Soap Box Warning

I got this in the post yesterday.

A thank you for doing Live Below the Line earlier this year.  It was a letter, a certificate ...

 ... and a glossy brochure telling me all about the work done by Action Against Hunger.  

Yes, it did contain a plea for funds and a form to fill in to set up a direct debit, BUT and this is a great big BUT, I did not raise funds to be spent on postage, on paper and on printing magazines, I raised money to help in my small way, to try and stop some, any people being hungry in any way it was possible to help them.

Needless to say I will not be raising money for them again.  I only hope that some of your, and that includes family, friends, and the lovely readers of my blog, hard earned money went to where it was supposed to go.

This is from someone who has worked in the charity sector for years and knows that some money has to be spent on fundraising and paying staff to do this work, but it does not have to be spent on unnecessary fripperies.

I do not, and never will support the charities that send me begging letters, send me free pens, and even in one case sent me FOUR letters all with a five pence coin stuck to them, that was twenty pence profit I made, perhaps twenty pence that some poor child dropped into a collection box from his spending money!!  

And as for all the leaflets with the poor donkeys, horses, dogs, cats. tigers, abused children etc etc that clutter up every magazine that I get on subscription, if you stopped printing millions of leaflets you might be able to help the very animals and people that you spend so much time photographing.

And breathe ......

On a lighter note .... do you think this is fashion sense in ANY meaning of the word.

Look at little Suky's face in the left hand corner of the photograph, it says it all.

" Dad ... you've been tangoed!! "

Sue xx

Garlic Crop .... and An Early Start

I've got the Garlic in now, after sitting it in the sun, whenever the sun was out and on top of the Aga occasionally when it wasn't, it has dried out quite nicely although it's still looks a smaller than expected crop.  

It was hindered by the rabbits chewing off all the greenery which meant I had to harvest it just before the heavy rains swept in a couple of weeks ago.  This watering from heaven after all the sunshine of Spring would have made for a much bigger juicier harvest. but all is not lost and ever the optimist I've been using some of the smaller cloves that separated out during my pulling it up in my cooking of the last few days, and they have a beautifully mellow flavour so it's been a worthwhile new planting experience.

The rest has now dried out nicely and the bulbs with the good covering of papery dry skin will keep quite well, so I'll just be careful of the order I work my way through it and we should have homegrown garlic for at least a couple of months.

We were up bright and early this morning,  first thing was the arrival of Arthur our builder to tidy the site and make way for the delivery of blocks for the garage and workshop walls, these arrived as promised promptly at 7.30am, followed shortly after by the owners of this truck.  Our solar power equipment providers, while Lovely Hubby sits in the kitchen and chats and plans our future solar installation I am keeping out of the way in the office. 

Arthur is cracking on with the gateposts at the moment, which should be finished by the end of the day, and we are going out later to pick up some slabs which will sit on top of the stonework and hold our slightly unusual finials, which are just waiting to be painted black.  I can't wait to show you what we have chosen to top our posts   :-)

Yesterday saw me busy digging up potatoes, I was hoping for a few matching ones ready to enter into the Trelawnyd Flower Show on Saturday ... and do you know I think I might have the three required, although unfortunately, the weather has not been kind to the quantity or quality of the crop.

In the colander are half the potatoes harvested from this bed, and if it were not for the wonderful taste of the spuds we have already eaten I would have been bitterly disappointed at this small harvest.  As I straightened up yesterday, back aching and slightly miffed at the few potatoes that were appearing after so much work digging it was only the thought of the wonderful texture and taste that kept me going.

After finishing this post I will be over in the polytunnel harvesting the rest of my entries and making up a trug and jug of mixed veggies and herbs.  This is my first time entering any kind of competition so we will have to see how the veggies that have survived the marauding rabbits do.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and to put my Garlic harvest in the basket at the top of the post, kindly given to me with many others by my lovely neighbour Mary, I first had to evict a certain furry friend .....

