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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The Twins Birthday & a Beautiful Sunday Walk

This has been a truly wonderful week at the cottage full of celebrations & special times visiting our neighbours.

I love this time of year when the twins were born, the earth is all bursting through in to new life.

Daffodils are all around the village, the January lambs are in the fields & the Spring lambs will be born in the next week.

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Dene & Ellie bought me this lovely plant.

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Primula's all ready for some simple table decorations on the adults table at the party.

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I made some cheese puffs for the party from Ruth Mott's Cookbook.

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They were such a simple thing to bake & tasted wonderful.

I am sure I will make these many times.

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A quick photo before the party started.

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Kitty's taking a peek in to the boy's party bags.

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Pass the Parcel.

We had a boys one & a girls one.

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Kitty showing such excitement over her prize in the parcel.

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Time for lunch.

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The Adults Table.

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It was wonderful that so many people came to celebrate the girls birthday.

There were so many of the villagers there with ages ranging from 91 to 5.

It was such a special day, one we will treasure.

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Kitty chose a butterfly.

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Mary was a princess.

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Daisy, Mary & Kitty.

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Harold one of our neighbours brought the girls these lovely fruit baskets.

He is a wonderful gentleman & was the oldest at the party.

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A beautiful Sunday afternoon walk.

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The weather was lovely last Sunday, the air so clear & warm.

After all the hard work the day before at the party is was wonderful to get outside & enjoy our countryside.

We heard what we thought were lambs from our garden, so we set of to see if we could find some.

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The sun was so warm, the girls are so happy in all that they do.

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Mother's with their lambs a couple of fields away from the cottage.

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Walking up to the stile on our way home.

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This is the field next to our garden, you can see the tall fir trees at the end of our garden.

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First blossom of the year.

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Finding shade under a tree full of blossom.

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Arriving home, the village is full of daffodils.

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Violets found under one of our apples trees while clearing the ground.

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On Thursday we had a special day spent with the girls & visiting a wonderful lady from our village in the afternoon. We also went to see the sheep being fed at the farm down the lane, in a few days they will be Mother's once more.

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They chose a simple cake with chocolate & smarties for their little birthday tea.

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Some of the pretty home made cards the girls received.

Ellie does beautiful cards & has a craft stall booked for next month.

She has just started a blog it is called The Endeavours of a Contented Homemaker 

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The end of another wonderful day, the sun setting at the end of the garden over the head stones.

My love for our cottage & garden just grows & grows & I feel so blessed to have finally found home.

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We are now starting a wonderful two weeks break from School & will spend a lot of time on the vegetable patch & in the greenhouse. Many hands make light work & we have many hands.

Thank you my dear readers for all your comments.

Fondly Michelle

Spring Days at the Cottage & Mothering Sunday

This has been a beautiful week at the cottage, a week full of sunshine & all those jobs that need doing after the Winter. 
The tree's although leafless are full with buds just waiting to open. Our magnolia tree is full of large buds, how pretty that looks when it is in full bloom. Hedges around the village are springing to life & the cow parsley is coming back on the sides of the lanes around us. 
March carries all the hope for the year ahead with a lovely fresh smell of all things new in the air.

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Some more sweet delicate flowers found popping up near the old pear tree.

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A little baking for the weekend.

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Hearty soup made with the Sunday chicken bones, we quite often have soup on Mondays. This one is a favourite with vegetables, rice & pasta.

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Banana & Chocolate Chip Muffins.

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I sometimes make these smaller as they last a little longer & the larger size is a little too much for the twins sometimes.

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10 ozs self raising flour

1 tsp baking soda

3 large banana's

4 ozs sugar

1 egg

3 flozs oil

2 flozs milk

Add flour to bowl with baking soda & mix with a fork.

In another bowl mash banana's & add sugar.

Mix oil, egg & milk together then add it to the banana's & sugar.

Pour wet into dry mix & stir gently until combined, do not beat.

Pour in to muffin cases & bake for around 20 minutes at 200 c / 375 f.

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We have wonderfully happy hens, these are a few of them.

There are so many eggs at the moment that we are giving a lot away.

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The mother sheep are in the field just waiting for the babies to be born.

Lambing is due to start on around the 1st of April at the farm over the road.

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Amish Spiced Honey Cookies for the Mothering Sunday church service.

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This is one of our favourite cookie recipes, the children love them.

I have all the Amish Cook recipe books & love them, every recipe I have tried has turned out beautiful.

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George loves Geraniums & sunshine.

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The girls love to bake, on Saturday they made some plain cupcakes from a Mennonite cookbook we have.

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Choosing the one they would like.

These are a lovely soft plain cake & great to fill a tin.

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Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

After our studies in the morning the girls choose what they would like to do in the afternoon.

Painting is one of their favourite things to choose & also crafting.

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I have not picked up an artist brush for fifteen years, there has been plenty of other sorts of paint brushes though. I used to love to paint & did so much of it when I was at art college.

Seeing as I was sitting with the girls I thought I would do a little painting too.

I had such fun painting with them & Kitty even gave me a few flicks of paint to add to my work.

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We had a special service at our little church for Mothering Sunday.

During the service all the children went to the back of the church to make cards & little bunches of flowers for their Mother's.

I put my bunches all in an old jug & have them in the parlour, they are full of Spring.

I received some beautiful handmade cards from the children. more memories for my keepsake chest upstairs.

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I was really spoilt on Mother's Day & received some special gifts.

My wonderful husband gave me a beautiful old miniature of an old gentleman, now my lady is not on her own.

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I hope all the English Mother's that follow me had a beautiful Mothering Sunday. We celebrate it at a different time of the year to the rest of the world, it is always in between Shrove Tuesday & Easter Sunday.

Thank you all for your lovely comments, I love hearing & learning from you all.

Fondly Michelle

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