'How to Avoid Paperwork' or' Procrastination Works for Me'

One sunny day a few weeks ago, a Babbit appeared and decided to find a spot to snooze in the pretty garden. Looking around she spotted a mass of nodding flowers and settled herself down with a yawn.

But however hard Babbit tried she could not get comfortable. The sun was too strong (!!!) and her head began to ache. She searched some more until she came across the shade of a giant cabbage grown by the fair hands of the enchantress Pipany who was believed to make potions from the herbs in her garden and bring toy animals to life through the magic of her stitches. (Bear with me, I'm avoiding paperwork!!)

Try though she might, Babbit could still could not sleep. A gentle breeze ruffled the veined leaves of the cabbage, the light casting an unearthly glow as the they moved to and fro. Babbit moved on again and saw ahead of her an open door which led into a ramshackle house, the tired gutters full of birds' nests and the flaking paint of the windows sheltering intricate works of art: tiny woodlice wrapped in gossamer threads which shimmered in the soft breath of the wind; delicate spiders swinging like circus acrobats, their swollen bodies performing acts of great agility and skill as they wove and bound their treasures away safe from prying eyes.  Babbit left the magical garden behind and entered the (very shabby) house...

where she soon found a place to lie. Soft and warm and wrapped in the comforting folds of a worn-but-lovingly-made patchwork quilt, Babbit's eyes finally began to close.

Before long, she was woken from her slumber by the sound of distant voices coming closer ... closer ... until finally there stood before her three creatures just like herself. The more Babbit looked, the more she realised there was something different about these happy souls - each wore a dress of the finest fabrics with tiny flowers scattered here and there, 

and a pretty blossom nestled just by their long floppy ears.

The littlest of the three said to Babbit, "My name is Baby Babbit. Come with us and we will take you to see Pipany. She will make you a dress to keep you warm and find someone to love you forever."   (Cos she's good like that you know)

Babbit so wanted a dress and to wear a flower by her ear. She went with the little Baby Babbit even though she was just a tiny bit scared of meeting the enchantress Pipany having heard so many tales about her. 

"Is it true she sings sad songs and teaches them to her children, songs of Gypsy Rovers and Angels Way up Yonder; songs of Packing up your Troubles and Goodbye (ee) that speak of war & loss? I've heard she sometimes plays notes (the wrong ones) on a piano accordion and makes the cats cry in pain at the sound?" said Babbit with a tremor in her voice.

"Oh yes, all that and more," said the little Baby Babbit happily. "At the Eve of All Hallows she dresses in the strangest garb and sticks her head into tubs of the coldest water to fetch an apple. She hangs bats from the ceiling and dances in her kitchen with her (creepy) wizard to the strains of Black Sabbath and Meat Loaf, the children hacking the innards from a pumpkin and candles guttering in the breeze."

Babbit was now visibly trembling when before her appeared Pipany bearing a sewing needle in one hand and a glass of the finest champy in the other (cheap Cava from Asda, but hey, it all tastes the same to me)

In no time at all the three Babbits explained the predicament and downing the contents of her glass with one huge gulp, Pipany set to work. She cut and she sewed and she sang and muttered darkly to herself in the manner of one deranged as is her wont until finally...

Babbit was clothed in a dress of her very won, a flower of the pales pink perched elegantly upon her pretty head and a label bearing the name of her precious new owner who would live with her and love her...forever.

And with a flourish the wicked witch - er, the beautiful and wondrous enchantress Pipany, sent the newly-clothed Babbit on her way to a life full of joy and happiness, where cuddles and laughter would fill her days and there would be no sad songs of lamenting and loss (though what's wrong with such songs I have yet to discover despite the endless groans of said children and 'wizard'!)

Ta ta for now! x

• Postscript: No Babbits were harmed in the making of this blog post.
• Pipany actually runs her business in a manner most efficient when not faced with a paper mountain needing filing, thus leading to drivvle such a s this.
• Potions made by the enchantress Pipany include blackberry gin and sloe gin, both of which are jolly good when mixed with champy and sipped lovingly from a champagne saucer.

The Olympits... Poltisko Farm Style!

Before I begin I would like to point out that this post is in no way flattering to the people contained within or indeed shows us in any light other than completely barking, but it was such a fun few days I couldn't resist! Besides, it is rather typical of what we do as a family and so honesty must prevail ...

