Early Autumn Days

We have been enjoying some beautiful sunny days here in the Lincolnshire countryside.

Autumn has come upon us with warm days and gentle turning leaves.

Our garden is still giving us such delights to place upon our table, it has been an abundant year.

Apples are ripening into a beautiful deep red and I have been busy putting them in to crumbles for the freezer. Chutneys are next with apples, pears and green tomatoes.

Our garden has blessed us once again.

This is such a busy time of year with preserving what we have grown and tidying the garden ready for the Winter.

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I made this boiled fruit cake, it is becoming a family favourite.

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We have been using our old 1930's car quite a lot, taking it to a few nearby towns. It is such a fun car to travel in and brings a smile to folks on the way.

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We have apples in abundance so many different types of apple puddings have been made.

This is a sponge pudding with apples and some gifted Victoria Plums.

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4oz's of margarine beaten with 4 oz's of white sugar, then add 4 oz's of wholemeal self raising flour, 2 eggs and a drop of almond essence. Beat well with a little milk and pour batter over fruit that has sugar on. Bake for around 40 minutes in a moderate oven.

We enjoy this with cream.

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We took our old car to a classic car show in our village. The day was glorious and the girls enjoyed it down by the lake, it was a lovely event with some wonderful old cars and a lovely cake stall.

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The twins love the suitcase shelf in the car.

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We had a beautiful day in Lincoln and had a very English afternoon tea up on Steep Hill.

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While putting in a new fence on one side of our garden we found a few treasures. We hired a mini digger for a couple of days as so much land needed levelling. We found the old rubbish dump, whole bottles kept coming out of the earth, it was amazing.

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We also found this old metal sign buried, it took quite a bit of work getting it out whole, we could not believe what we had found.

After a little research we found the shop it had come from 5 miles away.

I love this old photo.

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Some of the many bottles and pots we found all washed up.

They have now found homes all around the cottage.

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A marble cake for Saturday tea with a chocolate topping.

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The beetroot has done so well once again.

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Scones for Sunday tea.

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We purchased a new dresser a few months ago.

The back boards are so wide, it is an early Georgian one.

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The girls helping to make lemon drizzle cake.

They love to bake.

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It was delicious.

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This is a recipe we were given years ago, it makes such a soft cake.

Cream together 5ozs margarine, 6 ozs sugar and grated rind of a lemon.

Add 8 ozs self raising flour, 2 eggs and 2 floz of whole milk.

Bake in a round cake tin for 45 minutes at 160.

Squeeze lemon juice over cake whilst still hot then sprinkle with three tablespoons of sugar over the top.

Leave to cool before removing it from the tin.

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I found these beautiful early 1930's Good Housekeeping magazines the other day.

They are full of beautiful fashions and baking.

I love the old adverts.

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A mountain of apples.

The weather has been glorious these last few weeks.

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I found Delia's Book of Cakes in a charity shop, I was so pleased as I had been looking for it for a while.

I decided to bake the wholemeal Madeira cake with lemon icing.

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All ready for Saturday tea.

It was so beautiful and soft.

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Kitty enjoying this beautiful weather we have been having all dressed up in her flower fairy costume in the garden.

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Apples picked for some crumbles to put in the freezer.

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Harvest Festival in our little church.

The twins made these little decorations to put around the font for the service.

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On the day before the service we went to decorate the church.

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Home picked produce for the Harvest Festival.

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Every year we have a Harvest Meal after the service in the village hall.

I made Eve's pudding to bring.

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My husband bought me these lovely old Miss Read books, some are first editions. 

I am really enjoying reading the Miss Read books and can't wait for my evening read and to get back in to Miss Read's world. Along with H E Bates and Nella Last these are my favourites.

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Sweet George loves to sit on these old flour buckets.

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A fresh bloomer loaf for tea.

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The leaves are starting to turn all around us.

This is the first tree to change colour in our garden, it is such a pretty colour.

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A little hooked pumpkin mat I hooked a few years ago comes out for another year.