... you wouldn't believe he had a nice comfy cat bed as well as the choice of four dog beds, two sofas and our bed would you  ;-)

Sue xx

In the Kitchen, and In the Bedroom

On our way back from the CLA Game Fair on Sunday we had a pit stop at Rheged, one of the lovelier places to stop on the motorway, don't worry we weren't totally lost we detoured via Cumbria for a family visit!!  We had a coffee each and shared a flapjack, on the way out we had a quick browse in the farm shop and Lovely Hubby drooled over an artisan loaf.  Knowing there was no bread in the bread bin at home I suggested he bought it, well it's only fair once you've drooled over unwrapped stock  ;-)

He had a slice when we got home, then some more toasted the next day, and then this morning in the breadbin I spotted the last chunk of bread, it was hard enough to use as one of the stones round the gatepost by now but not wanting to waste a loaf that cost us so much, I decided to recycle the last bit into homemade garlicky croutons to go with this lunchtimes homemade Tomato and Pepper soup.

Easy to do, I think my usual recipe is on the 'Recipes' page at the top of the blog.

Simply put torn pieces of bread  in a bowl (or cut if you like neat little cubes, although they don't pick up as much garlicky oil or have so many nice crispy edges) pour over some tasty olive oil, or your favourite oil, and then either crush or finely chop a garlic clove or two, but this instance I just grabbed some of the garlic puree that was in the fridge.

Mix it all together and cover for a while.

When you need them simply put in a hot oven for 10 - 15 minutes or tip into a frying pan and heat up until they are nice and crispy.  Heap in a bowl and add to your soup or salad.

They add a wonderful tasty crunch to any meal.  If you cook them long and slow in the oven to dry them out a bit more, you can keep them in an airtight container for a few days, but we love them hot, slightly soft in the middle and gloriously tasty straight from the oven.

Meanwhile .... up in the bedroom!!  When I was in the bedroom this morning making the bed I decided to get a couple of photos from the bedroom window.  It really is the best place at the moment to see the changes as they happen outside.

The roof framework is now complete, the hardcore has been spread and tampered down in the garage and workshop space, and the block perimeters have been cemented in place.  We are just waiting for the cement lorry to come and discharge a load of concrete to form the floor.

One gatepost is nearly covered in granite ....

... but the best thing of all is this sight.  

Arthur loosening up all the rock hard earth ready for the net tunnel to be properly erected, we've had the skeletal frame there for some time, teasing me with it's promise of things to come.  

First we have to check that we have all the component parts as we are building this from the frame of our old polytunnel, we can then order any missing bits or any extras we need and the tunnel can be assembled, the raised beds can be built and filled with soil and compost ..... and then I will have a whole new safe growing space for more of our own fruit and vegetables.

Sue xx

Watch Out, Watch Out There's a Thief About

Watch out, watch out there's a thief about ......

... and if I want to get all the eggs that are laid each day I have to keep an eye on Rosy.  

If I tell her not to go near the Eglu she doesn't, but if I forget to warn her off, she helps herself to an egg.

Very healthy of course and very good for her, but it means she's very literally eating into the profits!!

Sue xx

Back Home

We got back late last night from a wonderful weekend away.

Dropping the dogs off in kennels on our way we set off for Yorkshire on Friday morning.  We were heading for Leeds where we stayed in the Premier Inn in the city centre, and on Saturday morning after an early breakfast we headed to Harewood House and the CLA Game Fair.  We've been to the fair a few times now but never at Harewood House, last time it should have been there it was cancelled due to severe weather so we missed out on going.

It was a really good day, spoiled somewhat by heavy rain moving in around lunchtime, which meant we had to dash from marquee to marquee to avoid getting soaked completely through ... our coats were in the car!!

I treated myself to the two little jugs that you see in the picture with the showground map, which I bought from a little tent selling vintage things  .....

... here they are again with the kettle in the shot so you can see an idea of the size.

I have a thing about jugs, and they are so useful, I have plans for the large green one for this coming weekend  :-)

On Sunday morning after a lovely cooked breakfast we set for home with a detour into Cumbria to visit my elder son Simon and our grandchildren, Kyle and Oscar.   After a lovely time catching up on news, both family and Minion .. yes Oscar's a fan .... it was time to set off again for home. 

Things had changed a bit since we left.

