September Meanderings

September is holiday time too, and in between chopping, grating, stewing and boiling things from the garden, we managed a few days away visiting family.

First stop Stratford (this time with the full wheel) - a wander round town, a few pints, a curry, and some shopping.








On the way there we revisited Coughton Court - a beautiful tudor house and gardens - and what would have been a lovely cream tea, but for the hordes of hovering wasps!

Moved on to Cambridge on the next day - stopping in Coventry Ikea along the way for a free cup of tea, cake, some excellent views from the cafe - and (from Martin's perspective) too much shopping!







Nice evening in Cambridge - including a drink in the pub opposite my old place of work at Shire Hall. 

In those days we'd go out for a lunchtime pint (although I was usually on the 'snowballs') - how times have changed!

Next morning it was wedding business with my sister (trying on her dress - no pictures allowed!) before heading on to March for the main family visit (and to meet up again with Martin - for some reason he wasn't interested in wedding dresses).


Visit to Peckover House with the folks - lovely house as ever, beautiful gardens / greenhouses . . .









. . . and some fantastic book / paper sculptures on exhibit . . .

The hotel we were staying in was another blast from the past as well - overlooking my old infant / junior school.

All in all a nice few days - time to go home again . . .

Stocking the Larder

It's that time of the year when the garden produce is coming in thick and fast, and has to be processed and either cooked or preserved for later consumption - and this in addition to the annual marrow mountain!

On Monday, we stripped both the apple trees - sorting, peeling and chopping, starting with the apples that the insects had already munched down on.

Stewed a couple of large pans of chopped apples, ready for the freezer, keeping aside those in sufficiently good condition to survive for a few weeks more.

Tuesday, and time to start on the first tranche of beef tomatoes from the main greenhouse.  

More chopping, and cooking down - yielding nine pots of tomato sauce for the freezer - and there'll be  more to follow as the tomatoes continue to ripen.

Finally today made up some redcurrant jelly from our first major(ish) redcurrant harvest frozen earlier in the summer - only two small pots, but it is a lovely colour!

Marrow Mission

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to do something with them there marrows . . .

 A small mountain of courgette lasagne has already been produced and portioned for the freezer - along with courgette fritters, and soup . . .



. . . now what to do with this lot:

• Bhajis?

• More Soup?

• Cake?

All of the above?

Costa del Aberystwyth

Bucking the traditional bank holiday weekend weather expectations - today was truly gorgeous.  An evening walk along the prom felt positively Mediterranean. 

Musicians playing, boats in the bay, and a beautiful sunset . . .

. . . and naturally parties and fires on the beaches.

We finished the day ourselves with a glass of wine, sitting outside on a still very warm night, listening to the distant sound of the Big Tribute festival.








We also had company . . . (actual size - think it's a Speckled Bush Cricket).

Brandy Galore!

Finally got around to bottling last year's Damson Brandy (note to selves, don't leave it as long next time, the damsons were practically disintegrating).

And as Martin had been blackberrying, we now have Blackberry Brandy steeping too . . .

Should be ready for bottling in time for Christmas :)

Calm . . . Storm

So, Friday morning saw us out walking the prom, before the promised 'Great Summer Storm' of 2019 - a lovely sunny morning, and some views of the harbour from across the gap (strangely something I'd never walked across before):

And here we have the prom on early Saturday afternoon - doesn't look that bad, but at times it was so blustery I could hardly walk into the wind, and there were some very impressive waves (although I failed to get a picture of any of them). 

All very unseasonable for August!

Monster Marrow

And this year's marrow season has started . . .