One fine morning - a Sunday I think it was - Dave announced in the manner of the great Martin Luther King, "I have an idea..." Well, I did say in the manner of didn't I? His dream was to build a Games, a Games that would bring the family together in friendly rivalry; where bonds would be strengthened and new ties made over events such as Chess and Flower Arranging and Welly Throwing. Thus came about the first ever Poltisko Farm Olympit Games (Isabella can't say Olympics and we may not be fast but we are tenacious!)

Team PF (Poltisko Farm) included 

Elias

Davey (or is it Michael Moore!!)

Isabella

Lucy

And er, Me. Don't I just ooze that sporty vibe!

We had the 100 or so metres & Long Jump

Stone Skimming

on Castle Beach.

Contemporary Dance

Turn-over-splash which made us all feel dizzy and therefore extremely sick in the freezing cold waters of Falmouth Bay.

Egg & Spoon - some people tried to cheat by using a ladle and calling it a 'technicality'! 

There was Croquet on the lawn 

And at one point a Hobbit joined in!

I think Lucy got a tad carried away here! Why is there always washing in the background...sigh.

Indoor sports included Marble Run

Dave played Hurdles all on his own. Actually, he just got stuck going over the gate to the school field!

And as often happens in the Olympics, I had to get dinner on the go so Tom stood in for me in the Welly Throwing contest. Thus I got my one and only gold of the entire games! He's a bit good at sports is Tom.

Of course, he is yet another who likes to sabotage my photos by pulling crazy faces!

After each event we had a medal ceremony complete with badges made by Lucy and medals consisting of a Freddo Bar for Bronze, a white chocolate sprinkle-covered thingy for Silver and an Elizabeth Shaw mint for Gold. 

We also had the National Anthem playing on Davey's phone for each ceremony as is appropriate. Now I think about it we should have been singing 'Going Up Camborne Hill, Coming Down' or 'Fifty Thousand Cornish Men', or even some other Cornish anthem!

Other events included Taekwondo, Chess, Flower Arranging, Tarot (card game) & Handstands in the Sea. I don't think we have giggled so much for ages. A brilliant time and such a fantastic idea - well, done Davey.

And well done Team PF...I do love these guys x

Bye for now xx

Food - Cooking it, Eating it, Loving it!

For those of you not interested in food this may be a good time to look away as that is pretty much all this post contains apart from my usual rambling witterings served as a side dish. I cannot imagine not being interested in food. I love eating it, cooking it, thinking about it and reading about it. My usual question to friends when at University was 'what are you having for tea?',  not what is this essay about or what is Melville trying to say in Moby Dick (!!!!) or shall we study Silent Film next term (which we did and it was brilliant). No, my thoughts slipped all too frequently off the agenda and evermore toward food. To be fair I did have four children to feed at the time, but this is really a trend I have followed since childhood when I seemed to be permanently in a state of near-faint through lack of sustenance.

Anyhoo, the above pic is a rather yellowy shot of some of the delicious strawberries grown this year by Isabella. She is only six and already highly interested in food and the growing of it...hurrah! From strawberries we move toward the glorious soft coral colours of this beautiful lobster which was part of the most amazing seafood feast I have ever been lucky enough to eat. Should you ever plan to visit Falmouth and have a real love of shellfish then please try to book yourself in to The Wheelhouse, though make sure you book well in advance as it is very hard to get a table.

I asked for the carcass of our meal to be popped in a bag so that I could make stock for the freezer. Just look at the beautiful colours and shapes of the lobsters combined with mussel and scallop shells; the spiky beauty of a spider crab lies underneath, the whole infused with the flavours of each dish we had consumed: garlic and chilli; Thai rich coconut milk, basil and lemongrass; white wine, ginger and coriander. Oh how I wish I could eat it all again, fingers sticky and fragrant juices dribbling down my chin to be mopped up with copious amounts of the kitchen roll so thoughtfully provided. Sighs deeply in blissful remembrance.

Six pints of shellfish stock stowed away but somehow it is more than mere food in a freezer. Each one I use will bring back memories of a perfect night and hopefully make some new memories out of whatever it becomes - a meal shared maybe with the children, maybe with friends, possibly just the two of us. Who knows, but that's the magic of food I think.

And so, on to luscious dark velvety Tayberries picked from the fence in the hen pen where, thankfully, the hens can't actually reach.

Please note I did remove the mouldy one before using! Isabella helped pick these and was most disgusted that I let that one slip by me.

I had some egg whites in the fridge, leftovers from a carbonara earlier in the week. Aha, meringues then! Soft and chewy on the inside, gently crisp on the out, arranged into a Pavlova and heaped in the middle with soft-whipped cream and topped with a pouring of the Tayberries which I blitzed with sugar. So much nicer than cooking them as they retained a freshness that can sometimes be lost in heat. It was delicious and there are little meringues stowed away for Eton Mess later on this week.

