Mentioned in Despatches ... and Stripping Clothes and Paper

This week myself, and a number of other bloggers that live and grow here in Wales ... a couple of whom some of you should know ... have been featured in a Thompson and Morgan blog post.  My bit has this photo of the polytunnel.

It's a lovely piece and well worth a read.

See it HERE.

Meanwhile on this chilly damp and very Autumnal day I'm very firmly indoors and the place looks like a bomb has hit it, well  the bedrooms do anyway as I tackle something I've been telling myself to do for ages.  Sort one final time through all my clothes and finally get rid of everything that I don't wear, things bought that just aren't 'me' etc etc.

It looked neat when I started on Tuesday late in the afternoon while things were still confined in boxes, hung in the wardrobe and safely tucked away in drawers ....

... then I started hanging things on doors, draping things all over our bed and the spare bed and I quickly lost the will to  live, went and fed the dogs and took them for a walk.  Yesterday saw me turning a blind eye to the mess and driving to Manchester for lunch with Mum, today sees me putting off finally finishing the task by blogging about it instead  ;-) 

But once I've finished this post and drunk my coffee I will get stuck  right back in and once and for all minimise my clothes to a level I'm happy with.

Did I mention that I'm simultaneously stripping out the living room ready for redecorating at the weekend?

No wonder I get confused  :-)

Sue xx

A Day Out to the Trelawnyd Flower Show

Saturday started early for us, feeding the animals and sorting out the chickens and making sure everything was loaded into the car safely for the forty minute drive to Trelawnyd.  Once there all my earlier preparation proved very worthwhile and everything was staged within twenty minutes.

It was nice to have a look around the hall at all the other exhibits while it was quiet and chat to some of the other exhibitors as they put their vegetables and bakery in place ready for the judging at 10am. 

There was an excellent turn out for every category.

As you can see the standard is exceptionally high.

The we got back into the car and drove into Prestatyn for a spot of breakfast, a mooch about the shops, a few necessary purchases, a coffee and cake at Marks and Spencer's and then back into the car to return to Trelawnyd, although we didn't go straight back to the show instead we called to Jackson's, the local garden centre first for a look around at all their goodies, after all it's not often we get up to that neck of the woods.

Returning to the Show at two o'clock we were just in time to hear John's introduction of the shows opener and listen to her speech, which is what I'm doing in the top picture, then we had a look round the hall to see how we'd done.  I was really pleased to get a Second for my Blueberries ....

...and another Second for my green Marrow  :-)

Then we decided as the queue for teas, coffees and cakes was so long to have a wander round the village.

We got as far as the village pub, where ciders were purchased and consumed before going back to the show to have our coffees and cake.

It was a lovely day out.  It's always nice when we get to go somewhere for a whole day together and get away from the normal day today of our place.  Highlights of the day were seeing John again, winning two Seconds with my fruit and vegetables and meeting a couple of lovely blog readers. 

Christine and Debbie it was great to meet you both and get to have a little chat with you, I hope you both had as good a day as we did in what is fondly known of in Blogland as 'John's Show'   :-)

Oh, and to round the day off nicely we also won a £10 prize in the raffle ... which is how Debbie deduced who we were  ;-)

The next local show that I'm showing produce at is the Llanrwst Show in two weeks.

Sue xx

Peas, Mice, Blueberries and Shows

The peas haven't been brilliant in quantity this year but we've enjoyed enough for a few good meals.  This pea pod shows the standard of the peas we got from the ones that were available a week or so ago.  Sadly there are no more to go in the freezer but we do have a few more pods developing on the outdoor plants, the ones in the net tunnel have unfortunately all been eaten by mice, so I've pulled up the dying plants to make more space for the Strawberry runners.

Talking of mice, we've been using two humane mouse traps to catch the mice, releasing them unharmed after a good snack ... which they have now figured out how to get out of.  The last few days when we have checked the traps there are no tasty treats left ... and no mice!!

So now it's a case of them or us and sadly I have had to use poison pellets in the traps instead of the usual tasty treats  :-(

Even though our pea crop is coming to an end with no supplies to see us through the Winter, the Blueberries show no signs of dwindling.  This was one of the first pickings a couple of weeks ago, which unfortunately I didn't weigh ...

