cottage to make curtains for two windows.

I was so pleased to have found the same fabric & this week made curtains for the long window by the hearth. It gives that corner a much warmer feel.

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I finished reading all the Nella Last book's & found them truly wonderful, I got a kindred spirit feeling from them, in so many places in the book I felt we were so much alike.

My new book to read is The Garden Cottage Diaries 'My Year in the Eighteenth Century' which is full of wonderful photo's.

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The book is by Fiona J Houston.

For a full year she took herself back to the 1790's lifestyle of her rural ancestors.

She wore home made clothes, learned crafts, ate from her garden & cooked on a fire.

This book is full of history, folklore & practical tips.

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I am really enjoying this book, it has some simple recipes in it too.

When this book arrived Kitty could not put it down, she was fascinated with the photo's.

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Thank you dear friends for all your beautiful comments.

 

Fondly Michelle

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Harvest Time

Last Sunday we had our Harvest celebrations at our little church. All Saints Church opens for a service every eight weeks, we have so many small churches in our area so they take it in turn to hold a service. I do wish ours opened more as we have such a special time there & it brings the village together.
The twins made Harvest boxes filled with produce from our garden. They planted the beetroot & tomatoes & were so proud of their boxes.

 

We have a wonderful service involving the children which is such fun.

Once the service is over we all go down to our village hall for a Harvest meal.

I made an Eve's pudding to bring, another apple dish.

The meal was beautiful & everyone brings something.

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Front side of All Saints Church.

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This week I made the apron I mentioned.

I did buy the pattern a while ago but it took me a while to find some fabric I liked.

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I made apron E but it ended up too big, so I decided to remove the ties at the back & add two hooks & eyes.

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I do love how it turned out & will make it again but next time I will adjust the pattern size.

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The weather has been beautiful all week so we went for a walk around our local fields on Friday.

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Over the road & down the lane to a field full of potatoes ready to be harvested.

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They burn the tops & then get the machinery in to dig up the potatoes.

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We have two lovely little streams near us, both lead to our local market town when they become rivers.

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On top of the fields, the girls think they are on top of the world here.

We feel so blessed to live here & have such beauty around us.

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Blowing dandelion's in the wind.

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Looking back over the fields to our small village.

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Our local farmers haystack, the girls look so small.

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Our local farmers pond, such a beautiful place to spend time at & a lot of wildlife around.

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This is traditional English coppicing.

They cut the trees & bushes & lay them over to one side, new growth comes & makes a beautiful country hedge.

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Our friend's thatched cottage just before we arrive back home, dating to pre 1600.

It is said that Guy Fawkes stayed the night here on the way to London to blow up the houses of parliament in 1605.

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I made some savoury pinwheels for tea on Saturday.

Dene & Ellie make these often.

These one's are filled with cheese & ham & cheese & tomato.

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These are a simple & quick recipe to do.

Just roll out some puff pastry in to two long rectangles then spread filling over the top & roll then cut in to 1 inches pieces.

Cook for around 10 ~ 15 minutes.

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Dene & Ellie made these at Christmas with turkey & cranberry sauce.

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Thank you to all my readers for all their beautiful comments, I am really enjoying making new friends.

Fondly Michelle

 

 

 

A Week Full of Blessings.

I would like you all to meet George our little Kitten.

He is full of fun & keeps everyone on their toes.

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Little George is just eight weeks old.

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His name came from a vintage book that the girls have called Naughty George.

I do hope we don't have to use the naughty word though!

The twins love the Blackberry Farm series from the 40's & 50's.

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It was our eldest daughter Amy's 21st birthday this week.

She came & spent a beautiful day with us & we had a birthday tea.

Here are a few of the things I made for tea.

Strawberry & Vanilla cake, butterfly cakes, fairy cakes & cheese straws.

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The cheese straws are one of the twins favourite tea time treats.

 

Cheese Straws.

 

4 ozs self raising flour

pinch of salt

Cayenne pepper or Mustard powder

The twins only like mild foods so I use the mustard powder.

2 ozs margarine

3 ozs grated strong cheddar cheese

1 egg beaten

 

Rub the fat in to all the dry ingredients, then add the grated cheese & combine with a beaten egg.

Use your hands to combine like making pastry.

Roll out on a floured board & cut in to preferred shape, at Christmas we use little cutters.

Bake 400f for about 10 minutes.

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We had a trip to Anglesey Abbey on the Sunday after we went to Wimpole Hall.

This is another Estate owned now by the National Trust.

It has beautiful park land, a working water mill & house.

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A beautiful old gate in the estate.

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Lode Mill.

This is a lovely working water mill in the grounds.

We bought some flour that had just been ground.

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The miller bagging up our flour.

I bought a little recipe book from the mill, I can't wait to use our lovely fresh flour.

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Walls inside the mill.

Simple bunches of wheat.

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Walking though parkland towards the Abbey.

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Walking up the drive to Anglesey Abbey.

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The parlour.

This room had wonderful rich panelling all the way round it.

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The flower room.

They get all the flowers ready here for arranging.

The estate grows so many flowers, it was lovely seeing how they use them in the displays throughout the house.

The parkland was beautiful, the children learn so much from these days out with out even knowing they are learning.

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This is a fruit cake recipe I use but this time instead of fruit I added chocolate chips in the round cake & dried cut dates in the loaf cake.

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Corgi Cottage Soup from Tasha Tudor's cookbook.

This was the first time I have made this soup & everyone liked it.

Perfect with fresh bread.

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George had spotted a butterfly that had flown in, he does remind me of Tom Kitten.

 Perhaps we will have to stuff newspaper in the old range in the hall, we have a hole that goes right to the chimney pot!

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Little George has been sleeping on my lap while I have been writing this post, he loves to be loved & is such a funny little thing.

Enjoy your day.

Fondly Michelle

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