Old Fashioned Living

The month of May has brought blossom to our garden, with cherry, pear & apple tree's we have many pretty shades.

The bluebells are blooming in their loveliness & the little glades around us are full of them in this season.

Baby rabbits are all over the garden nibbling the grass & playing, Spring has really sprung.

Blue Tits, Robins, Wrens & Blackbirds are singing heartily in the garden as I write, we have had a heavy shower of rain & the little birds are hunting for food. Darting in & out of the hedgerows which line our garden on the church side, they are such a joyful site. The rain has brought the blossom showering down like snow in little drifts all over the garden, it such a pretty site when the sun shines after rainfall.

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Pear blossom.

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Picking the first rhubarb of the year to make some puddings.

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Rhubarb crumble, this caused such delight as we all love rhubarb.

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Painting in the garden.

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The girls love to paint & as it was a glorious day we decided to work outside. They do their studies in the morning & then choose an activity to do in the afternoon, it was painting on this day.

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Kitty concentrating.

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They do love to work in water colours as do I.

I brought my jumper outside to do some work on it as they painted.

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Mary making a flower out of the fallen Magnolia petals & some Daisy's.

Simple things are so much enjoyed when you are small. To watch the children playing & enjoying life brings so much joy to my heart.

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The first jam making of the year, the smell of the rhubarb was wonderful.

This recipe I have made for many years, it is adapted from a Rhubarb & Ginger recipe, we omit the ginger as the little one's would not like it even though they love gingerbread.

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All potted up & ready for the pantry shelves.

I love when the fruit starts to come & jam making season begins.

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My new Bleeding Heart with Forget me Nots in the back ground.

I do love cottage garden plants & found this in our little market in the town a couple of miles away from the village.

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Apple blossom.

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Their first knitting lesson.

Such excitement, they are making little blankets for their dolls house.

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I am knitting a jumper for myself in such a lovely shade of green.

Lucy from 1940's Style for You posted this free knitting pattern, she is such a talented lady & does some beautiful knitting from 1930's & 1940's patterns.

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More rhubarb with some frozen blackcurrants for some more puddings.

I made a cherry cake out of a wartime cookery leaflet as well.

While the children do their studies in the morning I bake, it works out well as I am around them.

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It was a lovely cake very much like a Madeira as there was lemon zest in it.

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The recipe.

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George loves to play in the inglenook fireplace, it is so warm in that corner with the cooker going plus there is the kindling basket which makes for hours of fun for him.

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Five O'clock Tea Cakes quickly made for the Sunday tea table.

This recipe came from a 1920's Borwicks Baking Powder book, the recipe called for a quick oven so I presumed that was hot. They turned out well anyway & the plate was soon empty.

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Enjoy this beautiful month of May.

It is my birthday month so I do love it so.

Thank you my dear readers for all your kind words.

Fondly Michelle 

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Cottage Days in the Garden & some Knitting.

The days are lengthening & we are spending beautiful days outside working in our garden.

The old fashioned perennials Delphinium, Foxglove & Hollyhocks are popping up all over the cottage garden & the joyous sound of bird song is all around us.

Forget me nots are in full bloom in the cottage beds & the beloved Bluebell is coming in to flower once again.

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Precious Bluebells.

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Spring flowers in the garden.

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Beautiful Aubrieta, this plant always reminds me of my grandfather, he had lots in his front garden.

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The Magnolia in full bloom.

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An old apple picking ladder in the garden.

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We have been looking for an Easiwork cabinet from the 1920's for a long time, it is the final piece we were after for the scullery & has wonderful storage which we really need.

Andy drove two hours away to pick this one up from Yorkshire & the following day we used a lot of elbow grease to clean her up.

She is wonderful, it is like a kitchen in a cupboard & is ideal for bread making & pastry.

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A wartime Gingerbread recipe using one egg.

We bake & cook from scratch & make the most out of our food budget. It is very pleasing to make frugal meals & realise how much you save.

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George & Bobby in their favourite spot, bless them they do sleep a lot.

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The twins helping with the enlargement of the vegetable garden.

They were picking up the last of the old tree root.

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Bobby enjoying the sunshine.

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Our vegetable garden.

We have been making the vegetable garden a lot bigger this past week.

There has been old tree roots to move & grass to take up. It is great to finally have it the size we want, we have just been here two years & everything takes time.

We would love a wooden greenhouse, maybe in a few years.

