Tales From A Local Show!

Well, as my Dad used to say "learning all the time".

Yesterday was our local horticultural show. I had been really looking forward to taking part as I missed it last year, as you know, with us moving here the week before.

My cakes were made on Friday and yesterday morning I filled the Victoria sandwich and popped some strawberries on the top. I put three iced flowers on my lemon drizzle and finished off my chocolate brownie with some icing and pecan nuts.

I got everything over to the show and left it until later in the afternoon as we had family here and the Rayburn was being installed.

Before I say anymore about the show see how well the Rayburn looks. It went in really quite easily; Jon had help from his dad and then a pal from work came later on in the afternoon to help put the one we took out into the shed to sit until we sell it.

It is amazing. The water is sooo hot, I'll be able to boil the kettle and cook on the top and can't wait to go back to cooking and baking in it. All in all it is a great asset to the kitchen. I'm so grateful for Jon being so handy in order that all the refurbishment was done for not a lot of money to save us a great deal of money now and in the future.

Back to the show. I popeed over to take a look at everything and see the prize winners.

I have learnt a lot if I take part next year! My eggs when broken looked super but I had three the same colour and one not quite. Next my cucumbers  were a lot smaller than the rest but I didn't mind that; they were not going on taste just looks. My lemon cake passed without incident but I did win 2nd prize for my chocolate brownie! I won 75p for that.

 Now on the jams and jellies etc I had decorated tops on the jars which I wondered whether or not they had been taken off at all....

I didn't win anything for my button based craft item but this will be a nioce gift for somebody. 

Now, my Victoria sponge. They didn't even bother to cut into it! It had cream and strawberry jam in it -  nobody else seemed to have cream in theirs - but I have to say it look so much better than enybody elses, even if they were following the criteria or rules - which we didn't know of course. Look.

(This is it cut into when we ate some last night.)

I looked this morning and the lemon curd and marmalade had not even been opened! I was spoken to by a lady at the end of the show who said, if I wanted to go further in competition, that I need to have a plain lid and plain label - mine were Cath Kidston! Hate to blow my own trumpet but my lemon curd is a bit special, even more so now with our own eggs.

With all this I was laughing my head off and one lady told me that back in the day when the WI held shows you didn't even get a look in if you put anything other than raspberry jam in your sponge cake!

So it was a bit of an experience, Jon said I should stuff 'em!

Right now we are cooking on the breakfast on the Rayburn!

How fab is this. We have achieved one of our main aims, to heat the house, water and cook with out paying for the fuel!

In other news this last week I turned over the compost heap. I chose to do this on the day it was 77 degrees!

It has broken down really quite well apart from some of the straw so really hope I can use it soon.

Right, must dash as breakfast soon then we are going into Aber before Jon's dad and his wife go home. I have Harry's birthday cake to make today or tomorrow ready for his pals coming after school.

Of course, will keep an eye on what people have been up to over the weekend.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Getting Ready For The New Season.

Today I have been getting some garden prep work done outside. The broccoli plants have completely gone to pot so this is how the patch looks now after I took them out, added some fresh compost and turned it over a bit. I don't know what to put there just now.

The chickens had a bit of a feast.

Talking of compost, my black bin is just about full so I need to get anther one from somewhere but also need to turn the current one out and give it a really good mix up. Thursday is supposed to be a sunny day so will try and do it then. Although I have a lot to do on Thursday and Friday ready for the show and the weekend in general because of family visiting and it being Harry's birthday next week; he just let us know this evening he would like three of his pals over on Monday for a bbq; my daily to do lists are getting bigger!

These are my turnips. which I think will leave for another week or so, whilst watching the caterpillers incase they move onto them from the broccoli! They are a bit bigger than a golf ball.

The onions are SOOO close and I can't wait to get them dried out - best we have a dry day in a week or so...

I have cleaned out the sink which the dwarf beans had been in and they, too, were given to the chooks. This is the sink which, in hindsight, I think was not the right thing for the beans as the roots were quite matted when I took out the compost. Too shallow I think, so I would like to get some pak choi in there once I check the sowing and growing details. Won't put fresh compost in until I know what I'm doing.

In the Poly House the tomaoes are doing well....

and there a few more growing at the top, too,

plusI took this from the cordon when pinching out and have planted it to grow on.

I cut a lettuce and picked some tomatoes for our salad this evening and seem to be doing not too bad with the lettuce sucession growing.

These are the dwarf beans I planted not that long ago and I can't believe how they have come on already! I swear they practically grow whilst you are looking at them.

