Here is this weeks “Sunday” Sevens post, linking up to Natalie to give a snap shot view of how the last week has gone.
This week has well and truly turned the corner into the Autumn and we have been processing the harvest bounty that this season provides us with. ie more apples than we know what to do with… The laundry basket contained 18kilos of apples and these were just the windfalls that were still good. There are many more still on the trees…
The apples all came from Poole, when I was back there this weekend we collected another bucket load as well as picking a few from my Nan’s eating apple tree for her and harvesting the last of the beans from her shade house. There is also a grape vine growing up the side of the house and this year it produced quite a large crop which will probably all be turned into grape jelly (using up some of the cooking apples). Mixing cooking apple pulp with some dry flavourings we have and then dehydrating them has produced some “gummy sweets” Whilst these need a bit more work they might be a future use for a lot of the cooking apples that we have an excess of.
Another thing that is producing a glut is the herbs in the back garden. Especially Sage and Rosemary, we have been dehydrating these for days now, and freezing some processed fresh sage for future use.
Whilst all of us have been in the house during the day at the moment Pippa has been cooking soup for us every lunchtime and freezing the left over for use during winter. She has also made bread this week which is a very hard task in our house because nothing ever seems to rise as the house is too cold. This was proved overnight and then set ontop of the dehydrator to get the final rise as a bit of a cheat.
Whilst in Poole we attacked the strawberry bed to try and take out most of the grass which had overrun it over this last year and lay weed barrier and replant all of the small plants that had been hiding under the grass and the runners that we had cultivated from Southampton
Pippa finally received her birthday present from our mother a few months after her big birthday. She received three skeins of Mirasol Yarns Llama Una which was bought from the “new” wool shop at the Shops at Dartington – Wool Merchant.
As Nikki is making some good progress on her blanket but finding it a bit hard to remember all of the changes in stitch types so Pippa made her some new stitch markers out of some of her old jewellery findings, and some freshwater pearls… Slightly more fancy than the wool scraps she had been using before!
The blanket is now long enough to keep Nikki warm whilst she knits the next row. It is about 40cm in length, so about 1/3 of the way there and she has just joined her 5th ball of wool on.
In a further attempt to avoid finishing writing her thesis Nikki has been sewing bags again:
And planning future bag makes with the stash of quilting cottons that we inherited from our Paternal grandparents house.
To add to the procrastination Nikki has joined Instagram as @knightcrafts go and give her some love…
You can click here to see the rest of our Sunday/Monday Sevens posts.
Well, you’ve been busy in the garden. I’m not sure I could have been bothered with peeling and coring all those apples – does that make me a bad person? I had so many plums this year I didn’t know what to do with them – we (well, ‘he’) made some chutney but the rest was devoured by the dogs and probably the wild boar too. They aren’t that tasty actually and the trees are very old and we’ll probably cut them down this year and plant some new ones – over the other side of the fence where the dogs can’t get to them :/
It’s just beginning to feel autumnal here too and you’ve reminded me that I might now be able to get out the blanket knitting/crocheting again without expiring in the heat. Also, it might soon be time to sew up the boyfriend cardigan I finished knitting in early spring – I hate that job though so it might not happen quite yet.
That’s a nice stash of quilting cottons you’ve got there – any plans for a quilt?
We had plums earlier in the year too, our ones are realy quite tasty but we never get round to using them. So they all went to our parents this year.
I think I might have to start on a scrappy blanket this winter too. As well as all my other projects.
I’m looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.
No plans for a quilt as of yet.
Busy girls! Your industry is to be applauded. Well done on preparation for winter
🙂 we just need to make sure that we find ways to use it all…
How fab to inherit all that fabric, that’s my idea of heaven. A late birthday present like that is a nice surprise, too. I feel the need to start another blanket for the longer evenings that are coming – crocheting the latest one over the Summer was a bad idea!
Lol yeah I can imagine that a blanket in the summer is hard work.
The wool is so soft and squishy. It’s lovely, I just need to find something to do it justice