Rose Vintage

Simple Pleasures

There are certain funny little things in my life that I regard as important but I suppose to anyone else might seem very ordinary or even mundane. For example, I always look at the cowls on the top of my neighbour Lu's Oast house as I walk back to the house from feeding the chickens to check which way the wind is blowing and it's something that I do almost everyday almost without thinking. For those of you who don't come from Kent, Oast houses were originally used to dry Hops for beer making and the cowls on top would turn in the wind and help keep the fires alight in the kilns below. There are not many working Oasts these days so alot of them have been converted to homes. It made me realise that there are a lot of little things that I do and see everyday that I get a great deal of pleasure from.   

Lu and I often get together in the early evening to sample a 'cheeky little Chablis' or the latest Sauvignon Blanc on offer in the supermarket.  You may know that we live in on an old converted Hop and Fruit farm, I live in the old farmhouse and Lu and her family live in the Oast. Not surprisingly there are lots of odd little passages and paths that link the buildings to one another that we all use and that are separate to the main drive and entrance.  This little passage we call 'The Snickett' and I use it to pop round to Lu's in order to sample the wine of the week! There are Greengage trees all along the path and this year thankfully, they are full of fruit. It's quite near the river so I have to watch my footing on the way back especially after a glass of wine or two!!

This is one of my favourite views in the whole house. I spend a great deal of time in the kitchen and at the sink so I love to look out across the fields. It is the best place to see the changing seasons which I love and just a few days ago I watched the swallows and swifts collecting on the telegraph wires getting ready to fly south. They have flown on now and I will miss their acrobatic flying along the river collecting the bugs and flies when they are on the wing. The fields seem quite empty with them gone and I loved to see my mad springer running around trying to catch them as they swooped low around the field getting ready to fly on...

When I drink my early morning cup of tea I often look at this wreath that a girlfriend of mine made for me. It was wonderful gift given to me when she came to dinner once with a few friends. She is such a talented, arty girl that unfortunately I don't see as often as I used to. I love the colours that she has used and it looks wonderful on the beams in my kitchen.   

Well dear readers, I hope you are all having a lovely September....the weather has certainly perked up, and maybe just maybe I will get my Indian Summer after all!

Autumn

It does not seem that long ago that I took this picture but now that the nights are drawing in, I realise that the year is passing us by.  There is a definite Autumnal feel to the days now and as I walk around our fields I see the leaves on our trees starting to turn. There is something quite poignant about the changing of the seasons, a sense of moving on as the season changes and presents itself in all its glory. In the evenings the owls have started to call in the gathering dusk and the mornings are misty-white and damp. I am still hoping for an Indian summer though and if anyone knows why we call it that perhaps you could let me know! 

This little plant is called the 'Heavenly Bamboo' and at this time of year starts to turn a wonderful red colour and as the season progresses it turns to a beautiful deep russet colour. It is an evergreen shrub so it is always interesting whatever the time of year!

We have a new addition to our family, this little cat arrived a week last Tuesday and is almost the double of our other fluffy tabby Jasper. We have called her Sadie after Neville's Mother. Her owners are going to live abroad and she needed a home. She has settled in very well considering how many animals we already have and is sitting by my side on the sofa tonight as I write this post.

The only way I can tell her apart from Jasper is by the tufts of hair in her ears! She is a very friendly cat but she knows how to stand up for herself! My sort of girl I think!! Well my lovelies it's time to go, it's getting late and I still would like to check out a few other blogs! I love to blog at this time of night, and this made me wonder, do you have a favourite time to blog?

Busy....

It's been a busy time of late, hence the lack of posting!  I have been doing lots of Shiatsu so my poor little blog has been a bit neglected.  I really had not realised how much a part of my life blogging had become as I really miss posting and commenting on other people's blogs!  Still I am happy to be using my Shiatsu skills and I get a good deal out of helping others and that includes our four-legged friends!  Not much done on the sewing front either as I have had to put my sewing machine away. I usually keep it ready to go in the little room I use for Shiatsu but I have decided that for now I will have to sew somewhere else in the house!

   

I have been meaning to share these photos with you all for sometime now.  Our local church has a flower festival every summer and this year my friend Heather (who is also a member of my embroidery group) asked several of the group if we would be willing to exhibit some of our embroidery. It was all displayed in a small room off of the main body of the church and looked really lovely.

My finished (at last !) blue cushion was my contribution.... 

 

A beautiful display created by one of the congregation. I just love the combination of the blue and silver. The church looked absolutely beautiful and I spent a wonderful afternoon looking at all the displays

I am also thrilled to be the recipient of a couple of awards, one from Sandra over at Shropshire Girl.

Started by Bella-Enchanted the award is to be "awarded to those that are just nice people , good blog friends and those that inspire good feelings and inspiration! Those that care about others that are there to lend support or those that are just a positive influence in our blogging world". Thankyou Sandra x

And thankyou also to Marie over at Wild Rose for this award - thanks Marie x

At Last....