The boys were back at school yesterday and came home with a bit of a prize haul from the Bont local show, whcih we didn't manage to get to. They both won a second prize in the handwriting class with a certificate and £1 prize money then Harry came fourth with his medal made in celebration of the Olympics whilst Alfie came second. Very chuffed with them both!

Tomorrow is a busy day for the boys as they both start back to swimming with school, Alfie has recorder at school and then his first piano lesson at 4.15pm. (I hope to change the time.) Alfie and I are very excited about the Paralympics starting in earnest on Thursday after the opening ceremony tomorrow evening.

Right, I think that is it for now. Just wanted to say thanks again for the kind comments on my anniversary post yesterday.

I tried to put a link from our room to let on here but have had difficulties with Airbnb. (If you feel like having a look it is described as a boutique garden chalet in Ceredigion.)

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

One Year - Where Did That Go?!

One year ago today me, Jon and the boys landed with all our worldy goods in a Welsh wonderland and I really can't believe just what, in these past 12 months, has come about so I just wanted to write a post that I could look back on. I think it is always fun to see how the past compares with the present and gives you ideas for future; this will tie together everything we have accomplished and is a post for prosperity but would love it if you found the time to read it, too.

Our journey was a troubled one for a while, and I don't mean the Beverly Hillbillies-style packed trailer that came along with us! 


We put the boys in school just three days after arriving and, following the initial week, they thrived from being at the Canolfan in Felinfach before returning to main school at Christmas and they have continued to thrive to this very day.

Jon, with the blessing of our lovely vendors, began some outside work re-pointing the house's gable end because last September was such a great month weather wise. (He is never happier than when sitting as he dangles his legs off a scraffolding platform, trowel in hand!) We also worked to clear dead ivy from the front of the house and Jon refurbished the house name sign. Little things. Work on the house was quite extensive as three ceilings downstairs needed to come down and be re-plastered and re-painted plus the bathroom floor had to come up so that was a major job along with re-configuring the layout and building storage. We re-jigged a walk-in wardrobe for Alfie's room by creating a new wall and blocking up the existing landing cupboard.Other cosmetic work was done, too, in order to make the whole house just as we wanted.

It was at the beginning of October when our buyers pulled out but we carried on with work on the house - some people would rightly think this was a bit of a risk to say the least! I managed to get mysel a little job at a cafe in Tregaron that same month; I did it because it was required but I am much happier doing my thing at home!. We gave ourselves a year to have the house finished but, as you can see, the vast majority of it was done by the time we moved out of the caravan in mid-October then spending the first night in the house! Jon got himself a job at the local saw mill in November and I gave up mine. Through thick and thin, family assistance and preparing for Christmas Bronllan was officially and finally ours on December 21 2015 and we had the most wonderful festive season, just the four of us.

Our dream started to become a reality. 

I began some Welsh lessons at the beginning of January and hope to have some more soon to improve on the small amount I have managed to pick up, much through the boys. 

I have taken part in village life by going along to the monthly lunches and coffee morning/book swaps which are so conveniently held literally across the road from the house at our lovely, historic community centre. 

Jon has enjoyed getting to know people including the wonderful man who owns the house backing on to our garden; he knows everyone and everything about the village and owned Bronllan at one time. He has been kind enough to let us store our monster of a trailer in his barn and Jon has helped with his sheep and other jobs on his land whilst really enjoying his company and the boys really like him, too.

The boys have taken part in lots of things through school like the Urdd Club - having a fabulous time on their residential weekend -  the local Eisteddfod and a wonderful afternoon of entertainment to celebrate St David's Day.

The boys and I began tentatively sowing seeds to grow our own at the beginning of April to start off in the conservatory.

I began making our own bread at the beginning of April, too, and have continued to do so since that time.

Toward the end of April Jon had finished building the greenhouse and I began our Grow Your Own quest in earnest. This has been a massive learning curve for me; the only edible things I had previously grown were a few beans and some salad leaves! I have learnt that sometimes things just grow and don't need a lot of care and other things need to be nurtured a little more. I know I need to extend my patience when it comes to waiting for things to come to harvest but I have also learned that things don't always work out and it is sometimes better to cut your losses.

 We have since harvested a wonderful amount of cucumbers, just over 3lbs of spuds              (would have been more if it were not for my eagerness!), a good amount of courgettes,          some tomatoes, sugar snap peas along with lettuce leaves and a couple of lbs of 

 cooking apples.

I have had so much help and advice about growing from the lovely people in Blogland - you know who you are! x

It all really started happening at the beginning of May!  

