Work in Hand

It has been a hive of activity around here recently. It has been half term holidays - the 'Tattie Holidays' - from the days when all the local children were gainfully employed in digging up potatoes in surrounding farms; it may have been child labour, but there seems to be a lot of good memories of those times. Well, no potatoes for us. But plenty of gardening - lots of digging for me! And catching up with friends, including a very creative family. Here is a fantastic designer in the making. Mum provided the fabric, but she came with all the most definite ideas, starting with the drawing (below) and finishing with the teddy above. The two mothers were just the work force really...

Well, all that rubbed off on the boys who have made some beautiful tea light holders, which we are enjoying on the dinner table now.

And me? Well, just a sneak preview, but every evening I'm running up some ridiculous looking baby robins and other odd looking creatures, in the hope I might sell some next week at a little pre-Christmas (oh, sorry, that word. It just slipped out. I do apologise.) shopping evening to raise funds for my son's Gaelic choir. If they don't sell, well, friends and family, you know what to expect!

Happy November! May it be a cosy one for you...

Belle Mere and Nightmare (and Cake)

Well, I nearly started this posting with a massive rant about nightmare changes in Blogger that are driving me crazy, but that isn't what you come to my blog to read all about, so I'll take a deep breath and try to contain myself! (Actually three hours later and I'm not sure that I can - ARGH!!!!) But if my photos are not in the order or size I was quite hoping for, my spelling is a bit odd and Featherglen is not the haven of calm it usually is, you know why...

I haven't had a lot of time to blog recently, mainly because my mother-in-law (or 'Belle Mere' as the French so tactfully put it) has been staying with us for a few weeks. As she lives so far away, we don't see her more than a couple of times a year, but it is usually quite an event!

So we need to have the welcome party out...

And a decent cake. This is a fabby doo recipe, which is easy peasy and has so much fruit in it you can almost convince yourself it's healthy, ahem...

You need...

125g marg/butter

90g muscvado sugar (the very dark brown stuff...mmmm)

1 tsp cinnamon or allspice

50g walnuts

450g dried fruit - I like a mix of raisins, sultanas and cranberries, but use whatever is to hand

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 teacup water

Put all of this into a big saucepan and bring to the boil. Let it boil for about 10-15 mins, then let it cool a little. Meanwhile heat your oven to 150 degrees C, line a medium sized cake tin, make a cup of tea, ignore the mountain of laundry etc.

Then, add..

2 eggs, beaten

260g flour (I like half wholemeal) sifted with...

1 tsp baking powder.

Top with some blanched almonds if you like (I do).

Stick it in the oven for an hour, more or less. It will come out looking craggy, and if you stick a skewer in it, it should come out clean. Cool in the tin. Serve to suitably impressed Belle Mere, who LOVES British baking.

Our Belle Mere is a very civilised sort, she is a wonderful  professional artist, bookaholic, deeply enthusiastic about food and cooking, sews her own clothes, tells hilarious stories in top speed French complete with hand gestures and impersonations (it has taken me 12 years to finally be able to follow them!), doesn't mind grandsons tapping at her door at 6am, adores Marks and Spencers and, best of all, wouldn't notice dust if it was knee deep around her. Any downsides? Not really, but I expect that my boys will probably learn all the fairly rude French words from their Granny! 

So, the last couple of weeks have seen quite a few really good celebratory meals...

 

Quite a bit of drawing...

Some beautiful autumnal moments...

And LOTS of sewing. 
Over a year and half ago I bought about 3 metres of tweed at a sale for a fiver, plus an old Vogue coat for a pound, and decided to have a go at making a coat (I can't actually do dressmaking, by the by, but hey! If someone is there to tell me what to do, I'll give it a go.) However, after cutting out the pieces, we then decided to move house, so everything got packed up and I was so busy making curtains and things for the boys, that the poor old coat lay in a basket neglected. A visit from Belle Mere was just what it needed. And thank goodness she was there to help me, otherwise I would have never got beyond the first few instructions - which I could barely understand in English, never mind translate for her. Also, she does things properly. I am a complete bend-the-rules sewer, but she got me tacking and fitting and trying - and of course, it does all make a huge difference. Coat is not quite finished yet, but the end is in sight, so if I don't completely loose the plot with Blogger, I'll let you see the finished product.

In the meantime, to recover my calm, I'm knitting a lace scarf to go with the coat. It is a lovely pattern and I promise to share it with you too. Deep breaths, a bit of cake, a few cups of tea, or possibly even something a little stronger, and I will get the better of this new Blogger editor (said in a threatening voice to the computer). Until then!