As I write this post tonight I can hear the hum of tractors and farm machinery in the surrounding fields near to where we live. It is with some sense of relief that the sunny weather has finally arrived for everyone concerned so that at last the hay can be made. This is my husband busily turning our hay this afternoon and this will go on for a few days until the hay is considered dry enough to ' row up' ready for baling. The smell of freshly cut grass all around us is just wonderful and hopefully this should keep our horses fed through the winter months.

I have just started picking our first tomatoes although I have to say that I am a little disappointed with their flavour, I just don't think they have had enough sun this year! I have also planted some more seeds,  a brand of carrots called Eskimo that are supposed to overwinter in the ground and some seed potatoes called Vale Emerald that you plant now and are supposed to be ready in time for Christmas ! It is the first time that I have planted either so I will keep you posted how successful they are. If you are interested the site I bought them from is called Dobies

My neighbour Lu has been busy hatching chicks. This little girl is a Cream Leg Bar, one of a few chicks that can be sexed upon hatching. The girls look like little bumblebees with brown and cream stripes on their backs and the boys have a dark round spot at the back of their head so its very easy to tell one from the other. Cream Legbars are a rare breed and they lay beautiful blue eggs. Both Lu and I are big fans! I have several in my flock and they are good layers usually laying well into the winter months when the other chickens have stopped laying.

This is a chick just about to hatch, you can just see a little beak! 

Here they are helping themselves to a few chick crumbs. Once they are a little bigger and are drinking and eating on their own they will go outside perhaps with a surrogate hen if she will accept them...As this post seems to have a bit of an animal theme going on I thought I would leave you with another picture of Claire's eiderdown! As you can see another one of our cats has fallen in love with it!! I don't think I have a chance of calling it my own, do you?

 

I've Been Tagged.......

by Sue to name 8 random things about myself!

1. When I gave up work I decided that I wanted to do something totally different and I trained as an Equine Shiatsu Practitioner. I did a 2 year diploma course and a year post-grad. I love using this skill and while it will never earn me a fortune, I get a great deal of satisfaction from working with horses. Shiatsu is like acupressure and uses the same theory as acupuncture. It has it roots in TCM - traditional chinese medicine and I find the theory, fascinating!

2. I love listening to the shipping forecast especially in the winter! I think it's something to do with being in the safe and warm and listening to all the different names out at sea and thinking of all the ships out there!

3 . We have a lot of animals! 5 dogs, 3 cats, 2 horses and about 16 chickens. Going away is not an easy task but we sometimes manage it!

4. I love watching the psychic-medium John Edward on Sky. His programme is called Crossing Over. He is coming to London in September and I missed getting tickets for his show by a whisker!

5. I have to watch something while I am ironing in order to take my mind off of it. I find it so utterly boring. It's usually a costume drama of some sort. I cannot remember how many times I have watched Sense and Sensibility.

6. We used to rent an old railway cottage when we lived in West Sussex and we had to get used to a few 'ahem' extra residents. Odd bits and pieces used to move about but I never found it worrying, surprisingly. I think this is what started my interest in the more spiritual side of life.

7. I love listening to Irish music. Clannad and Enya are a couple of my favourites!

8. There is something wonderfully domestic about  a line of washing flapping in the wind and the smell once it is dry is just divine. It's the best perfume ever!

Now I am supposed to tag eight others but nearly everyone I've looked at has already been tagged so I think I might just pass on this one....Hope you don't lose too much sleep over it!

Wooden Horses

Check this out, I just love what these midwesten girls have created...

Just amazing aren't they?

A Bed of Roses

There are a few things bugging me at the moment. Our hayfield above is one of them! Usually by this time of year, the hay is cut, baled and in the barn but not this year. This means that we have not had 5 clear days of sunshine for haymaking. But you know I consider myself lucky only to have this to worry about when I hear all the awful stories of flooding in Sheffield and surrounding areas.

I have always considered my blog a form of escapisim and just recently I have wondered if this is really how it should be? The definition of weblog is 'an online diary' so should it reflect everything that goes on in my life? Maybe.The temptation is to portray a wonderful life even if this is not how life really is. A couple of my favourite blogs have recently posted about issues that are affecting them. One regular has sadly admitted that her long term relationship is over and that she has to give up a home that she has created and make a new life for herself and her children. Another witty,creative girl has to come to terms with how best to help her beloved child. Heartbreaking stuff, all of it. It made me wonder just how many of us would have been brave enough to post about it?  The breakup I can certainly identify with having been through the same situation myself and it was with some sadness that I read that this blogger would not be posting for awhile as life was just too awful. I know I felt just on this side of sanity most of the time during my breakup and I think had I had the support of the blogging community I might have felt a lot more human. When I posted recently about the menopause, the support I received was incredible and I really felt I was not going it alone. Hopefully we will hear more from this blogger, if only to offer her the ongoing support that might just make an awful time, bearable...