We got chickens! Our six girls continue to provide us with a fabulous amount of a very useful foodstuff; you will never starve if you have eggs! Since we brought them home they have given us, to date, 559 eggs and you can look at this as having paid off just over half of the initial £80 set up cost of the chicken project.

We set up a strawberry patch along the back of the Poly House but this has not been a great success so we chalk this one up to experience and hope for better results next year by possibly growing them under cover.

Jon and I completed the first part of our 19 x 6 foot veg patch. I planted out turnips, swede, carrots, broccoli and onions. The second phase was finished at the beginning of August - things sometime just take a while -  when I planted leeks, carrots and beetroot. I have had some issues with a couple of these plantings and I have lost the broccoli to the caterpillers but the patch looks quite healthy otherwise and some harvesting should take place very soon and I am very eager to share the details with you.

We built a raised bed for sweetcorn out of the last four sleepers we found in the garden. These have been the basis for the veg patch, raised bed inside the Poly House, as it is now known, the strawberry patch and said bed for the corn. This has saved us a HUGE amount of money as well as looking really attractive.

At the end of the month the garden was scraped down with a digger. We decided to take out three large rhododendrons along with the dreaded bamboo which has almost become a distant memory, although the cheeky little divil still pops up here and there but nothing like it did before! The garden is a shadow of its former self in the best possible manner and is a very useable space.

In the kitchen I have learned how to water-bath process chutney and have managed to pickle both eggs and cucumbers from our own garden. 

Our newest project is our room to let - We now have it on Airbnb and we wait to see what happens.

So at this point Jon and I are so pleased and frankly amazed at how much we have just managed to get done really! There is so much ahead for us and the boys but I think we have made a proper good start!

Thank you, again, to all those who have given help, advice, encouragement, empathy and sympathy along the way. I so appreciate how you lovely people have added to our dream becoming a reality. - see what I did there?!

Lou.xx

Bit Of A Mish Mash.

This post is, as the title suggests, a bit of this and that.

I have been working on my preserves by pickling some of the cucmber glut, if I dare call it that, sweet pickling, and they are scrummy I have to say - fab on burgers. I'm trying to find out if I can long term preserve sweet pickles. In the fridge I also have marmalade and lemon curd, which you can't see! that are made ready for the village show next Saturday. 

Thought I'd get ahead a bit with it being Harry's 10th, count 'em, birthday the following Monday so I have baking galore to do with a cake for him and those for the show!

This is my super easy marmalade recipe that you may just be able to see. Bit of an all in one and just great.

Now, these next photos may not mean much to some people but anyhow Jon has has been refurbishing the Rayburn we bought so that we can replace the oil one and have a solid fuel one. He has re-painted with special heat/fire paint,

spruced up the doors which were in great condition anyhow,

and made sure all of the insides and other bits were as they should be.

This is the top of the cooker and the brown paint has been removed to be painted again with said fire paint.

The boys have been helping to move some more branches down to the fire pile..

and in the Poly House my sweet pepper is coming along well, however I prefer red and yellow ones so I hope this changes colour!

I just had to show this because Alfie made it for me and I have it on the dresser in the kitchen.

This morning Jon and the boys took Jake for a walk and they picked just over 1lb of blackberries. I have them on a tray in the freezer before I pop they into a bag. We still the the crumble to finish which I made with some me and the boys picked the other day so thought I'd better put them away for now.

Right, this post is to get photos I've been hoarding for a few days used so that I can publish my special post on Monday.

Ok. Have a lovely weekend and I'll be popping in to see what people are up to.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Test, Rate or Review.

Just in case you are reading this post as a new visitor to my blog I would be really interested in working with anybody who would like products regarding baking, cooking or gardening tested, rated or reviewed.

I am not looking for any payment for this, just the chance to see some new items, have a play really and to promote them here.

Thanks.

Show Me, Show Me!

The village Horticultural show happens at the beginning of next month so I was very pleased when yesterday I received the entry form for the various classes. When we moved here last year it took place the week after we arrived, and was also on the same day as Harry's birthday, so I was unable to take part but this year I am all over it like a rash!

I love a local event such as a show like this. The sometimes quirky class titles make me laugh and some of those which are inculded this year are an arrangement of garden flowers in a gravy boat and an arrangement in a cup and saucer, as well at the usual ones.

I have decided to enter seven classes, five of which are preserves or baking, plus one craft one and maybe two more in the garden produce class if I have some decent toms and cucumbers by then. 

The naughty but nice one will be my chocolate brownie with extra chocolate!

