Appleblossom and Bluebells

I'm so behind with posts, it's not true.  If I were to pick two flowers today that sum up my garden, it would be foxgloves and roses, certainly not appleblossom and bluebells.  The bluebells have long gone and the appleblossom has now become fruit - I've got masses of apples again this year.  What will I do with them all? (And don't even mention plums - I thought I had tonnes of them last year, but there are so many more this year, that I'm thinking of giving plum jam and spiced plum chutney to everyone for Christmas!)

Appleblossom is beautiful enough as it is, but is just stunning set against a clear blue spring sky. Gorgeous.

I was rather worried that the blossom would come to nothing - as I hadn't pruned the tree at all after it had fruited last year, but now it's taken over the pergola.  It looks a bit messy, but maybe I'll do something about it this winter instead.  If I remember!

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Beech Leaf Noyau

I found a recipe for the beech leaf noyau last year, a gin based liqueur which I'd never heard of before. I've since found out that it's quite an old countryside recipe and isn't as rare as I'd thought. How do I not know about this tipple?!  By the time I found the recipe, it was too late to pick the beech leaves - they need to be picked very young, at the beginning of April.  I put out feelers to try and find out who might have access to some beech leaves and got the word from Ed and Chris in Aylsham that they had a beech leaf hedge. Marvellous!

So, in the middle of April, I received a text from Ed to say the beech leaves were ready - which meant only one thing.  Housework and gardening abandoned while I hot footed it up to Aylsham with my carrier bags at the ready, to be swopped out for empty ice cream cartons by Christine!   The recipe called for 400ml of beech leaves, but I don't think I had that much - simply because I didn't want to strip Ed and Christine's hedge of leaves just as spring was bursting out all over.  So the amount I did get was divided into two, put in the bottom of my two kilner jars and then doused in gin for six weeks.

Here are the two noyau kilner jars, nestling next to the blackberry brandy and sloe gin which is probably well ready to bottle up now!

Once I'd strained the beech leaves off the liquid, the clear gin had turned into this beautiful amber colour - I thought it might look a bit more like wee because of the colour of the leaves, but I was left with this instead. The aroma (and taste - of course I had to try a little bit!) was quite herby though, which you would expect from having all that greenery soaking away.

Next up was to boil up water with sugar - so that the sugar all dissolved - which was then left to cool down to pour into the gin.  At this point, it got a bit tricky - it was very apparent that two bottles weren't enough for all the liquid, especially given that I hadn't mixed the brandy in yet either.

And then the brandy went in too. And the whole lot is all ready to drink - woohoo! Again, I tried a little snifter and it's blinking good stuff! It's supposed to be drunk as a summer cocktail, over ice, either neat or with a mixer.  Considering there's a bottle of gin and a bottle of brandy within this concoction, it didn't feel very overwhelming - although that would depend on how much you have. It tastes a little like Pimms - it definitely feels like a summer drink.

I'm off to Andy's next weekend so will get the verdict then. In the meantime, I'm already so impressed, that I have already put it in my diary to ring Ed and Christine at the beginning of April next year to invite myself over for more foraging!

Swaffham

I have lots of days out and about with Mum and Dad, or Mum on her own, but recently I spent a very rare day with Dad on our own. We were despatched to Swaffham with instructions from Mum and Shannon (who were busy in the house, painting the kitchen and doing domestic stuff) to get some haberdashery items - for curtains and toy making. Dad also needed a couple of books so, as soon as we got there, we made a beeline for the charity shops. It was also market day with lots of lovely plants and locally grown produce - I bought some asparagus for my tea. Such a lovely treat.

There are some fab shops and market stalls in Swaffham if you're into gardening or DIY - we did some manly shopping - drill bits, garden trowels, etc - and if my garden was big enough, I swear I would have bought a wheelbarrow!

We also did lunch - sitting outside a tearooms where they had very obligingly left labels on all the plants so I scribbled down some notes and took some photos - obviously!

Osteospermum "Sunny" - gorgeous colours. I definitely need this in my garden.

