Thursday 11 October 2007

Damp and foggy..........

.......start to the day; garden is covered in very beautiful jewelled cobwebs. One of my aims in life is to take a good picture of one of these, but haven't managed yet! Fog is lifting, and the sun is trying to come out, so washing is on its way out - still waiting for the part to fix the machine, but feeling very worthy about handwashing ;):) - hard work, though.
Picked a lovely bucket of quinces, a good crop for a first crop from the tree; last year I just had one, which was half eaten by slaters before it got as far as the kitchen! Some are destined for some more quince brandy, the rest to make membrillo for Christmas I think; a few will be put into apple pies, or bottled with apples. I did see a reference to "quincemeat" somewhere on the web, so might put some into the Christmas mincemeat, not sure if I would have to cook them first, at least cut them up very very small. Needs thinking on.
Lovely time of the year - Hallowe'en coming up, then bonfire night, then the winter celebrations - starting to think towards that, now.

Monday 8 October 2007

Natural dyeing


Result of a natural dyeing workshop yesterday - really looking forward to knitting this up:


Sussex Duck's Bill


One solitary apple picked this year; there were more, but the chickens may have got them! Planted as a dual purpose apple, eating and cooking, ate it this morning - nice apple. Looking forward to perhaps a *few* more next year..................