Company's Coming!

Hello Friends!

I hope you had a blessed Easter, however you celebrate.  For some reason, it's taking me a while to get back into this week, and every day feels like Monday. 

I have a question for you.  Now, I never thought this would ever be something I would ask.  Next week, I host my first guests in over fourteen months.  The strict safety guidelines must still apply, just two guests {I can have up to six outside my Bubble} and we will be socially distanced, wrapped up warmly, outside in the garden.  No hugging, not indoors, not even sitting close, and they are even bringing their own chairs.  We are all vaccinated, but we must not let things slip now, these guidelines must continue until we kick Covid's butt.  So, here's my etiquette question.

Is it good or bad manners to place a pump of hand sanitiser on the refreshments table?  I feel, although an odd thing, it's good manners and lets your guests feel a little more secure, knowing you are doing your very best to take care of their safety.  What do you think?

So, instead of that old familiar situation of getting more cleaning done in the thirty minutes before your guests arrive, I'm mowing the garden and pulling weeds instead of vacuum cleaning and dusting malarkey!  I'm not ready to share garden photos just yet, still ashamed of the mess, and there's a long way to go. My "befores" are waiting, though, ready to go when I am ready.  It's not very nice out at the moment, cold and windy, and this is making me hold off, partly as I don't want to be out in the cold which plays havoc with my arthritis, and partly because I have nowhere that is protected enough to bring anything on by way of seeds and young plants.  It is warming up, though, next week ~ Company's Coming!

Speaking of arthritis, I feel compelled to share this with you. I have suffered with arthritis for some time, mainly in my legs and spine, but spreading.  Anyone who suffers with this knows how painful and unpredictable it can be, in my case particularly at night.  I follow a vegetarian diet, and love cheese, although I don't drink milk. I heard that milk and milk products can inflame arthritis, so although giving up cheese is my worst food nightmare, I have given it a go. Anything made with, or containing milk is out of my diet.  It didn't take long for my night time pain and discomfort to ease considerably, and I noticed I can now lead with my right leg when going up steps, something that has been painful and difficult for a long, long time now.  Then we had Easter.  I thought I could risk a little milk, milk products, just for one day.  So, I ate my milk chocolate eggs, spread unsalted butter lavishly on my Hot Cross Buns, made my richly creamy mushroom dish for Easter dinner, and treated myself to a small trifle with custard and cream.  After the following night, it turns out that may have been milk overload.  My legs burned all night, uncomfortably painful, sleep depriving pain keeping me awake.  So, that's it.  From now on, not even the smallest break from a milk free diet.  Much as I adore cheese, I dislike pain more.  I can still enjoy chocolate, just 70% dark or greater.

Having said that, there's a tad of butter to finish, and I cannot resist having a tiny amount on a slice of still warm, fresh~from~the~oven, Irish Soda bread.  If I suffer, I know what I am doing wrong.

I was recently given a couple of bags of snowdrops in the green, so have popped them into some holding pots until I know where they will go.  All of my previous snowdrops have disappeared.  Where? Why? I cannot answer.  Mice? Who knows?  I don't.  My neighbour has lost all hers too. 

Our weather, both sides of  The Pond, is bizarre.  Frankly, I'm a little fed up and more than a little disconcerted to see many on Social Media branding it as "quirky" and making jokes, when in reality it is very serious.  This is the reality of Climate Change.

Meanwhile, the garden is springing back to life.  Brambles continue to be chopped, an ongoing task, and I am frankly amazed at how much the lawn has shot up since I mowed it for the first time this year, not two weeks ago!  This year, it is actually green instead of the usual spring time yellow, and full of daisies and dandelions too.

While I watch the garden grow, from my living room, I have been painting.  I confess, I did not draw these images, but used stamps.  This first one I used some for Easter cards.

and this one is my favourite flower, a scene made using about eight or nine scene builder stamps.  I have shown it as I build it up.

Which led me to another scene, this time using stamps from two different scene builder sets, done twice on  different paper using Inktense paint pans

Easter did not go overlooked by my little helper, who was delighted with his chocolate egg

Meanwhile, back in the garden, I have discovered these, several plants that I believe are white comfrey plants.  The bees love them, so they're keepers indeed.

Before I go, I shall leave you with this quote

‘We have come as far as we have because we are the cleverest creatures to have ever lived on Earth. But if we are to continue to exist, we will require more than intelligence. We will require wisdom.’

Sir David Attenborough

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well.

Easter Baking

Hello Friends!

Easter heralds the start of many things, new beginnings, and for some the easing of lockdown so that a socially distanced and responsible gathering of friends outside can happen as the weather {hopefully}  improves, although we are getting a properly Arctic blast for Easter Monday.

image source: Wikipedia

I grew up with the tradition of Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday, we always had them toasted as a breakfast treat. I used the Doves Farm recipe this year, which was not without it's problems.  The dough rose absolutely perfectly, it could not have been better.

Normally, I make my crosses using marzipan.  However, not having any to hand, I followed the flour and water paste method in the recipe. Despite my best attempt, after baking, the crosses had disappeared entirely, so I panicked!  Hot Cross Buns without a cross are just buns.  Oh, dear.  Then I suddenly remembered seeing someone make water icing and using that.  So, that's what I did.  I made a thick drizzle and although not perfect by any means, my Hot Cross Buns now have crosses.

Cross~less buns, hot from the oven

and after the iced crosses are drizzled on

Probably my best effort.

I did try one, for quality control purposes, you understand, hot from the oven, before the crosses were added, but my favourite way to eat them is lightly toasted and thickly slathered in unsalted Welsh butter.  Deee~licious, even if a little rustic looking.

When is a Hot Cross Bun not a Hot Cross Bun?
When it's scone {gone}

I didn't bake a huge amount, just enough for me for the weekend, but happily shared with a neighbour. It was lovely to see her for the first time in oh! so many months, and have a socially distanced doorstep visit, so much missed, although we speak often on the phone.

Here's my chocolate and vanilla Easter Egg Cake, rich, dark, chocolatey goodness indeed.  One of my favourite things to bake for Easter Day Afternoon Tea.  I now have three killer ingredients, secret of course, for my chocolate cake!

With the weather being decidedly chilly, I won't be risking any gardening for a few days, and Easter Monday is predicted to bring a cold, Arctic blast to us, so later today I shall be doing more baking, keeping warm and snug in my cosy cottage kitchen baking Irish Soda Bread and Cherry Scones {which are new to me}.  I'll let you know how I get on, as scones are not my forte.

Until next time

Stay Safe, Stay Well

Have a Joyful, Blessed Easter Day

Daffodil Solution Found!

Hello Friends!

Jumping back a short while now, and as promised a quick little update on the vase of top heavy daffodils that kept on lying down for a rest. You can read about it here.  I feel I should say that, despite the original difficulties, now that a solution is found, they are very definitely worth the effort, as they are so very pretty.

Thank you to everyone, on here and Instagram, for your suggestions to cut the stems and put in a different vase.  However, as this has happened before, I know that is not a solution as the bend just reoccurs further up until there's no stem left to bend.

I found an empty passata jar, recently thrown in the recycling bin, which looks rather like a quaint, old fashioned glass milk bottle, and I had an idea.  I put the daffodils on the counter, shaping the big, double blooms into a pompom, tied them securely together, but not too snuggly, with some garden twine, trimmed the stems, and put them in the passata jar with plenty of fresh, clean water.  Four days later and they still look fresh as a daisy, well, daffodils, not daisies, but you know what I mean!

They were still beautifully fresh on Mothering Sunday to sit alongside this photo of my lovely mother, taken for her twenty first birthday.  Thanks to Covid, this is the first year every I did not buy special flowers, but I think she would have loved these just as much, and I know that, as she watches over me, she understands.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Wrapping up Warm

Hello Friends!

An Autumn morning slowly slips over the sleepy rooftops in the village.  Awakened by pale, mellow sunlight peeping through the windows, the cottages and houses, one by one, wake up and come to the life of a brand new day.  A soft light glows, an early morning mist swirls, and the subtle hues and tints of an Autumn morning, in all it's glory, with a feeling in the air that words cannot describe, but it touches your heart and you know it is there.  The wind and rain have gone, leaving everything sparkling and fresh; the sky is blue; the sun shines; and it's a perfectly beautiful day in the Shire, my friends.

but When the evening skies out to the west of my cosy cottage look wild and stormy, like this

and you can see the rain falling in curtains from the sky, like this

and when the early morning sky is cold and grey and looks like this

and when the last remaining apples desperately cling to the tree, like this

With the arrival of inclement weather imminent, few things bring more comfort than snuggling under a warm blanket, with a perfectly plumped up pillow tucked alongside me, as I curl up in my favourite armchair by the fireside, with a good book.

In a previous post I mentioned that I seem to have inadvertently fallen into collecting blankets, with no idea how this happened, it just did. It can be no bad thing, though, to have a pile of blankets and throws within easy reach as the weather turns colder, can it?

I have a few throws and travel rugs that belonged to my Grandmother, and when I worked in a local craft boutique that sold very popular, traditional Welsh tapestry in all manner of finished products, from lower price point coasters and place mats, to the high end bed spreads and evening capes, it would have been remiss of me indeed not to take advantage of a generous staff discount and weekly payment plan.

This was my first bed spread, in a gorgeous turkey red with tobacco brown accents and cream. It is from the {now closed} Dyffryn Mill in the beautiful Teifi Valley which spans the three counties of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, and Carmarthenshire.

Another one from the same mill, in beautiful tone on tone blues, again with cream. These patterns are unique to the mill, and each mill has it's own identifying patterns unique to them.. You will notice the above one and this one are the same.

Traditional Welsh tapestry is woven on a loom, and is a "double cloth", which means the patterns are fully reversible. It's like getting two for the price of one. If you Google "Welsh Tapestry" it will give you many links to mills, regions, and more, including that omnipresent section "images of . . . " A very good site for vintage and antique Welsh blankets and quilts of any kind is the Jen Jones Welsh Quilts and Blankets centre in Lampeter., Ceredigion. Genuine Welsh woollen mills are on the decline, and now there are only about a dozen fully operational working mills in the entire country.. Two in my area are

Solva Woollen Mill {formerly Middle Mill} and

Tregwynt

I was lucky enough to pick up three reversible floor rugs, very hardwearing, from Melin Tregwynt.. This one is in my hallway, and although instantly recognisable as Welsh tapestry, is quite a different pattern from the Dyffryn Mill bedspreads.

again, fully reversible

and this one is in my guest room

I picked up some random weave throws when I lived in Iceland, which is famous worldwide for the exceptionally hardwearing quality of it's woollen products. This is due, mainly to the fact that sheep are not shorn every year which produces a long staple which, when spun into yarn, produces a very strong fibre.

Here's another vintage Welsh woollen throw from the aforementioned Dyffryn Woollen Mill, which I bought well over forty years ago.  It's completely craftsman made, spun and woven at the mill from 100% Welsh wool..  I used it mainly as a car, or travel, rug on those long winter journeys when the passenger is a little chilly but the driver doesn't want the heating on as it makes them drowsy, back in those days when the heating blew from the dashboard and not individually controlled for each seat..  Now, it has a new purpose, covering an old and battered arm chair that is badly worn and in need of reupholstering, but which cannot now be done due to the current global pandemic.

Amongst the other blankets and throws are these, random weave made in Wales from recycled wool.  These are from Tweedmill in Flint.  I bought mine when I worked for the National Trust, way back in 2005, and with my staff discount I paid just £6.40 each.  Today, they have become a very popular item and can be found in many upmarket department stores selling in excess of £25.00!  Glad I bought mine when I did. They have been regularly used as picnic rugs, and despite being dry clean only, have not suffered on a cold, wool wash programme in my washing machine {although understand the risk you take if you do this}

Although not a rug or blanket, I still have the beautiful, cosily warm, cape my Grandmother saved up for and bought for me from Middle Mill in Solva.  It is now well over 50 years old, and in the colours of the Welsh flag. How I wish I could fit into it today!  My, I thought I was the Bee's Knees.

Beautifully finished, everything properly finished and bound, and fully lined

and while a typical, reversible double cloth weave, the garment is fully lined so not reversible as with the bedspreads.

During a recent, pre lockdown visit to a local mill shop, these are the beautifully folded and displayed tapestry spreads in such a mouth watering array of colours

and outside, to brighten any bleak winter afternoon, the offcuts are imaginatively used to create bunting!

What lovely blankets and quilts do you have, my friends, that keep you snug as a bug during the chillier Autumn evenings?  Maybe you have a big, roaring fire to keep you warm?

Did I mention the clocks went back this morning? My least favourite day of all! Now I need everything cosy even more than ever before!

Before I sign off today, thank you all for your very kind thoughts and birthday wishes on my previous post.

Until next time
Stay safe and stay well
Deborah xo