And virginia creeper climbing up the walls - come the autum, it'll look beautiful - orangey/ pinky/ red. 

Lunch, when it finally came - they were very busy! - was fab - crayfish sandwiches for Dad. And stilton and mushroom for me - yum!

A really good day - and definitely worth another visit.

Odds and Sods - May 2015

May has been another crazy month - so much for slowing down a bit. I've had lots of day trips - Hunstanton with Amanda; Swaffham with Dad; Sheringham with Shannon; Creake Abbey Plant Fair with Mum and Dad; Wymondham Open Studios with Amanda and Shannon.. I've voted in a general election!  I've had lots of people over for dinner and have tried out a few new dishes - which have gone down so well that I've had to furnish the recipients with the recipes. I've started sewing again and am making a new dress for Shannon. And I've had another weekend in London with Andy but not Finn. I'll be writing up blog posts for most of these episodes, but this post is all about remembering the everyday stuff.

And this month, it's pretty much all about Finn and fabric!

I've discovered Vlisco - goodness me, I love their fabrics. They are made in Holland mainly for the African market - and their website is amazing. I discovered them when Andy and I stayed in Whitechapel earlier this year - there are a number of fabric shops round the back of Liverpool Street station which stock them. The shop has never been open on the two occasions I've been down this year - probably just as well! But I took some photos this time. Gorgeous!

And then there's Finn - he's being really snuggly at the moment. The vet has put him on a diet and he started off being really grumpy, but now I think he's used to it and doesn't spend so much time gazing at the biscuit tin - probably because he knows he isn't getting any! Little tinker.

Here he is with his rusty orange nose after he dismantled the fire pit one day while I was at work, to get to the two burnt sausages that were nestling among the charcoal and bits of wood!

Too cute for words!

Think he was mesmerised by the birds in the garden in this photo - he was absolutely NOT going to look at the camera, despite my cajoling!

Seeds and Stuff - May 2015

May has been a weird month - not an awful lot of rain, but pretty cold.  In fact, I've had to pop the heating on for a couple of evenings - ridiculous!  This month wasn't so much about sowing new seeds, as potting on the seedlings I already had and concentrating on looking after what was already growing. So many of the seeds have taken this year that I didn't need to keep topping up - for instance, I've got that many carrots, but still had scheduled to sow some more this month. But given the amount that are already sprouting, I decided to not bother.

Tomatoes sown in March.  I sowed some more in April so have got loads ready for succession planting. When am I ever going to eat this many tomatoes?!

Same with kale - I really don't need to sow any more of these for a while.  Crazy!

Everything's going mad. Although only the seedlings on the top shelf can be seen in this photo, there are two more shelves with as many seedlings. I might have to set up a stall outside my front garden to sell off the excess produce at this rate, if everything takes.

The potatoes are going great guns - one lot have been fully earthed up to the top of their growing bags, while the other lot need topping up. (I have stupidly run out of new compost - I have lots in my compost bin, but because it had last year's spuds in, I cannot reuse it in these sacks. I can, of course, use it for other potting ons.)  If each of my potato plants produces twenty spuds, then I can hope to harvest 640 this year!!!   That did make me chuckle as I was trying to explain that at work!  I've got six good courgette plants which are now outside - although they have taken a bit of a battering as we've had really fierce winds for the past twenty-four hours. I shall keep an eye on them.

The back garden is looking glorious right now with some really stunning flowers out there.  In the six years I've been here, I've never seen this pieris look more beautiful.

And I'm sure this is the first time that the azalea has flowered since I've lived here.

I'm really happy with the way the front garden is looking this year - I usually grow all my veggies in the back garden, but I've moved them to the front this year as the back garden was looking rather over-crowded. I've also bought some new plants at the Creake Abbey Plant Lovers Fair (post to follow) so am hoping to have more flowery goings on out the front.

Kniphofia Tawny King and Liatris.

Lupins.

My front garden (and back as well) has been taken over by foxgloves - I don't mind as I love them!

So, overall, am very pleased with how everything's looking at the moment.  Just need a bit more rain and for it to warm up a bit!