Digging and Dreaming

Of all my gardening experiments this year, the one that has given us most pleasure visually (as opposed to all the edible pleasures we have enjoyed), has been a new flowerbed planted up with annuals. I grew these beautiful girls from seed. Some did better than others, but I am chuffed to bits with the Cosmos, which has been flowering for about 3 months, and is bravely flowering on despite our first frost yesterday. I like drawing my flowers sometimes, but look at Geninne's paintings in her diary (her Cosmos are just in flower in Mexico City). Just lovely.

But I know all too soon, the flowers will decide it is just far too cold to be out and about. So in between other things I have been running out and sticking in a few bulbs every now and then. I've had some help - especially with the watering can...but he is most disappointed that there is nothing to show for all his hard four year old work....but I'm dreaming of golden daffy days ahead...

Autumn Weekends

Oh, it's a bitter sweet time of a season! So much beauty in all the colour and fruitfulness, and so much to enjoy, but it all heralds the passing of light and warmth...nothing for it - just to get out there and breathe it all in, soak it all up. So there's not much time blogging, when there are autumn picnics to be had, more chanterelles to be found, blackberries to be picked...and when that's all done, then the jam making (him, not me!) and cooking starts. And then... a pause to be thankful for all this beauty and abundance.

Mushroom Magic

I'm just getting over a swift dose of flu and feeling a bit out of shape, but not even that can stop me from enjoying this time of the year, there are so many wonderful things to find outdoors. Lots of crafty folk love the shape and colour of mushrooms and we are no exception, even my youngest can't go for a walk without pointing out almost every one that he sees. So, our little walks can take quite some time. Mushrooms are everywhere in our local woods, in the most extraordinary colours.

We are happy to just look and enjoy, but my beloved is a good Frenchman and forager of fine things, so armed with a pile of mushroom books, he has taught me how to identify some edible varieties. This year we have hit gold - a big crop of Chanterelles.

We have been enjoying them with earthy Puy lentils, generously seasoned with garlic, parsley and lemon, or as a deluxe filling to an omelette. Aren't they the most beautiful colour?

Anything interesting to eat in your neighbourhood? Any suggestions for cooking our treasures? I'm sure there will be another mushroom hunt this weekend...

I always love to connect what is going on outside in nature with what we have in our home, even if it's just a pine cone we found on a walk, or a rock one of the boys has given me (I have a small bowl of such treasures adorning on our kitchen table).

Right now, there are a lot of yellows catching my eye, from bright Rudbeckias in the gardens, to ochre mushrooms in the woods, and even a few yellowing leaves on the silver birch. So, I must have had that in mind when I was making a little present for a local birthday girl. She is already (at age seven) the collector of aprons and the giver of the most elegant of teaparties. There's not a lot of girlieness going on in our household, so it was nice to have a chance to let rip and make another apron to add to her collection.

I used a bit of white linen from a old French sheet that I've been gradually cutting into, plus some Rudbeckia yellow gingham, a few patchwork scraps leftover from the boys' baby quilt, some ric-rac, and a fabric and button flower to decorate the waistband.

It was the first apron I've ever made, but it was easy-peasy and fun to do. Might even make myself one next. Although I have to say, I'd never be able to wear it with the elegance and glamour of this particular party girl!

Feathering the Nest

The early autumnal weather has made us aware that the season is changing quickly, and soon our light evenings will be gone, our energy with it, and we'll be spending our evenings close to the fire, in semi hibernation. So, a flurry of minor home improvements have been going on, hence the lack of recent postings. It has taken me a year of living in our house to finally decide on the perfect colour for the living room (paint samples, anyone?). It was white, which is fine, but not very cosy and not always soothing either.

So, two days solid of painting, plus the kindly offer of boy-amusing from my neighbour, and the room is now a deeply restful shade of grey. No, not cosy perhaps, but not cold either, and it's given me the chance to rearrange our pictures and treasured things. Everyone has their corner, my husband has the desk, I get the rocking chair and the boys have their table too. Of course, we all fight over the sofa!

It's blowing a gale outside tonight and I fear for the flowers - will they all be flat or even gone by the morning? But while I can, I'm bringing lots of them indoors. These ones are in a sweet little wall pot made by Dorinda Johnson.



Do you feel the same? Do you get a sudden burst of 'nesting' in early autumn? Seems to happen to me every year, along with the brief urge to clean in early spring. I think I'd make a good bear, busy all summer and then sleeping all winter. But! If it would stop raining and howling outside, I think I'm ready to welcome autumn.