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I am on the last section of this 1930's cardigan finally. It has been a long pattern to do, maybe something smaller next.

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Thank you dear reader's for your lovely comment's and welcome to my new followers that have found me through Instagram.

Happy Autumn to everyone.

Fondly Michelle

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Summer's End

Summer has come to an end once again & the kitchen garden is giving up it's wonderful delights. It is delightful to see how well the marrows, beetroot, tomatoes & potatoes have done.

The days are becoming shorter & have a faded deep glow to them. Hay & wheat is all harvested now & the fields all now have their earth all turned & ready to lay bare all Winter.
There has been an abundance of hedgerow fruits this year & the robins are back in the garden watching you work.
Holly berries are everywhere on our trees that line the front of our garden although at the present they are hard little green berries waiting to ripen into the pretty scarlet colour that we know so well.
The Hazel trees in the lanes & our garden are fruiting well, the squirrels & rabbits are making the most of the fallen nuts.
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Tomatoes from our garden.
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Harvesting beetroot.

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We have an abundance of raspberries so I made some muffins.

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The girls sunflowers have been blooming lovely.

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I made a honey cake from Beatrix Potters Country Cooking Book.

It was a lovely cake, I used honey from our village. We have a man who has bee's & just lives behind the church.

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Molly Cake.

A lovely lady on Instagram made this so I looked it up & used the Waitrose recipe online.

It turned out lovely & uses no fat or eggs.

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A lovely walk last week over the wheat fields, the weather was warm & breezy.

We have never seen cows before in this field, it was lovely to see them.

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The twins enjoying a ride on their scooters along the lane.

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The simple beauty of golden wheat.

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Daisies & wheat.

The wild flowers are beautiful in the fields around us.

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One of the wheat fields halfway through harvesting.

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We spot some blackberries on our way home almost ready for picking.

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Home grown Victoria plums, hedgerow blackberries & home grown raspberries make such a pretty colour for chutney.

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I have never used berries before in chutney. The colour was so pretty & it smelled wonderful when cooking. It is quite a runny chutney, we will see in a month or so when we try some if I will make it again.

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Daisy passed all her GCSE's, we are so proud of her.

She is now going on to study her A levels.

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Over the Summer we have been decorating our bedroom.

There were ten layers of old wallpaper over the beams so it took some work.

The quilt is very precious to me, I made it over a few pregnancies all by hand.

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I thought you would like to see our little 1930's electric cooker, we use this when it is to hot too light the wood fired cooker.

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Victoria Sponge.

I make this using the sponge recipe I have posted before.

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The apples are nearly ready for harvesting.

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The end of our garden is such a magical place.

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Sun shining through our hazelnut tree.

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Fresh eggs.

Thank you ladies.

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The twins enjoying the last week of Summer after we hung the wash out.

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Sweet George.

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Fresh raspberries for the twins breakfast.

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The marrows have done so well this year, I am trying to think of different ways to use them.

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Plum & greengage Crumble.

A few ladies on Facebook & Instagram have asked for the recipe.

This is the crumble recipe I use all the time, sometimes I add a few oz's of oats.

Rub 5 ozs of self raising flour & 3 ozs of butter together.

Then add 3 ozs of sugar, if using oats then mix them in now.

Sprinkle sugar over fruit & then crumble mix.

Bake in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes.

We had it served warm with cream.

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Ruth Mott's boiled fruit cake.

I make this often & would advise anyone to get her book.

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Victoria Plum Jam.

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I do love the sweet taste of this beautiful jam.

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All ready for the pantry shelved.

Both our eldest Son's gave me pretty Cath Kidston jam covers as gifts, they look to pretty on the jars.

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A few readers have asked for a selection of my favourite cookbooks so here they are.

I do have a cupboard full of cookbooks but these are the one's I use all the time, as you can see Ruth's book is in there.

Sorry it has taken me so long.

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I love this time of year when we harvest the fruits of our labour.

It has taken me a while to do this post sorry, the laptop lost it & I had to rewrite it.

Fondly Michelle

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