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I finished my first long sleeved jumper from a 1940's pattern.

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I used some vintage back buttons to finish it off & now it is tucked away for next Winter.

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A visit to the wool shop in a nearby town.

I bought some lovely 1940's green wool for a new jumper.

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Almond Loaf Cake.

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The two miniature's together in the hall.

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Cheese puffs from Ruth Mott's cookbook & a light fruit cake for Saturday tea.

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This Sunday I used three bags of fruit from the freezer, gooseberries, blackberries & tayberries to make a sponge pudding.

It was lovely warm served with cream.

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We found some vintage Laura Ashley curtains at a local antique shop for a bargain £12.50.

I have taken them up for our bedroom & the remainder I will use to cover two green 1930's Lloyd Loom chairs. This Summer we hope to decorate our bedroom as before moving in we just sanded the floor boards & fixed the walls ready for decorating.

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Ellie turned 21 last weekend, we celebrated with a lovely lunch with her family on Sunday.

Now Ellie & Dene are spending a lovely week in the Lake District, it will be their first visit to Hill Top.

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Thank you dear readers for your lovely comments.

Enjoy this beautiful Spring day.

Fondly Michelle

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I joined The Charm of Home Home Sweet Link Party

Spring Lambs & the Cottage at Easter Time.

Spring has come to the cottage garden in it's loveliness.
Winter has departed & now the garden is softened with young green buds & leaves just about to open. It will not be long until the wild cherry trees in the grave yard behind the cottage garden are full of their beautiful dark pink blossom.
In the nuttery near the farm it is Primrose time & in the garden too. This delicate pale yellow flower smells so fresh & brings back fond memories of Springtime as a child.
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The Spring lambs are being born at the farm in the village, it is such an amazing sight to see these little bundles an hour after their birth.
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Mary doing her vintage puzzle from the 1940's, this was one of her gifts from us for her birthday.

Both of the girls do love vintage toys & games.

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A touch of Easter on the kitchen dresser.

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Easter touches on the Parlour mantle.

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I finished the little patchwork knitting bags for the twins for Easter.

I remember having this book as a child, the girls are so excited to get started.

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Making Easter fairy cakes for Easter Sunday & some for the villagers.

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The girls made five pretty plates to take to our friends from church who live in the village.

It brings such joy to my heart to see how full of life & happiness these little girls are & how much they want to give to other's.

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The village farmer rung us up so we could come & see the first Spring lambs & watch how the new mother's tend to these little lambs in the first few hours of life.

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There were lots of smiles.

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The sheep in the back ground are waiting for their lambs to be born.

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The twins making Easter cards.

Our dear friend Maggie from Ireland sent these craft kits for the girls to make.

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Easter Morning.

The air was damp for the egg hunt but it did not dampen the girls enjoyment.

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Soon this apple tree will be full of blossom.

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The Easter Lunch Table.

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Dene & Ellie made this pretty Easter cake.

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We had such a special Easter Sunday shared with Dene & Ellie & Harry & Kate.

After lunch we went again to the farm to see even more new born lambs.

These are Lincolnshire Longwool sheep, their babies are so beautiful.

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The sun came out & Daisy took this photo of us having a lovely walk around the farm's little lake.

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Empire Cake for Sunday Tea on a new cake stand I found at an antique shop.

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8 oz self raising flour.

4 oz margarine.

4 oz sugar.

4 oz sultana's & 2 oz's glace cherries.

1/2 teaspoon of mixed spice.

1 egg 

1/8 pint of milk.

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Rub the margarine into the flour.

add all the other ingredients 7 mix with milk & beaten egg.

Grease a 6 inch tin & line.

Bake at 350 o for 1 1/2 hours.

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I finished reading a set of Amish novels by Beth Wiseman & enjoyed them so much.

Now I am reading another Nella Last diary. As soon as I started I was back in Nella's life, she has such a beautiful way of talking about nature & her beautiful day trips to her beloved Lake District.

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Two beautiful books that I found for the twins.

They are about how we used to live one hundred years ago in a town house & in a country cottage, of course the cottage book was our favourite.

The illustrations are beautiful, there is so much to talk about in these books.

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Apple Crisp.

I had some apples to use up so I did a family favourite.

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Thank you dear readers for your lovely comments, each one is read & loved.

Enjoy the beautiful Springtime.

Fondly Michelle 

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