1 November: Apple Ginger

After drying out clothing and equipment from yesterday's Roving Mark and Novelty Clout shoot (aiming arrows at pumpkins about 150 yards away across a deer park), I spent the morning slaving over a hot stove trying to reduce the huge quantity of apples from our 2 little trees.

There was a recipe in a 1940s booklet of my mother's which looked interesting, so 3 lbs of apples have become 5 lbs of Apple Ginger.

Having plenty of ground ginger and none of the root ginger listed in the recipe, I substituted, guessing the amount. Well, even if there's too much for other people, I like ginger.

28 June: Lake District part 2 - Woolfest

One of the reasons for our week in the Lake District was to visit Woolfest for a little stocking up on fibre and fibre-related items.


I collected my new inkle loom from Michael Williams - isn't it gorgeous? Really substantial, made from oak and maple.

There is the usual assortment of sock yarn, undyed and dyed from the Yarn Yard (I wound it into balls when we got home), some batts and "wild fibre" from Wingham, and some plain white fibre from P & M to blend it into, a lucet with bobbin from Ziggy Rytka (who was later spotted playing a hurdy-gurdy in the music area), a circular knitting needle, some buttons, and a book.

Oh, and 2 Shetland fleeces, straight from the sheep-owner. After my adverse experience with fleece when a novice spinner, I have avoided it and used prepared fibres, but these fleeces are so lovely that I decided it was time to have another try.

Then yesterday I was demonstrating spinning at an event which included sheep-shearing, and seem to have come home with a further 2 and a half fleeces - the half because 2 of us liked that particular grey colour. The grey and one black one are Shetland and the other black one is Hebridean.

The rest of today I shall be in the garden, combing and spinning fleece.

26 June: Woolfest

Exhausted after a trip to Woolfest today; that's me and my cash reserves.

But I have the fibre I need to spin up and finish DH's jersey, which has been on hold for a few weeks: some superwash BFL for a possible project: 3 hanks of Yarn Yard sock yarn: some Landscape dye samples: a couple of crochet hooks: a bag of pot-luck mixed buttons: a copy of Annemor Sundbo's book Invisible Threads in Knitting: and a Kromski rigid heddle loom.

How long have I been resisting weaving? Must. Not. Start. Weaving. As. Well. And there's enough knitting projects lined up to keep me busy for several more years.

Oh well, perhaps I can give up sleep.

Which reminds me - there will be karmic consequences for the driver of the van that pulled out in front of us as we were coming home, forcing DH to brake hard and swerve. It woke me out of a nice little nap.

25 January: Domestic goddess or what?

Today I have been mostly making marmalade.

I had this idea that home-made marmalade would be nicer than the shop stuff. And there's a preserving pan in the cupboard. We have assiduously recycled all our empty glass jars for months, but recently all jars have been carefully put aside; there were 6 by the time I spotted the marmalade oranges in the supermarket (just when I'd begun to think that Mr Tesco knew that nobody made their own any more, and didn't stock them). Luckily the cook shop in Durham sells jam jars.

Unsure how much would come from a bag of oranges, I bought 2 bags. By the time one bagful was chopped up this morning, it was perfectly clear that there were enough oranges for a couple of years' supply, at least.

So here is 1.5 kilos of oranges, one lemon, and 6 pints of water stewing away merrily -


Unfortunately, the instructions about the pips were a bit unclear, and when the fruit was cooked up, there were about a thousand pips still in it. So a merry hour or so was spent picking the pips out.

In went 3 kilos of sugar, and the whole lot boiled -


until it was done. Then came a rather sticky episode, pouring the (extremely hot) marmalade into a jug which poured it erratically into the assembled warm jars -


This photo is after wiping off the excess stickiness. The recipe booklet is one that my mother extravagantly paid sixpence for, but it's probably been worth it.

I was so pleased with my efforts that I made some labels on the computer; the jars may be an odd assortment, but the labels all match!


Now, what about that second bag of oranges.....

30 October: Flapjack

Natalie over at the Yarn Yard has asked about my flapjack recipe. So here it is -

8 oz marge - but it tastes so much better with butter, so I always use butter.
4 oz sugar
4 oz golden syrup - for those who do not wish to weigh it, 2 good tablespoonfuls will do.
4 oz self-raising flour
12 oz oats.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is all mixed in one large saucepan, saving immensely on the washing-up. It has been in use for well over 35 years by me, and I may have got it from my mother - I really can't remember.

The butter, sugar and syrup are all melted over a low heat. The flour is stirred in, and I always leave it to stand for a few minutes so that the warmed raising agent starts to fluff it up. Then in go the oats, a good stir to mix thoroughly (you may, if you wish, add ginger or almond flavouring, though I never bother). Transfer to a tin - my favourite 10" square one is now sadly past it, and they don't seem to make that size any more, so I use a traybake sort of tin, about 10 and a half inches by about 7 and a bit. (That's probably a tidy metric size.)

The oven should already be heated - I forgot to tell you that at the beginning - to about 160 C or 170 C, depending on your oven , and it takes roughly 25 to 30 minutes to cook.