...this was a week later.

These were picked when we got back from the Royal Welsh Show last week and yesterdays smaller picking was taken for Mum, as was one other picking a few weeks ago, and of course we've been eating lots ourselves, either when we're out working or a small picking to go in a dessert or smoothie.

This week I have purposely been avoiding picking off the middle Blueberry bush ... the one with the biggest juiciest berries ... as I wanted to enter a bowlful into the Trelawnyd Show on Saturday to support blogging buddy John Gray, now (because I forgot to tell him) I've just found out that my Lovely Hubby has been snacking on them ... naughty boy!!

Talking of the Trelawnyd Flower Show, today I am going to start getting my entries together to save a last minute panic on Saturday morning.  The first year I entered I managed to get two Second places for my tomatoes and potatoes, last year I improved slightly with a First for my Orange Marmalade and a Second for my Green Tomato Chutney.

How will I do this year?  Well I have no idea, the fruit and veg growing has been a bit out of time, the mice have been a pain, but I'm going to put my best foot, and marrow,  forward and do what I can. 

At the very least we are going to get a good day out  :-)

Sue xx

Eggs and Followers

We got a cute little egg the other day, one of the girls obviously not in the mood for a full sized version.  They are no good for eating as there is usually only white in such little eggs, the hens body simply hasn't released the part that develops into the yolk but usually something goes through her system picking up the white, the shell and the bloom on it's way out .  

It's not really going to be eaten or for sale, but I popped it briefly into a box to compare it to the others  :-)

I'm off out now to pick up my creosote brush and get stuck in with Lovely Hubby to finishing off the workshop cladding.  It needs to be finished this weekend due to the colder, wetter weather and also due to the fact that I'm sick to the back teeth of the smell of the creosote.

A massive thank you to all those of you who joined in with the fun of getting my Follower numbers up, and congratulations to John on getting his to over the magic number of 1000, he's currently standing at 1001.  Sue who's also in the game is now at 419.  It's been a bit of blogging buddy fun.  Thank you.

I was only aiming for 800 so I was really pleased to shoot past that number ..... it's just that now 900 is only 18 away .... so any more of you that haven't joined in please feel free to do so  ;-)

Sue xx

Alright Time to Start Begging ......

We're begging, as it seems to be the thing to do at the moment .... all started by the shameless hussy that is John Gray of Going Gently fame ...

... and then continued by Sue over at Our Quiet Life in Suffolk, who it had to be said did sooooo much better than John  ;-)

She managed to round her Follower number off to 400 and then it whizzed past by an extra ten.

John meanwhile is still lazing around at the 981 level and continually begging and whining daily ...  nay hourly... to his readers to sign up, sign up, sign up to whiz him up to the dizzying heights of 1000, with a daily drip, drip drip countdown until he gets up to that magical round number.

So I've called in the help of the animals to beg for me ... after all they're so much cuter than me. 

Will you sign up as a Follower if you haven't already ...

... just to get my number up to a nice round and even 800.

Pretty please.

Kiss, kiss.

Or I might just hop in the car with Suky and let her drive us all off into the Welsh sunset.

You'll know if you haven't already signed up by the little box under the images of the current Followers.  If it says 'unfollow' it means you already have signed up (thank you)  ... if it says 'Follow' you haven't ... so click that box .... please  :-)

Sue xx

Have You Vanished?

While we were away at the weekend lots of you got in touch to let me know that my Blog List on the sidebar had vanished (thank you), but from my phone there was nothing that I could do about it until I got home to check things out.  It's a problem that seems to be creeping around the Blogger blogs at the moment. 

Since I have been back I have slowly and steadily been re-instating the blogs that were on the sidebar, and adding a couple of new ones that I have found on my journey around blogland.

Some of you have noticed that you were missing from the new list and helpfully reminded me, others I think are being a bit more reticent.  So this is a shout out to anyone who's blog used to be on my sidebar that I have yet to re-add to the new list, please don't be shy ... let me know.  All you have to do is to comment on this post and I will be able to pick up your link from your name. 