It also struck me afresh just last night how wonderful the creative blogging community is. I was having a  telephone conversation with Sue about embroidery threads. I have never met Sue but we were able to have a very easy conversation not just because we have similar interests but because I was able to ask after her mum and about her daughters wedding, all details that had been revealed on her blog. I came off the phone feeling like I had known Sue for ages! 

This is my latest embroidery project, it will be a cushion once I have sewn it up properly, hence the edited picture! One good reason for buying more threads! Thanks Sue!

I love Strawberry Jam

We have had a glut of strawberries in the veggie patch this year, down to the fact that we put up a fruit cage at the end of last season. It has made such a difference to the quantities of fruit that we are picking. The redcurrants are nearly ready and the raspberries are well on the way! Faced with such a lot of strawberries I thought I would make some jam. I've never had much luck with strawberry, much preferring the easier to make( I thought ) raspberry jam. I always found myself fiddling around with lemons trying to get the pectin levels right only to be disappointed by the end result. Usually a thin red liquid that would not set! Well no more! I bought some jam sugar, followed the very simple recipe on the back of the packet and ' Bob's your uncle' as they say. Lovely thick, scrummy strawberry jam.

And yes I know that the label has oranges on it but I've run out of the strawberry ones! So if you want an easy jam recipe care of Mr Tate and Mr Lyle I suggest that you buy yourself some jam sugar at your local shop, it took me all of half an hour to make from start to finish! I also like the fact that there is an element of recycling in the process in that I am using all my old jars collected throughout the year. Also I did not have to buy my strawberries and they were not sprayed with any chemicals. Bliss!

I recently bought this eiderdown from Clare's lovely shop Vintage Home.  I have been searching for an eiderdown just like this for such a long time and finally it's mine! Well sort of, as you can see Neville has taken quite a fancy to it!!

Edit to this post

For Marie

Strawberry jam recipe

1 kg/2.lbs Strawberries fresh or frozen

1kg/2.2lbs Tate and Lyle Jam Sugar

Method

1. Hull and wash the strawberries and drain well.

2. Put in a preserving pan and and mash or crush.

3. If using frozen fruit they will be soft when thawed anyway.

4. Add the Tate and Lyle Jam Sugar and stir until dissolved, then bring to the boil.

5. When a vigorous boil is achieved ( rises and cannot be stirred down), boil for at least a further 4 minutes until setting point is reached. If using a jam thermometer boiling temperature is 105 C /220 F. (Have to confess I never use one!)

6. Test for a set by putting a little jam on a cold saucer or plate ( I left mine in the freezer for 5 mins) allow to cool then push a finger gently through the jam. If the surface of the jam wrinkles, setting point has been reached. I tend to go away and leave it for a couple of mins then check the set as I often find I think it isn't ready, boil it all up again and get a hard jam - not nice! Also remove the jam from the heat while you are testing so you don't overboil the jam!

7. Remove from the heat, skim off any scum. Leave to stand for 15-20 mins. Stir the strawberries through the jam and put into warmed jars, cover, label and date.

8. Enjoy!

Elderflower Cordial

I've been busy making my annual Elderflower cordial and as it's so easy to make and delicious to drink I thought I would share the recipe with you! I make loads and put it in the freezer and then in the depths of winter when you need a bit of a lift and a reminder of summer, I defrost a bottle or two and make some up. It's particularly nice to have around Christmas time (eek can't believe I've written that!) as it makes a great punch with some lemonade and a good splosh of Vodka!

Elderflower Cordial

Ingredients

25 Elderflower heads, picked with the sun on them ( I often use more to increase the flavour)

3lbs granulated sugar

3pts cold water

2oz citric acid ( available from your local chemist)

2 lemons and 4 oranges, washed and sliced

Method

Place water and sugar in a bucket with the sliced fruit. Use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix well, squeezing the fruit and helping to dissolve the sugar. Wash the flowers and remove the stalks, add to the liquid with the citric acid and stir. Leave to stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally and squeezing the juice from the fruit with your hands. Finally strain and put into sterilised bottles. I usually freeze mine and sometimes I adjust the recipe and use equal oranges and lemons and slightly less sugar.

To serve - dilute to taste, delicious with sparkling water or lemonade and slices of lemon and lime.

Treasures

Don't know about you but I am a real sucker for fabrics especially vintage ones! The fabrics above are a purchase from Donna and displayed on a quilt I recently bought from Niki.  They all arrived beautifully packaged which of course I cannot show you as I was so impatient to open them! I am in love with the rosebud fabric!

Some lovely buckles from Sue. The idea is to make bags from the fabric and buckles but the garden and house are taking a priority just now. Still it's nice to have things to look forward to.....

And last but not at all least, these little lovelies from Beachy. I bought these to cheer myself up!