Weekend baking - the hens are laying again thank goodness, so baking is firmly back on the agenda to use them all up - included savoury muffins. These had cheese, finely chopped kale, parsley and majoram all from the garden, and red pepper. So scrumptious warm with butter that we have scoffed most of them even though they were intended to go in the freezer as a change from wraps for school lunches! Ah well, they are very quick to make and you can vary the fillings so I can easily make more later. 

Lucy's friend came for a sleepover so I made my version of Chinese Belly Pork with ginger, soy sauce, garlic and loads of other ingredients that I can't make myself sit here typing! It was very yummy.

And lastly I bring you lemon drizzle cake. I love all things lemony and even once had a duck called Lemony in honour of the yellow fruit. This cake used lemon zest in the cake itself and then had copious amounts of lemon juice mixed with sugar gently poured over it while still warm, the sauce soaking down, down into the soft depths to create a cake oozing with tangy goodness and zingy enough to make you squint your eyes in that particular way. You know what I mean. It was good.

And so there you have it: a post rich in flavours and all about my possibly most favourite topic in the whole world - food. Mind you, I can talk for hours about knitting, gardening, sewing, dressmaking, kids, ducks, hens....you get the gist?

Bye for now x

Mixed Batch.

Yet more rain making photography rather challenging what with the low light levels and the general disorder in our house. Trying to find somewhere to snap a picture without clutter in the background is never easy in this little over-run home and we have been full to the brim with family and friends staying over lately. Much fun but very cramped times, though I have noticed how drawn to blogs with organisation as their topic I have been (thanks you Sue for making me desperate to clean out my enormous freezer!). 

So, to counteract this wonderful weather - hah - I have been gathering huge handfuls of herbs from outside the kitchen door: Sage, oregano, fragrant golden marjoram, piquant thyme and earthy parsley have all been chopped into most of my dishes for weeks now. It seems the rain has not diluted their flavour even if it has somewhat diluted my pleasure in harvesting them. This was a particularly hearty lamb hot-pot which chased off the chills and was served with creamy mashed potato and a heap of the gorgeous kale growing in my veg patch.

I have finally got around to adding a new drake to the duck pen to keep Pecan company although I have to say he is not the most robust looking specimen I have ever seen! Clarence the Khaki Campbell is much smaller than most of our ducks have been and is a bit scrawny to boot. His feet look far too large for his slender body, he has a very long thin neck (they have Indian Runner in their genes and it really shows with this chap) and when he lies down he looks as though he has given over this life! Yep, I really pick them don't I?  Poor soul. Ah well, at least Pecan is looking after him - yes, I know it should be the other way round but what's a girl to do when her man looks as though he's about to keel over?

The photos make him look a bit rangier than the reality!

Gratuitous image of hot sunny days on Mermaid, sailing the seas in floaty dresses to remind me that there is sometimes colour in the world and that one day it may return. Such a pretty girl that Lucy (biased? Me?)

More green, but this time it is the gooseberries which have been folded into cream and sugar with elderflower cordial - homemade of course - to make pillowy soft gooseberry & elderflower fool.

The redcurrants are late this year but are finally turning into scarlet globes. Surely the prettiest of fruits.

Summer the rabbit and Washington Elderberry the guinea pig are growing away and enjoying cuddles together in the rare sun

while Willow bowls up for a chat. The cutest animal sounds are definitely those of the guinea pigs chatting.

A little dressmaking has taken place with the waistcoat for Elias being followed by a skirt for Isabella and some pyjama bottoms which I have been unable to photograph as the little toad runs at the sight of me with a camera in my hand.

Soft lilac lupins are flourishing despite the rain and are in fact doing better than ever before

and my vegetable garden continues to feed us. I haven't had to buy greens for ages with the kale beginning to slow down only to be replace by huge red cabbages and leafy dark green types. Did you guess I forgot which varieties I am growing? No matter as they are all delicious.

The broad beans are almost over and will be replaced by leeks and other good things to see us through the winter. Look at the fennel growing away. I have never had any success with this fussy veg before and some of these are not bulking out as they should but will come in handy for aniseed  leaves to use with fish. The ones that are thickening up are most exciting to see....well, I think so anyway!

And finally another reminder of how pretty Cornwall looks in the sun. Please come back soon and warm these lovely shores. PLEASE!

Ah well, it's back to the knitting though more of that another day x