Sunday 31 March 2013

The small difference of 140.8 miles.....

I love a Hellebore...


I know so many people who call them "Christmas roses" but mine really come into their own in early spring and a few days of temperatures that begin to touch on double figures in direct sunshine...and spring really does begin to flush....

The Crocuses are nearly done peaking up at the edge of the path to the bee hives...


But the daffodils are beginning to wave "hello" from the other side so surely spring MUST be about to spring into action...

 

Its a different story further north...
The snow is lingering in all the nooks and crannies in Granny's garden where the sun just can't get at it to melt it away... it makes the light all strangely grey and reflective...
Granny's hellebores are struggling to stand...


The Anemone and Crocus are only just winning the battle to bloom...

 




Thank heavens for the Sunny patch under the apple tree there, at least, there are some early signs of spring...


 

In fact the harder you look, the more interesting the signs of spring become...

 

 

 

 

Not to mention tasty!


Mmmmm wonder how long Easter eggs take to thaw?.








Sunday 24 March 2013

A weekend of hands, feet and lessons learned...

The weather forecasters are about to declare March 2013 as the coldest since 1962, and there has been nothing going on here to contradict them. :(  In fact there has been far too many days when this has been the view of the garden...



The whole weekend was forecast to be much of the same so I really rather fancied spending most of it like this...


But son #1 had a fun family fitness day at the school sports field to raise money for a very worthy local charity.  We checked Dad's email, we checked my email, we checked the school website AND the twitter feed.... not cancellation notification anywhere to be seen. So despite the temptation to simply mail them a cheque to assuage our conscience we wrapped up and headed out...


Only to get there and find a half frozen head of house turning folk away - Hoorah! for health and safety rules about wind chill! 

LESSON LEARNT:  Check son #1s email.

To be honest, I panicked about the temperature when I walked in.  "No time like the present to feed the bees," thought I...."whilst I've still got my coat on".  So I nipped out...I was only going to be a few minutes... no point changing into a bee suit....
OUCH!!!!


I know it doesn't look like much but it really REALLY hurt.
It was all my own fault. 
Really the hive should not be opened in inclement weather - and 0'c, which feels like -5'c has got to be inclement by anyone's standards. And what was I thinking by putting my hand in whilst wearing a black coat? - of course I look just like a bear nicking honey so I really do deserve to be stung  :(

LESSON LEARNT: Don't open the hive in cold weather
LESSON LEARNT: Wear gloves at the least and preferably a bee suit
LESSON LEARNT: Don't wear black.

Oh well at least there is nothing to stop me from enjoying an afternoon of ...


(Can you see the fire glowing in the back ground? - If I tell you that we last lit the fire about 12 years ago does that help put into context just how cold it has been?)

Sunday was a bit of a special day,  I'd volunteered to help at a bee-keeping stall at the RHS Wisley garden "grow your own event".  We had a fabulous day and you can read more about it here.

But ...oh my ....look at the state of my hand when I got home...


Honestly...my hand doesn't normally look like this... look! ...its even worse when you compare it to the other one...

 

So it was a trip to the local A&E for me :(
After a very dull and extremely cold three hour wait (thank heavens for Kindles) a very nice nurse practioner confirmed I'd got a cellulitis infection and needed some rather large antibiotics, full doses of antihistamines, ice and a sling to raise my arm to assist the drainage of excess fluid out of my hand.
I came home took my meds and went to bed.

LESSON LEANT:  clean any bee sting carefully.













Saturday 16 March 2013

Quilting Itch IV: Threads and more threads....

The downside of so many bits of fabric is the fraying, and when there are so many fraying threads showing through to the front of the quilt. They have to go.  All of them.  They all have to be snipped off...


But even by my standards...that's a lot of loose ends.

Oh well...onwards and upwards...time to think about quilting patterns and even get around to drawing some, well tracing some onto the quilt...

 


After tracing comes sandwich making.  Starting with measuring precisely how much wadding is needed for the filling...


I love this bit of the quilting process.  I get to move all the furniture out of the dining room and spread out... there's lots of fabric needs spreading out...


I can't help but think that the wadding looks like a blanket of snow across the floor...


But not for long...


So now its on with the quilting...

 


And that brings me right back full circle...because this much quilting means this many loose ends needs snipping...

 


There, that's better.  Nice and tidy now.






Friday 8 March 2013

Zingy lemony yum

There's a saying, "When life gives you lemons....make lemonade"

But I had Quirky quilters to make dessert for and lemonade just wasn't going to cut it (if you know what I mean) despite our claims that we weren't going to over indulge the calories every time we meet in 2013.

Thank heavens for inspiration from recipe books, Eton mess from "Cook Yourself Thin" looked like it would hit the spot perfectly...


I love the magic of making meringues...just look how the egg whites transform before your very eyes...

 

 

And go super shiny glossy as soon as I add the sugar...

 

Now...time for the zingy lemon curd.  Lets start with the zest...


Even I was rather amazed by the amount of juice that I can wring from 4 lemons...


But reduced down with a little lemon juice...

 

And with some yummy free range egg yolks stirred in...

 

It very quickly becomes a zingy lemon curd.

Then pack it all up very carefully so it can be carried along with a mass of quilting stuff for a day out.
Time to assemble...

Step 1 : Break up all those home made meringues...

 

Step 2 :  Add a big blob of that zingy lemony curd


Step 3: Whip cream and add a blob of that ...as big a blob as you fancy...










Stir the whole lot together and try to eat a bit of each element together - pulling the best zesty singy lemon face that you can...'cos boy is that curd ZiNGYYYYYYY!

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