I'll get some better photos once the guys have finished assembling the framework tonight.  The place is crawling with men at the moment, so I took this photo from the bedroom window during their tea break.  There are the guys putting up the steel structure and  also a couple of brickies working around them getting a band of block work in place ready to pour concrete for the garage and workshop floors.

Lovely Hubby is now on his month long summer holiday, so there should be lots of changes about the place over the course of the next few weeks.  We have a list as long as your arm to work through of jobs for us to do.  But first things first, it's time to go and pick up the dogs from the kennels, they'll have as big a shock as we did when they get back home and see the changes.

Then we have to wait for Lovely Hubby's purchase from the fair to arrive, it's a bit bigger than mine ... although it is also green  ;-)

Sue xx

I'm the Daddy

Caldwell, or to give his his full title Caldwell II, thinks he's the daddy ......

... the daddy to these two little bundles of feather and fluff!!

Of course he's not, and biologically Mother Goose is not their Mum, but then parenting is just as confusing with chickens as it sometimes is with us humans  :-)

But it's good that he thinks he is the daddy because that makes him look out for them and keep them safe.  Not all cockerels are this 'fatherly' but we've found that all our bantam boys have been and it's lovely to see.  He offers them tasty tit bits and sits by them if Mum has wandered off and temporarily abandoned them.

They are feathering up nicely now and their proper Pekin Bantam tails of fluff and feather are looking quite impressive.  I thought that now they had successfully reached seven weeks of age it was time we gave them names, so after only a very brief deliberation, I came to the conclusion that their names were Jack and Jill.

Meet Jill, who I just couldn't get to look at the camera ....

... and Jack, who likewise faced away every time I tried to get a photo of him.

It's handy that they are boy and girl as it means I can easily tell them apart, unlike Poppy and Daisy, our other Lavender Pekin Bantams who look so alike, and even more so now they are older.

Here's Jack and Jill with Mum running to catch up with them, and Suky looking on in the background, I didn't notice her there until I came to crop the photo, needless to say I didn't crop it!

The chicks are always on the go, running up the hill and down the hill, they've never fetched a pail of water and Jack has never fell down and broken his crown, but the names Jack and Jill just suited them very well  ;-)

And I think Daddy approves!!

Sue xx

An Alcoholic Kitchen

I did eventually get round to the jam making after leaving all the pans, bags of sugar and various bits and bobs warming on the Aga the other day.

The Damsons had been strained through muslin to separate them from the gin and the whisky, and then the alcohols were bottled.  Next the damsons were stoned as I showed on this post.  Then I added enough boiling water to cover the damsons in the pan and brought it back to the boil, it was left to simmer for around twenty minutes ....

....  then it was all tipped into the jelly bag and left to drip overnight.

It's always tempting to give the bag a squeeze to get every last drop out ... but DON'T, you get a much clearer jelly if leave it to drip naturally and slowly.

After weighing it I poured the luscious looking, and heavenly smelling liquid from the jug into my jam pan and added it's weight in sugar with a tablespoon of lemon juice, and brought it all to a rolling boil, once jam temperature had been reached I checked for a set on an ice cold saucer and decided to get it into the jars.

As you can see I managed two full sized jam jars , a smaller jar and a little sample for me to try on a slice of toast .... I love chef's perks ;-)

I could have stopped there, but I had a taste of the mush left in the jelly bag and yes, it still had lots of lovely flavour to impart and as I had spent so long stoning the fruit it would have been criminal not to have used it.  

So I set to and made some normal jam to go with my already made jelly.  

I added a little bit of water to the mush, just under it's own weight in sugar and another dash of lemon juice and off I went again.  I just about managed it before the Aga temperature dropped too much, having the top lids open is what causes an Aga to drop in temperature and it needs time to get back up to full performance.

So from two kilos of Damsons, one small bottle of whiskey, one large bottle of Gin and a couple of bags of sugar I got - three and a bit bottles of Damson Gin, three jars (and a taster) of Damson Gin Jelly .....

 .... five full sized and one smaller jar of Damson Gin Jam ....

... and two and a bit bottles of Damson Whisky ... and BOY is it strong!!

Not a bad few hours work.

Hic, hic!!   ;-)

Sue xx