Also if there is a blog similar to mine that you journey to after reading mine each day don't be shy about letting me know it's name and if I like the look of it too I can add it to my sidebar to make your journey around blogland even easier each day.  Indeed if you have a blog that is along the lines of either of mine, don't be shy,  shout out and get yourself a little bit of publicity by making it on to my blog list too.

Now I'm off to try and pick up a few more links to my favourite people  :-)

Sue xx

Prezzies Through the Post

Since we've cut right back on our spending during our year of 'Living Without' the postman hasn't called very often.  What he has brought has been bills, circulars, the odd building control certificate of compliance and well, lots of really boring stuff .... except for the occasional highlights of the Radio Times and other magazines bought on subscription last year.  There have been no exciting Amazon parcels with books for me, no surprise deliveries of things that Lovely Hubby has ordered from Ebay or Amazon and forgotten to tell me about.

So when he knocked yesterday and the dogs did their customary bark for all your worth and run from door to door to try and get to the intruder with the red jacket before Mum does thing I was pretty surprised.  And look what he had that wouldn't fit through the letterbox!!

 A regular reader and blogging buddy Veronique sent me a lovely present, well assortment of presents actually, all packaged in the snazziest of padded envelopes.

She's been having a good sort out and declutter during an enforced period of time off work after what sounds like a very scary and traumatic accident and the problems resulting from it.  And even though she's been so poorly herself she thought of me, how lovely is that :-)

She wrote me a nice chatty letter and enclosed some of my favourite toiletries, a how clever of her to remember that these are my absolute all time favourites, and one of the few perfumed products that my sensitive skin can cope with.   There was also a nice padded mat so I can put all my preserves on the worktop with their damp bases after bottling, and a book that looks like it should make for an excellent read.  I have heard of it but do not have it in my, ahem ... rather large book collection.

Lovely gifts, but what is even more important to me a lovely thought from a long time reader that I have considered as a real blogging buddy for quite a while.

I do hope you are feeling much better now Veronique and THANK YOU for your lovely gifts.

And Suky says 'hello' to Isabelle.

Sue xx

Blogging Inspiration

Blogging inspiration .... where do you get yours?

Yesterday while the eggs in the picture were cooking for my breakfast I dashed to the bathroom and did my make up for a day out at Mum's.  I completed my usual routine in the time it took the eggs to cook, I like mine with just a touch of runniness in the centre ... so four minutes!!

I did a post about streamlining my makeup bag a couple of years ago ... it's been streamlined even more since then, gone is the brown mascara and the foundation and in has come a Touche Eclat concealer pen to join the clear mascara and pressed powder.  I just rock the' natural look', it's me down to the ground :-)

As I dashed back to the kitchen with thirty seconds to spare I thought to myself  "now there's inspiration for a blog post".

Yesterdays post about photogenic animals was brought about by deleting lots of unwanted photos off the computer. A couple of blogging buddy John Gray's posts this week were inspired by comments left on previous posts and triggered whole pages of him learning more about us than we about him.  It made for very good reading.

As bloggers we bounce off each others ideas and lives and learn as we do so, it keeps this wonderful world of blogging fresh and interesting and yes, inspiring.

Sometimes of course the opposite happens and lots of us dry up or fizzle out for a while only to come back, usually re-energised and reinvigorated after a blogging break, sometimes with new blog names or a fresh new look to an old but favourite blog.  We all need a bit of space sometimes and the energy to try out new ideas, and mostly all it takes is a break or a flash of inspiration.

I get my inspiration from all sorts of places.  A chicken doing something unexpected or simply keeling over and dying, flowers on a bush that should be closing down for the Winter, a dog walk that has my lovely trio fascinated by smells or sights unusual to them, new shoots coming through in the polytunnel emerging from dark, moist, home produced compost.  It doesn't take much to spark my imagination ...  a make up routine done in the time it takes to boil an egg .

Where do you get your inspiration, and if you don't blog yourself which sort of blog reading inspires your imagination and perhaps makes you think it was time you did?

Sue xx

Not Everything is Picture Perfect .....

Not everything is picture perfect.  

Blog world is full of images of perfect lives, clean animals, lovingly home cooked meals served on tables laid with napkins and matching cutlery.  Manicured gardens and luscious looking healthy vegetables laid out neatly in rows.

My idea of blogging is all about telling and showing life as it happens which means that occasionally I show you two of the pooches snoozing in front of a roaring fire ....

... but I tend not to show you a lazy nights tea, although I might mention it.  

When there's just me at home and I'm sick of washing pots all day after a marathon chutney making session I might choose to eat plain old potato wedges straight out of the baking tin with just a dollop of mayonnaise for garnish, so that the only washing up is a fork and a tin that only needs a swish in hot soapy water, but I wouldn't think for a minute to photograph it.... usually !!

I show you the polytunnel looking all neat and tidy after a weeding and watering session which you all compliment me on ..... and I thank you for that.  I tend not to photograph it for the 'Polytunnel Progress' reports when I've just up-ended a big pot of compost and it's gone everywhere and I find Rosy's latest dead rabbit lying on the floor.

I don't usually photograph the Aga when it's draped with washing ... which it is most days now, we don't have a dryer and these damp days mean that even things that have been out on the line all day need an hour to air and finish off inside.

I haven't show you this covered bed which has remained covered all through the growing season because ... well it just never got planted in .... what a waste!!

You may have seen this lovely weed filled bed in the background of a few shots.  The Butternut Squash plants in the middle section went out too late and came to nothing ... the bed at the right of the photograph is still waiting to be weeded.

What am I saying ..... well really I'm just keeping it real.  

Sometimes it may appear that my life is picture perfect and everything gets done on time, that I whizz through my days like a whirlwind of productivity, that I sit down to home cooked, home grown, home preserved foods every night in a beautifully clean house with the dogs lined up in rapt attention waiting for an organic dog chew to be forthcoming  but these pictures today show the reality that I don't always show on the blog but do try to talk about.

Sometimes in life we have to read the words, read between the lines and not just look at the pretty pictures.

Here's how part of my kitchen looks today, shelves empty ready for the electric work, part of which is through the hatch you can see on the ceiling, on the solar power system that is currently being installed.  They could be empty for some time, we've just found out that out electricity meter is in an unacceptable and potentially dangerous position and the whole lot is going to have to be moved to a safer location before the work is completed ....  to quote a Blogging Buddy ... 'Hey Ho'.

Sue xx

Oooh ... New Books and Free Seeds

Two new books made their way into the house last month.  I meant to blog about them as they arrived, but harvesting and jam making got me distracted  :-)

The first book is by Blogging Buddy Suzy Bowler of Sudden Lunch fame.  It's full of amazing recipes and ideas for that old favourite the Scone, and believe me it is a favourite in this house.  Sweet scones, savoury scones, no matter how you say it whether it rhymes with stone or gone they taste delicious.  I like a good old cheese scone (we say it to rhyme with gone), so does Lovely Hubby sometimes but he likes a cheese scone with jam, I prefer it simply with lots of lovely Lurpak butter.

This book is just what I had been looking for to give me more inspiration to try other flavours.

I really recommend this one  :-)

In the same parcel came this book, written by Sophie Thompson who won last years Celebrity Masterchef.  

This is not just the usual 'churn a book out quickly and make some money' type of book that normally follows this kind of programme, it is a delightful glimpse into her own unique kitchen and has lots of firm family recipes spanning four generations of her family.

The illustrations are brilliant ....

... but it's the recipes with their family anecdotes that are the main, and best part of the book.

I'm about halfway through this one at the moment, it's my 'upstairs' book, downstairs I have Alys Fowler's 'Abundance' on the go.  It's getting confusing and I am trying not to dip into a third book although I am sorely tempted by my new Jamie Oliver book.

This excess of new  books will be grinding to a halt in a couple of months with the start of my 'no new purchases' year, can I really do it I'm asking myself at the moment ... a whole year of not buying a single book!!

Last month I also bought this magazine with it's packet of free seeds.

 I very nearly didn't buy it as I hadn't completely read through my subscription magazine Kitchen Garden, and with only one free packet of seeds on the cover thought perhaps I should just save my money, but I'm so glad I did.  I read this one from cover to cover and it had so much useful to me at the time information in it, it was worth every penny .... and I've got a packet of Swede seeds to add to my collection for next year.

Sue xx