Time flying by.

Where is the time going? I can't seem to keep up with the children, the seasons, the world....ah well, let's have a glass of something nice and let it all flow past. Here is me and my nose (sigh) enjoying a glass of elderflower champagne on the wet and windy day that was the solstice.





Our champagne has a slight problem this year in that it is making so much fizz it disperses almost as soon as it is poured into the glass leaving a faint tinge of disappointment. It starts well as can be seen in the picture below, but just doesn't last - such a shame as the taste is just unbelievable: nothing like the elderflower cordial (still time to make some people and our recipe is here), it's a different, deeper, just beautiful flavour that fills the mouth with gorgeousness. Oh I can't explain it but it is just the best. Well, apart from the disappearing bubbles which are so violent that they burst our pressurised beer barrel - we don't make anything in small amounts here and had to fill a couple of kegs with the stuff! We will work out the problem and how to resolve it and in the meantime just sip away.






The weather this weekend was appalling: rain, dull, grey and dull again. The sun did make an appearance on Sunday for a while, but I was glued to the sewing machine and was unable to take advantage of it unlike Mr Dave and the children who popped off to the allotment. The grass there was rather long and so Dave tackled that while Elias and Lucy sowed seeds of various vegetables which they forgot to write the names of - they'll have great fun guessing what they are as they grow. I, meanwhile, felt a great sense of satisfaction at boxing up this little lot of lovelies before starting work on the next wholesale order...phew!





The garden is going through a change with agapanthus flowers just beginning to break, loosestrife and margeurites vying for attention and hot pink lychnis peeping in and out of the greenery. The posy at the top is composed of chive flowers, alchemilla mollis, yellow loosestrife and feverfew; not the best photo as the light was so poor, but a burst of colour nonetheless. The redcurrants are ready for picking - in fact I think I have missed some already - and look just wonderful; I like to use them on pavlovas or on top of cakes as a decoration, but I might freeze some to use with berries later on in the autumn in a mixed berry cordial.





That's it for today. Have a lovely rest of Wednesday everyone xx

A weekend mix.

What a mix this weekend turned out to be - rain, grey and cold for most of Saturday followed by beautiful sunshine and brilliant nlue skies for Sunday. Typically, we arranged Isabella's birthday party for the wrong day and instead of playing in the garden with the paddling pool and bubble machine to hand, the children were racing around the house bravely clutching their chocolate cake to help them on their way!



Ah well, it was still a lovely day consisting of my bestest friend popping over in the morning for a cup of tea and a chat as Dave and I cooked pizza toppings, pasta salad, brownies and of course the gorgeous chocolate birthday cake traditionally made by dave. Actually, Mr Dave was a bit of a star as he donned his apron (a blue and brown deckchair striped pipany version obviously!)and had cooked a batch of scones, loaf of bread and sausage rolls, aided and abetted by Isabella, by 9.30 am!



The picure above is of the posy I picked for my friend as it was also her birthday. Funny how all the flowers in the garden just now seem to be shades of purple, from soft lilacs through to the deeper mauves of the aquilegia. The contrast with the rich orange of Black Prince marigolds was quite startling and not something I would usually use without a few toning shades to soothe it a little, yet the whole made a very pleasing nosegay (love that word) for a very special person.



Sunday consisted of yet more cooking - a roast for lunch and a marmalade cake made with our own marmalade - then up to the allotment in the afternoon to find rabbits ahd got in despite the fence and eaten our lettuces! Arghh!! Obviously we need to sink it a bit deeper, but at least we found this out before everything else got too far forward - determined to start looking on the bright side as we have had weeks of things going awry: tumble dryer broke, lightbulb went on the sewing machine as I sewed late one night, still having car problems, etc......



Still, the runner bean canes are in and sown, more of the field is skimmed and dug, spinach is planted out and I can almost taste the iron goodness to come. Just hope the rabbits aren't of the Popeye variety! As Dave and I worked the children picnicked on egg and mayo sandwiches (made form our own duck eggs - yum) and basically just watched apart from Elias who is a fantastic little worker and is never happier than when he is chopping, digging or lugging weighty things around! Next weekend we are hoping to build our own pizza oven, so watch this space!



And in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the tour I took of the garden this morning accompanied by Fatty Arbuckle (one of the cats) and chook (the cuckoo maran) who can both be spotted in some of the pictures - aren't foxgloves just gorgeous with the velvety softness of the stems and those gorgeous spotted petals? The peony is in bud as are the papavers and chives are all around. More pictures soon.

Pipany xx