This morning I have had a bit of a clear out in the Poly House. I decided to ditch the beef tomatoes, much to my disappointment, and one of my two courgettes plants which hasn't done much at all for a while so I'm ok about that one.

Now you see them, now you don't!

I think Jake was wondering where they had gone, too!

I decided to rake over the chicken enclosure this morning. We had put some greenery in there for them and now it has broken down a bit I thought I would remove it. However, as I was raking over the leaves and things the girls were keen to see what was underneath. I ended up leaving a number of piles for them to root and scratch through and we plan on getting them some new sand this weekend. 

That is about it for me today. We are heading off to replenish food supplies this evening as the boys come home tomorrow and we are hoping for a good evening so we can have a BBQ. I have a busy few days coming up because there are uniform and supplies to check over, replace, get ready etc for when they are back at school on September 5. Harry moves up a year and a class which is exciting and Alfie will be in the same class and quite pleased, I feel, that he won't have Harry on his shoulder all the time!

I have put some cucumbers and onions to soak ready to turn them into sweet fridge pickles tomorrow so looking forward to seeing how them turn out. My pickled eggs are ready to be tried today but fancy waiting to have them with fish and chips; maybe we'll treat outselves to a chippy tea after the shopping.

Ok, I've made veg and lentil curried soup for my lunch so I'm going to eat that then put the washing out before a few jobs that need doing inside.

By for now.

Lou.xx

Foody Fotos!

I don't generally do posts only about making and baking but this one is just that.

On Saturday when our guests were here we went for a mooch around Craft and I picked one of these up for 50p. Cool huh?



I forgot to take a picture of mine but you get the idea. Anyhow, yesterday I was seeing what was ready to pick in the garden etc and looked at the apples, established they are cookers -yay! so picked a few amongst other bits and pieces.

I came round to thinking that the balckberries on the cycle path MUST be ready now so me and Jake headed out, basket in hand, to do some foraging.

Soooo chuffed I came home with this little lot.

As you can see they weighed in at a goodly amount and I only needed 200g for my planned recipe.

Then I set about making some pastry, I used the pastry from this recipe which is almost the same as the one of hers I use for my mince pies.

Here is the recipe itself but it is quite a simple process, just follow the pictures a bit!

Apples in the pan with sugar until soft then leave to cool.

Add the blackberries and coat in the syrup.

Put a good dollop on each recrangle leaving a bit of a gap all round.

Make your lattice tops, egg wash the edges, pop the tops on, seal and then wash again and sprinkly with sugar. Just had a thought, you could make these with cranberries at Christmas and they would be soooo good. Pop them in the oven until they are...

golden brown and tasty looking!

The recipe asks for puff pastry but I only buy puff at Christmas (have I just mentioned the C word again?) and prefer to make my own anyhow. Our apples, free food in the form of the blackberries and made by me. Get in!

For my lunch yesterday I used up some veg from tea the night before and made a bit of a grow your own soup. I added to it some of our tomatoes, one of our courgettes, the few beans I have managed to harvest just recently, an onion and some of our own dried oregano with a veg stock cube, seasoning, water and boiled; thickened with cornflour it was just yummy. Sorry, no after picture - too hungry!

Now, this isn't food but I just need to do it so I can get rid of the phot that has been hanging around in my To Use folder! A good while ago I shared a photo of some fabric I bought and said I had plans for it. 

Well, finally it has been put to its intended use. As you go down our cellar steps there is a ledge that we keep suitcases on. I have wanted to find something to cover it up and so this is what we have now after I'd nipped and tucked and did the best I could with both curtains.

It is a bit wonky at the bottom but I'm not too bothered - does the trick.

Last thing, this morning as part of my breakfast I had almost the last of the blackberries on toast. Nom nom!!!!

Right, after having spent the whole time talling about food it is time to get my lunch and watch the first TGBBO from last night. (I should point out that I have made efforts this week to start running for fitness and with all I have just posted I flippin' sound as if I need it!)

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

In A Pickle - Assistance Please.

Morning.

I am in need of help from the good people of blogland. I am in danger of having a glut of cucumbers, not that I am complaining as they have been an unqualified success out of everything I have attempted to grow so far.

However, I would like to pickle some of them, both for the fridge and to keep for a while, too,and also a nice chutney. I like sweet chutney mostly with tomato and I made a lovely one with courgettes that I hope to do again if I get enough courgettes! Any suggestions for either would be gratefully appreciated. 

Just heading out for a walk with Jake and to hopefully find some balckberries or raspberries along the cycle path. I have lattice pastries in mind so will let you know how I get on.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx