Swimming with seals

Actually, it was swimming with 1 seal, but still it made me smile. Whilst on my jollydays at the seaside and after 2 mornings of lying in bed trying to psyche myself up for a swim before breakfast, I managed to overcome the little voice that said "Nah, it's too cold in the sea.....do it tomorrow" and settled into a routine of morning swims. Every morning I had the sea to myself so was considerably surprised when I glimpsed a head out of the corner of my eye, and when I jumped up to get a good look at it over the waves I could see it was a seal looking at me as I was looking back. It dipped below the sea and resurfaced a little further away and of course I said "Hello" and waved (as you do). It made me giggle for ages.

It was a most relaxing holiday with hexagon sewing in the sun whilst listening to Harry Potter punctuated by cycling along the promenade, visits to the nature reserve and playing with photography. The nature reserve generally seems devoid of birds (we don't call binoculars "bird scarers" for nothing), but I contented myself with picking (and eating) bilberries. 

Dune steps

Bilberry picking at Theddlethorpe Nature Reserve

For a couple of days we cycled as far as we could along the promenade and surprisingly we managed about 3 miles before the path turned into a sand dune. Over the years we have seen the sea defences change from being concrete steps up to the promenade, to big boulders (in places), and then to 'beach nourishment' which is essentially pumping a load of dredged sand onto the beach to form a big bank of sand up to the promenade. This is repeated every year to replace sand washed away by the tides, but now the sand is becoming increasingly populated with dune grass and sea holly. Sand dunes are on their way back! It is still really strange to see so much sand and grass on the beach after years of concrete steps, wooden groynes and sometimes squishy mud flats. Another thing which still surprises me is the sight of all the wind turbines out to sea which seem to be steadily marching nearer to 'our' beach. 

Today is Cherryday (not Sunday)

Today has been an almost overwhelmingly cherry filled day. It started with cherry clafoutis for breakfast; a rather decadent start to the day but how perfect can that be for someone who loves egg custard. Next on the cherry list were cherry and coconut cakes, and I decided that it would be a good idea to make two cakes - one for today and one for the freezer.  Both the clafoutis and the cakes used up the cherries prepared yesterday.

The next (and rather daunting) task was to make cherry jam. But I daunted without cause because it went like a dream. I followed a simple recipe of de-stoning 1.8kg cherries (whilst listening to Harry Potter), then simmering them slowly in the juice of 2 lemons until they were tender but not squishy. Followed by bunging a 1kg bag of jam sugar (sugar with pectin) into the pan and stirring until dissolved. Then it was just a case of bringing to the boil, leaving for about 10 mins and then checking the temperature. I went for a full belt and braces approach to check the setting point as I used the mechanical thermometer, and when that looked the right temperature (around 104C), the electronic thermometer to confirm the result and then did a wrinkle test by putting a little jam onto a cold saucer, leaving it to cool for a minute and then pushing the jam with a finger.  Whilst waiting for the jam to boil, I had my clean jam jars in the oven to sterilise and the lids in some boiling water. In no time at all I had filled 4 big jam jars. I probably should have let it cool a little before bottling because all the cherries have floated to the top, but I'm not going to worry about that. I'm really hoping that it will cool enough for tea so that we can have a cherrylicious afternoon tea with homemade sourdough bread, cherry jam and cherry cake. I shall be able to wear my domestic goddess pants with pride.

Cherry Harvest

In the garden of our (future) barn conversion is a rather large cherry tree. Last year we had a load of cherries on the tree before we went on holiday and none when we came back. Typical. This year our holiday timing has been a lot better and we've been able to keep an eye on the cherries. I picked some last weekend that were slightly under-ripe and put them on the window cill to finish ripening. The were ok, but a bit tart and tough - I de-stoned them all this morning and cooked them gently with a little water and honey to be used in some cakes and smoothies. This afternoon we popped over to the barns to get the car ready to take a load of stuff to the tip for the kids and we saw that the cherries must be ripe because a flock of birds flew out of the tree as we drove past. The only thing to do was to get a ladder and get picking! We picked loads and loads and had to stop because the bag was full. I fully intended to give up jam making until we had a proper kitchen but since we spied the jam pan in the storage container, we are going to give it a go. The jam pan was visible but almost inaccessible - we nearly had to give up on our jam quest,  but a bit of climbing and balancing and it was in our hands. Interestingly we had the forethought to keep it with the jam thermometer and bottling jug - it was almost as if we had planned it. The temperature on the thermometer was 100F so it's pretty warm at the moment in the container. Actually, the recent warm spell (after the monsoon season) makes our flat most uncomfortably hot; we must be mad thinking of making jam in our pokey furnace of a kitchen. 

Cherries not ready yet

Still not ripe

Ready cherries!

Scrap Quilt

I love it when a quilt is finished and this quilt has been even longer in the making than most. The quilt top was finished about 3 years ago and was then superceded by another more pressing project (and then another etc), and then packed in a box when we moved house. Since our 'short stay' in rented accommodation has become a long stay I found the box when we shifted stuff from one storage space to another and rummaged around  until I found the quilt top and some wadding and then quilted it periodically at Nottingham Patchwork Group's monthly Sunday sewing sessions. It now fulfils it's purpose in life as a birthday present for a daughter in lieu of a poncho. I was so relieved when she didn't want a poncho....Hopefully it will spend many happy years as a cuddly throw on a sofa.

This quilt started life as the left over blocks from a previous quilt, hence the turquoise and blue centre section. The rest of it is made from a load of pre-cut squares bought at Nottingham Patchwork Group so is actually made from the left over bits of other peoples quilts as well as my scraps and left overs. I enjoyed the piecing of the squares into half square triangle blocks - some might find it boring but I found it to be quite relaxing just chain piecing the squares together; the sort of stitching you can do whilst listening to a story. Then there was the positioning of the blocks and I tried really hard to co-ordinate the colours around the centre block so that the colours blended and changed. The strip framing each round of blocks was tactical as well as useful in finishing off some fabric as it made the next row of blocks fit without having to do too much in the way of measuring and maths. The only fabric bought for this quilt was the backing which is a nice paw print fabric, good for hiding less than perfect quilting and fun for a pet loving daughter.

Sourdough loaf with Sussex Magister Wheat

I tried a different variety of wheat in my sourdough loaf yesterday and it made a surprising difference to the crumb and lightness of the loaf. I usually buy wheat grain from the local windmill at Heage but the milling had to stop due to wet rot in the main beam thingy so I lost my grain supply. The good news is that after much fundraising the windmill now has it's sails back on and is back in action. In the meantime I bought wheat grain from Imbhams when I ordered spelt grain and maize so have a different variety to bake from. I'm not sure where Heage windmill source their grain from but it is definitely not the Sussex Magister wheat that I used yesterday. This has a much darker reddish colour and the dough was more springy and stretchy, whereas the Heage grain made a more rustic loaf with a greater depth of flavour. That is not to say that my new grain has no flavour, it is just lighter and more subtle (and just as delicious).

If only a photo could convey the heavenly smell and taste of a sourdough loaf

Whilst researching Heage Windmill for this post I saw that there was a classic motor bike event today so we picked an interlude between the showers and went for a look. It was a small but friendly show with much shiny chrome and classic bikes coming and going and roaring up and down the lane.  It was marvellous to see the windmill sails whipping round in the wind and of course it was quite essential to buy a bag of flour :)

Baby hats and bootees

More hats and bootees.........I'm on a roll. More babies are due and I'm really getting the hang of baby bits and pieces and am trying a few variations. This time I've used 'Vintage Pearl Baby Hat' pattern found on www.hopefulhoney.com. I looked at adding pearls, but I wasn't sure that it would be worth the effort as the hats have a vintage charm without.

Bike week and National picnic week and 30 days wild

The long planned family bike ride actually took place during Bike Week. We even had a picnic in National picnic week and we cycled at Carsington reservoir with all it's abundance of bird life during 30 Days Wild. How unexpectedly co-ordinated that turned out to be as it was planned weeks ago. There was even had a break in the dreadful weather of the last week and it was dry if a little overcast. We had a lovely day. The funniest thing is that I still have bike chain oil on my calves, as was pointed out at my nephews baby's christening today :)

Beautiful building site

Our barn conversion site is not quite a building site yet, but more of a pre-building site. As this is all set to change in the next couple of weeks, here are few photo's of the garden and some horticultural happiness before building commences.

Admittedly the photo of the garden shed does not portray a horticultural vision but is important to us as it is our domestic garden oasis of calm. This is because our current temporary accommodation is pretty grim. Practical but not pretty would be a kind way of describing our rented flat and we are so looking forward to moving out of it and to our newly converted barn, if it ever happens. Here are a few photo's of our barn conversion in retro style, though these are the before pictures. One day I hope to have some after photo's.

And to finish off this post, here are a couple of photo's of the view we will eventually have one day, although it still seems such a long way off. NB more details of our barn conversion adventure can be found on our barn conversion blog