When it comes out of the oven, mark the pieces with a suitable tool, and leave to cool in the tin . If you don't mark it at this stage, it is much harder later on to do so and keep the pieces neat.

For a photo of a tray of flapjack cooling, click on the 'baking' label.

29 October: The end of October

Happy Birthday to Senior Grandson!

The end of the summer time, and the harvest is in -

DH's little apple trees have produced a surprising amount of fruit. Most have come from the Fiesta tree - the Ashmead's Kernel (the more russety ones) have been fewer. I have so far tried only the Fiestas; not that keen on apples, I can make an exception for them. Actually it's probably the supermarket varieties of apple that I don't care for, but others are not widely available round here, as far as I know.

What we do get, though, at this time of year, after dark, is a lot of knocking on the front door. For some reason children seem unable to use a doorbell. They keep on knocking even if you don't open the door. This year DH has put up a notice advising them that they should not even ask.

I can't quite understand how it is that children who are constantly being told not to take sweets from strangers are at the end of October dressed up and sent out into the dark to solicit sweets from strangers.

5 August: Cricket tea

Here are some scones for tea - Bowl Movement Cricket Club may be interested.


And a tray of flapjack -


This very easy recipe is a regular for us, and although it contains butter, sugar, and syrup, must be nutritious, with all those oats in it.

Perhaps I'd better do something strenuous today, to offset the tea-time goodies.

3 August: Old, but still useful

Steaming something - remembered that a pinch of cream of tartar in the boiling water stops the pan turning black (Mrs Beeton?).

Knew there was a little container of it in the top cupboard, with the flour and baking powder, as it used to go into an excellent recipe for scones, which has not been made for a while, because of the amount of butter needed on a fresh scone. And when you make a dozen, they all have to be eaten while they're fresh, don't they?

Found the little drum, put in the pinch of powder, went to return it to the shelf, noticed the "Best Before" date.

When we moved, five years ago, didn't we check all the stuff coming out of the old kitchen and going into the new one? Really is it so long since I used to do home-made scones? Have I gone back to hoarding stale ingredients?

It was dated Feb 98.

The new container I bought this morning is dated Aug 08. You never need more than a teaspoonful in a recipe, but I don't suppose it will get used up any quicker than the last one. Unless I start baking scones again ......

25 July: Monster Mash

Happy birthdays to Grandchild 3 and Grandchild 4, yesterday and today respectively!

Remember we planted potatoes back on Good Friday? (7 April's posting mentioned them.) Well today we dug some of them up.

They are completely organic, having had no sprays or anything other than garden compost and grass cuttings on them. So naturally, they have attracted some of our garden wildlife. 2 of the 6 or 7 plants we dug up had been attacked by slugs, and I found a millipede and a woodlouse in the water when I washed a heap for our meal tonight. Yes, of course I rescued them and released them into the wild - threw them out of the kitchen window.

The ones with slug damage or that we'd speared with the fork got cooked tonight, and the rest, cleaned up and checked over, have been stowed away in bags in a dark cupboard. We ate great mounds of mash with a quiche, but there's a big bowl full of cold mash in the fridge. Looks like fried potato, mushrooms, courgettes, and eggs tomorrow.

Elsewhere, Le Tour now has the drug scandal that lots of journos have been looking for. If only other sports and games were tested like cycling, there would be a lots of "drug cheats" uncovered in other arenas. The bike racing is still fascinating - would have been better still with Marco Pantani in it.

And back with the knitting, or rather crochet - the New, Improved, Mark 2 String Bag is under construction!!

You will just have to contain your excitement for a little longer, though, till it's properly finished and photographed.

30 June: Woolfest

As DH and I sat in the marquee extension to the Woolfest cafe, eating our sandwiches and listening to the rain hammering on the canvas above us, we began to think it was a really good idea to have brought our raincoats, but not such a good idea to have left them in the car.

There was more to see than last year, perhaps fewer animals, but this year there were llamas and alpacas as well as sheep and at least one rabbit. It was also much more crowded with visitors, hence the lack of photos.

I did lots of browsing, a bit of chatting, and some buying.

At the back is a peg loom - a simple but effective tool. Five minutes to get the hang of, and then it's down to materials and colour choices. It could be the solution to the lifetime supply of rug wool in my workroom.

Then at the front, on the left is some of The Yarn Yard's hand-dyed organic merino roving; when spun it will make exciting knitting yarn. I shall probably start spinning it tomorrow. And probably start knitting it on Monday.

Next is a hank of undyed sock wool, wool and nylon mixed - for me to dye myself.

Then 2 balls of Socka sock wool (thinking ahead to the winter here, folks), the peg loom instruction booklet, and at the front a small bag of expensive, but very attractive buttons (really good buttons can be quite hard to find, and can make a lot of difference to a cardigan or waistcoat), and lastly another row counter, for those times when I have 2 projects in progress at the same time.

There were lots of spinning wheels about, of course, but the one that I really fancied was the Majacraft Suzie - but at rather over £400, no way I can justify buying one of those. Especially as I already have 2 wheels. But what if I disposed of one, and then upgraded.......