Unbought Delicacies

Thursday, 11 July 2013

Fresh today

Newly baked bread and the first of the garden raspberries :)

Strawberry fields for...................... Wednesday

Lovely day out in the glorious weather with a friend; she wanted some strawberries for jam, so we hoyed off up to Ansty pyo on the A30 up near Salisbury. ~It was the first time I've been there, although I've been aware of them for a long time. Great strawberries, both planted lower in raised grow-bags and higher terraces to help your back! There was a great farm shop - proper local produce, and lots of it, as well as the fruit. We had an excellent cup of tea in the café too - came with a decent sized pot of hot water, which you don't often get these days, and we managed to get 6 cups out of the pot for £3.60 - lovely proper china tea cups too, and milk in a proper jug. It's the little things that make the difference, isn't it?

We just happened ( ha ha) to choose a table next to the bookshelves where you could buy from a good selection of books, for charity - I gave my money to the Air Ambulance which is a cause very dear to my heart due to recent events. I got a lovely book of patterns for knitted cushions, and a wee paperback by Dylan Thomas, will post about that later.
We then went to collect some jam jars from a friend, and had more tea and were regaled with hilarious stories of their adventures in Mexican hotels among other things. Haven't laughed so much for a long time :)
Then back to my friend's house where we sat in the garden with a ham and salad baguette and a Pimms. There may have been chocolate biscuit goodness too. Arrived home tired and happy, the sign of a good day out. This is what I was looking at with my Pimms

http://www.anstypyo.co.uk/pyo.html

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

The scent of a well-loved kitchen................

Fresh banana bread, philadelphus from the garden, rose perfume wafting in through the open windows and two gallons of mead just started

I have found my forever home.................

http://www.d-s-r.co.uk/property/braeside1.htm

Because grass is beautiful too....................

Monday, 8 July 2013

Little piece of gorgeousness

I bought this on Saturday, completely irresistible

Smallholder show, Ardingly

Went to this yesterday with a couple of friends. Baking hot day, bit too hot for me, rally, but had a good time. Bought some herbs, cheese, fleece and bits. Would have liked to see more animals and 'muddy boots' bits, but was enjoyable. Highlight of the day for me was choosing two sheep to be shorn and buying the fleeces to bring home. The lad was only asking £2 per fleece, but that is really nowhere near the mark, and I was happy to pay £10 for the two, felt privileged to choose and be able to buy such good wool straight from the producer, lovely Poll Dorset. It's been added to the pile.........................

Here's a few photos from the day

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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