Days in Our English Cottage Garden

June is the noisiest month of the year in the garden, from the first light birdsong fills the air giving a true sense of the garden being alive. Thrushes & young Blackbirds are abundant especially after a heavy shower of rain, they scratch about beneath bushes & the large Magnolia tree looking to see what may be found there.

Sweet little Sparrows & young Starlings are everywhere too, along with the young rabbits they give George many hours of amusement at the windows.

The sun barely seems to sleep in June & all through the short nights there is a deep shine to the sky.

We have been in the garden, this time of year there are many tasks to keep us all busy, we feel blessed to have worked a full day & are ready for our beds by the end of the day.

The Gooseberry bushes are doing so well & we have just harvested our first of the year.

Life is wonderfully full at the cottage & I give thanks each day for it.

~

A shady spot under the Old English Walnut Tree.

~

One corner of the vegetable garden.

~

This beautiful climbing rose weaves it's way through one of our apple trees.

~

A beautiful day spent gardening & playing in the garden.

~

Our special Arthur Bell rose bush.

~

The Lupins in full bloom.

~

Foxgloves so remind me of Jemima Puddleduck.

~

Beautiful sunshine.

~

Playing ball, I love how they all play together.

~

Sweet Lilly of the Valley.

~

Fresh Wholemeal Bread.

~

We harvested our first gooseberries from the garden.

Over 7lbs of them from three heavy loaded bushes.

6lbs have gone in to the freezer until I get time to make jam.

Rhubarb as well has been going in to the freezer ready for warm puddings over the Winter.

~

The other gooseberries went in to a lovely oaty crumble for tea.

~

The Peonies are blooming.

So much is flowering in the garden at this time.

~

Ox Eye Daisies flowering around a purple rose I planted last Summer.

~

The scent of garden roses.

The yellow rose is called Arthur Bell, everywhere we live we plant one of these roses as both our Grandfathers were called Arthur.

~

Mary stirring Date Bread.

The twins love to have a wooden spoon in their hands.

~

Date bread ready for Sunday tea.

~

Sponge cake with fresh cream & English Strawberries for tea.

This is the basic sponge recipe I use all the time, it is so versatile.

~

Special gifts.

Our sweet daughter Amy made this beautiful cross stitch for our wedding anniversary, I am looking for an antique frame to put it in, it is such a special handmade gift.

Another special heart I received was my first Susan Branch book.

Cathy from Morning Musings entered me in her give away & I was so happy to have won this beautiful book.

~

I finally finished this 1940's jumper, with being unwell it had been put aside for a few weeks.

~

Two little vintage buttons used for each shoulder.

~

Thank you my dear readers for your lovely comments.

Fondly Michelle

~

Linked with

The Enchanting Rose

&

Home Making Monday's

Country Days in May

I always think May is the loveliest of all months.

Here at the cottage all those beautiful May flowers are in full bloom with all their perfume, the beautiful Lilac scents the garden.

We have many bushes of white & lilac.

Butterflies have gathered & this time of year are laying their eggs.

There is much to do outside, the sunflowers, marrow & bean seeds that the twins have planted are now popping their little heads out of the soil in the greenhouse.

Sweetcorn is ready to be planted & the tomatoes are growing well.

~

The cottage garden is an abundance of blue's at the moment.

Bluebells & sweet Forget me Nots.

~

A light fruit cake from a wartime leaflet.

This recipe used very little sugar.

~

Coconut Buns for Saturday tea.

~

We had a lovely few days when Andy's parents visited from Scotland.

I made a wartime dinner of potato & cheese pie.

This was found in a new wartime leaflet that I found a month ago.

We were given a huge bag of potatoes by the local farmer so this was an ideal recipe to try. lots of mash potato.

~

Mash some potatoes, mix grated cheese, salt & pepper in to it.

Then layer potato, slices of tomato, potato again then top with more grated cheese.

I did use more cheese than the recipe called for with it being a wartime recipe.

It was very tasty, Kitty who is not a great meat eater loved it so I will be making it again.

~

Planting cress .

~

They chose some antique tea cups to sow them in.

~

The girls cress in egg sandwiches for Saturday tea.

~

I received some lovely old magazine's from the 1930's & 1940's in the post, also a new knitting book.

The knitting book is full of vintage patterns & some useful information on using vintage patterns.

~

More rhubarb & more jam.

~

Another batch ready for the pantry.

~

Another tea cosy, this time I chose Spring colours from some left over wool.

~

A quick chocolate cake for tea.

~

An afternoon spent making pretty dresses.

They love cutting & glueing.

~

A little early morning visitor in the rhubarb patch.

The baby rabbits are so sweet but they do like the beetroot seedlings, so Andy has been making arches from chicken wire to protect them.

~

Danny turned fourteen on the 12th of May.

He chose a chocolate cake with butter icing & sweets on top.

We had a lovely evening celebrating with family.

~

Trying out different ways of using my basic bread dough.

I used cinnamon, sugar & butter to make a cinnamon swirl loaf, we toasted it for Sunday tea.

~

Freshly cut Lilac from the garden.

~

Wellington Cake.

This is a cake I have never baked before, it is an old 1950's recipe.

It was as light as a feather, I will make it many times as Mary loved it.

~

Recipe for Wellington Cake.

8 ozs self raising flour.

pinch of salt.

4 ozs margarine.

8 ozs sugar.

1/4 pint of milk.

2 eggs.

Cream the margarine & sugar together. Then gradually beat in the beaten eggs. Fold in the flour & salt & then add milk to give a soft dropping consistency.

Bake for 30 ~ 35 minutes in two lined 8 inch cake tins at 375 degrees F

Sandwich together when cooled with jam or other filling.

~

More experimenting with my basic bread dough.

This time I added sultana's, cinnamon & honey.

The girls do not like mixed peel so this recipe worked out well for them.

They made a lovely breakfast treat.

~

Learning to crochet.

~

I made a couple of dish cloths, I am hooked & find it so much quicker than knitting especially for things like dish cloths. I have bought the girls some crocheting hooks & they can't wait to get started on some more dish cloths.

~

Thank you my dear readers for all your lovely comments, I do love to hear from you.

Enjoy this beautiful Springtime day.

Fondly Michelle

~

I joined The Charm of Home Link Party

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.

~

Pear blossom.

~

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

~

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

~

Painting in the garden.

~

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.

~

Kitty concentrating.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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.

~

All potted up & ready for the pantry shelves.

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

~

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.

~

Apple blossom.

~

Their first knitting lesson.

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

~

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.

~

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.

~

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

~

The recipe.

~

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.

~

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.

~

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 

~