A Beautiful Day's Outing Before School Starts

Part One.

We had such a beautiful day for our day out to Beamish Living Museum, we always love going there & the sun truly shone for us on Tuesday.

I had made raspberry muffins the day before so we left at 7 o'clock & had breakfast on the journey.

 

 

                                                    Raspberry muffins & tea bread.
We always take a picnic when we have days out & with five children I need to bake plenty. Daisy was painting at the other end of the table.

 

We were there at just past 10 o'clock & were so glad to get out of the car. Beamish has old trams & buses to get on but we decided to walk to the 1900's Town our first stop, the fresh air was lovely after being in the car.

 

 

Kitty & Mary outside a little hut on the walk to the town.

I wonder what they were talking about.

 

We arrived at the Bakers first & they were in the middle of making tea cakes. They have a shop next door where you can buy bread & cakes they bake.

                    Next stop was Jubilee sweet shop, they were making cinder toffee.

The twins outside Annfield Plain Co-op which is the grocer's, they do enjoy going in all the shops. A lot of the building's & inside's were moved from other places in England to here, Annfield Plain is in County Durham. The girls love watching all the demonstrations & get quite involved in them, you are not so shy when you are five.
                                                

 

Inside the grocer's shop.

All the bags of tea, sugar, lentils & other food item's were in different colour bags, this way to help people that could not read.

 

I love all the old tins & packets.

To go back & shop here.
The till was made in Dayton, Ohio.

 

Beautiful old buttons & threads, I have some similar from my Grandmother's sewing box.

 

Kitty's looking at her next pair of boots. Oh I wish you could buy the displays, she loved those boots.

 

Inside the hardware shop.

There were household goods sold here.

There was so much beautiful china, oil lamps, candles in here.

 

This is a cottage in Ravensworth Terrace, a row of houses in the town.  They were making chutney in this kitchen, that is on my list to do next week.

 

                            Kitty in one of the bedrooms, she could have stayed the night.

 

I loved these outside one of the cottages.

This is the nursery bedroom in the town. The twins stood here for ages talking about what toys they would like, we have a lot of antique & vintage toys at home that they play with.

 

A beautiful cast iron range.

 

We have a cupboard similar to this one, it all felt so homely.

 

One of the trams picking up people in the old town. Here are two of our boy's Danny & Sidney.

 

I took so many photo's so I will do a few posts about Beamish. There is a beautiful Georgian Manor circa 1825, a 1940's farm & a Victorian coal mining town to come.

 

We have a new member coming to the family a week on Sunday, a little kitten.

We are trying to think of a name for him.

 

Thank you all for your lovely comments.

Fondly Michelle

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