Unbought Delicacies: Apples.........

Thursday 28 April 2011

Apples.........

....... lots of them I hope!
I found a lovely Bramley Seedling apple tree in Morrisons the other night for only £5, so I've just done a quick recce, and think I now must have a full (enough) complement of apple trees, not least for space to plant them!
I now have the Bramley for cooking; A Sussex Duck's Bill (aka Winter Queening) for eating and cooking; Bardsey Island for eating; Devonshire Quarrenden for eating - this is a biennial bearer, but the crop every second year is amazing, will bear this year - the picture above is of some of them the year before last, lovely little apple, but not a good keeper; cider apples are Yarlington Mill, a good local one; Sops in Wine, the most amazing coloured blossom; Slack Ma Girdle, hasn't blossomed or fruited yet.
Crab apples are Wisley, huge fruits; Aldenhamensis, tiny fruits; John downie, one of the most amazing sites when hanging with ripe apples, just lovely.
I put in another apple out the front last year, but can't for the life of me remember what it is lol I'm not a label person............
Roll on apple time :)

1 comment:

Julia said...: I just love apples, too! We have one newer apple tree; we lost a giant beauty of a tree 2 years ago & have struggled to replace her wonderful fruits. Ours is a pink lady, want to plant a gala this year, too...; 28 April 2011 at 19:30

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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Thursday 28 April 2011

Apples.........

1 comment: