frayed at the edge

Sweet treats

On Saturday, I got out my tried and trusted preserves book.  I bought it some years ago in a charity shop, but it actually dates back to the 70s

 

then I got out my snazzy new scales (the old ones are now over in the flat) to weigh the blackcurrants

 

I gave them a good rinse

 

and stripped them from the stalks

 

I added some water, and left them to simmer for about 45 minutes

 

while they were simmering, I weighed the gooseberries (I just wanted to show off the snazzy scales again!)

 

after washing them, I simmered them with a little water, then pressed them through a sieve

 

there then followed an awful lot of stirring ...... and stirring ...... and even more stirring

 

but it was worth to produce all these jars of delicious loveliness

 

by the time the curd was made, the blackcurrants were ready to go into the jelly bag to drip through

 

on Sunday morning, I transferred the juice to a jug and left it in the fridge while we went over to Berwick, then this afternoon I put it in a large pyrex bowl with some jam sugar and zapped it until it reached setting point.  It produced two jars of luscious jelly

 

although I think the set may be just a little bit on the firm side ........

 

while I was busy in the kitchen on Saturday, Malcolm was cutting to size the two tops that I bought for the chest of drawers and the right hand unit

 

I bought these four box shelves some time ago in a charity shop, but hadn't yet used them.  I was pleased to find that my cork board (made by Malcolm) fitted exactly in between them

 

we found these white box shelves half-price lasst week, and I already had the long shelf, so it was a low-budget job to give me display space for my tins

 

and there was room beside the tv for my old Singer sewing machine 

 

to finish ...... the gooseberry curd is a little bit runny, but it was delicious for pudding on Sunday, with meringue and a little taste of leftover strawberry and champagne cream!!

A veritable pot pourri of a weekend

I was very busy in the kitchen at home on Saturday, and then equally busy in the studio, but I will tell you about that tomorrow.  Instead, I will start with what we have been doing in Berwick, both yesterday and today.  When we arrived yesterday, we went out for a walk round the town

old chimneys

 

who needs a cliff when you can use chimneys!

 

a different view of the lighthouse

 

a pigeon on the old walls

 

more old walls

 

did the English defenders fire on the pesky Scots invaders from here?

 

windpower

 

horsepower!

 

looking down the High Street ...... then looking up at the buildings

 

 

 

the window of the new dental practice

 

of course after all that walking we needed sustenance

a tasty cheese scone

 

and a delicious toasted teacake 

 

and back at the flat, the swans were waiting in the dock for us

 

this morning, we were helping to set up this exhibition

 

I have two pieces in it - my "Sunset Over the Bay" wallhanging, and a little canvas with a driftwood and seaglass boat (which you can just see perched on the radiator on the left)

 

Malcolm was helping with things involving large ladders

 

while I was assigned this wall to pin up some schoolchildren's work

 

after I had pinned up all my pieces

 

I helped Malcolm to hang these paintings of the lighthouse

 

while on the other side of the room, there was some discussion about the positioning of my wallhanging

 

all too soon it was time for us to head off for some lunch, and on the way out I picked up this card, illustrated by local author Cara Lockhart Smith

 

this side shows you where the Watchtower Gallery is (bottom left), should you be able to come to the exhibition

 

while this side shows the wider area

 

we had a rather indulgent lunch.  Malcolm's didn't win any points for presentation, but it was exceedingly tasty ...... homemade corned beef pie, with rather a lot of beans

 

while I had a delicious Coronation chicken panini 

 

we had lunch at Marshall's, and popped into the outlet shop afterwards for a quick look round.  I was very glad that we did, as I got the bargain of the year (if not the decade!!)  A super warm jacket, which will be good for walking on the beach in the winter

 

it has an extra detachable bit inside, which when fastened grips round the hips to stop the wind blowing in

 

I wouldn't have paid the original price, although I may have paid the outlet price ........

 

......... but all I paid was £19!!!

The morning meeting

This year for the first time we had starlings nesting in the ivy (I didn't manage to take photos of any of them).  There must have been several nests in the area, as every morning they all meet up on the phone wires across the road

 

there is always a squabble for the best positions - move over, no you move over!

 

this afternoon, Maureen gave me a jar of her summer fruit jam, which she had just made this morning.  I may have to attempt making some scones ...... there is nothing finer to have with a cuppa than a scone with cream and delicious home made jam!

 

she has a very productive garden, and also brought me luscious plump blackcurrants

 

and delicious red gooseberries ....... I guess I will be busy making jam, jelly and curd over the next few days!

 

and now for the Friday cake ....... our favourite apple and sultana.  There were only a few of us there at the start of the afternoon, so we were anticipating a large slice each - we were unhappy bunnies as more and more people arrived and the envisioned slices got smaller!!

 

apart from the afore-mentioned jam/jelly/curd making, I hope to do some sewing over the weekend!  I hope you have an enjoyable weekend, love Anne

 

 

Photos from another planet?

We have all been fascinated by the photos of Pluto ......... but did I find a new planet when I was taking photos in the front garden last night?

 

alas no ....... it was just me playing about with the camera settings when taking photos of the sunset!

 

the front garden looked slightly different when I popped out to take some photos this afternoon

 

the cherry tree was given a good taking to, after only producing five cherries last year.  Oh dear, there hasn't been any improvement in this year's crop!

 

this is the beginnings of a quince ..... for the last few years the quince haven't matured, but hopefully they will this year, so we can have some quince jelly

 

I haven't fed my orchids for a while ...... they generally thrive on neglect!  But when I saw the drip feeders on a BOGOF this morning, I thought I would give them a treat!

 

and to finish ...... I bought this bag of salad leaves this morning for tonight's dinner.  As you can see it contains 90g

we had half the bag each - a generous serving.  But according to this panel, a serving is 80g.  You would have to be very fond of salad to eat that much in one sitting - and what would you do with the leftover 10g?

 

 

Delete, delete, delete!

On Saturday afternoon, while Malcolm was out, I caught up on some way-overdue housekeeping on my laptop.  First was my "favourites" list, where I have all the blogs I read, the on-line shops I use, a few YouTube music videos and some quilting tutorials.  A lot of things were deleted, and the list was reorganised into categories ...... a good job done!  Next, I sorted out my photos.  I take lots of photos, and I always mean to keep on top of things, putting them into the appropriate folders, and deleting those which were taken for the blog and don't need to be kept.  So I won't have to wade through dozens of daily folders to find the photos for today's post, after a very serious amount of delete, delete delete!!

I made some honey butter on Saturday - I first encountered this when we were in Australia last year, but only made it once when we got back home, but for some reason I remembered about it on Saturday.  There was just enough honey left in the jar .......

....... to beat into some softened butter

 

the delicious honey butter was spread on toasted teacakes to have with our afternoon cuppa

 

 

you can see that the lifeboat was travelling at speed - but this was on the way back to the lifeboat station, not on the way out to a rescue!

 

I have lots of photos from what we did yesterday morning, so I will save them for tomorrow, and instead show you what happened in the afternoon.  First, we went for a walk on the beach - there were two little boats flying along on the stiff breeze

we made a new friend

 

of course there has to be a photo of the lighthouse

 

and Bamburgh Castle away in the distance

 

a little clump of beach detritus

 

most of the groynes have been covered up as the sand has shifted over the winter

 

but the little bit left exposed provided me with two arty photos

 

after our walk, we headed along to the old bridge to wait for the float parade.  We could see over to "Reaper", which had its sail raised, as the wind had dropped

 

we had a little while to wait for the parade to appear, so we succumbed to temptation

 

at last the parade appeared, led for some reason by a police riot van!!

 

later in the afternoon, there was a flurry of activity on "Reaper", as the sail was lowered and secured

 

then she swung round

 

and headed round the channel and out to sea

 

and to finish ...... on Saturday afternoon the swans suddenly took off at a great rate of knots, heading out of the dock

 

what had spooked them?  A crowd of rowdy canoeists!

 

 

 

When we arrived at the flat ........

........ late this afternoon, there were so many swans (and a few geese) in the dock, that I had to take three photos to include all of them!

 

we came over today because of this ......

 

...... so hopefully I will have lots of photos to share with you tomorrow.  But now, as promised, the progress report on the studio.  Having finished the painting on Tuesday, yesterday I set about putting the furniture into its new arrangement.  I started with the two main units on the back wall.  I bought these some years ago from a wool shop which closed, and they are provide lots of storage space

 

then to the left of them I put my cd/dvd storage units, and my old pine chest of drawers.  I will be able to put my quilting hoops in the spaces

 

on the facing wall, I put the big storage unit in the corner, and the bookcase (yes, it's a Billy bookcase from Ikea!) beside it

 

my plan was for Malcolm to link the two with shelves, but I realised that the shelves could only be as deep as the bookcase, which wasn't deep enough for the storage boxes I planned to put on them.  So I turned the bookcase sideways on - much better

 

I put the tables back in the centre of the room, and by the end of the afternoon, the studio looked like this, as seen from the four corners

 

I have sorted out my (many, many) magazines.  I have kept my favourite Australian, American and Spanish ones (and a few British ones) but I am parting company with the rest.  I gave Maureen a big pile on Tuesday - once she has read them, she will pass them on to the ladies in the Church sewing group that she goes to.  Then I gave another pile to my Lovely Neighbour (the shoe shop owner) - she will pass them on to her Mum.  A third pile went to a charity shop in Hawick this morning, and there is one pile left.  As I restore all my fabrics, threads and craft items to the storage units, I plan to be equally ruthless, and only keep the things I know I will use - the rest can go to the same charity shop (Shelter) that the magazines went to, as I know they will raise much needed money for homeless people.  Some of the stuff was bought in charity shops, so it will be raising money twice!

 

to finish, I thought you might like to see what we had for lunch in the garden centre in Kelso.  We shared a delicious egg mayo and bacon sandwich, and a small bowl of chips

 

Catching up!!

I have been very, very busy since I was last here, so it will take a few days to catch up with what we have been doing.  So here, in no particular order, is a quick snapshot of the last few days!  We arrived home yesterday to a lovely squishy envelope on the doormat, with a pretty envelope inside

 

and inside that envelope was a lovely note from Dawn, saying that when she saw these very cute owl buttons she thought of me, and then bought them for me!  Thank you very much, Dawn!

 

Yesterday morning we went along to the Watchtower Gallery in Berwick, to hand in my three driftwood fish pictures, which  are being included in this exhibition

 

we had offered to help with setting up the exhibition, so we were given this wall to work on

 

which gradually filled up with all sorts of fish/boat/seaside related items

 

there is also an exhibition of artwork at the other end of the large room

 

the Watchtower is a magnificent old building, a wonderful setting for the exhibitions.  Do pop in if you are in the area - and if you pop in this Friday, you'll find me there, doing a stint as a steward

 

we went over to Berwick on Friday, to have a break from the dreaded decorating.  There were hardly any swans about, but when Malcolm went out for a walk, he spotted them all huddled in a corner on the far side of the dock (he also got all three bridges in the photo!)

 

however on Saturday, there were lots of them about

 

 

I suppose I ought to show you some of the decorating!  The biggest job was washing down the ceiling and walls, which were grubby because of the log burning stove.  This is Malcolm finishing the last bit of washing this morning

 

we then covered the carpet with a motley collection of old curtains, shower curtains, towels, and even an old ironing board cover!

while Malcolm did the cutting in, I got busy with the roller.  After much humming and hawing last week, we eventually settled on a light green paint, as I fancied having some colour on the walls, rather than boring white

 

having done the ceiling, Malcolm took this action shot of me starting on the walls.  I always use the roller on a long pole - much easier than using a stepladder

 

by mid-afternoon, I had done the first coat, and this is Malcolm covering the last little bit of white

 

I hope to get the second coat done on Wednesday (I'm having a girly day out with Maureen tomorrow), then we can get the furniture back in place and everything put away.  The lower room will be much quicker to do, as it is much smaller, with a much lower ceiling.

 

last week, it wasn't a squishy envelope that brought a present, but a stout cardboard box.  A gorgeous gift from the Lovely Granny-to-be, to say thank you for the Lovely Baby quilt.  Thank you very much, Granny-to-be ..... the fizz has gone away for a special occasion, and we have only just eaten the last chocolate!

 

and to finish ....... as soon as I saw this little box in a charity shop last week, I had to buy it

 

so of course we had to have boiled eggs for breakfast the next day!!

You may have noticed .......

...... that I like my food!  I also enjoy cooking, but for some reason I haven't done a foodie post for a while.  Yesterday, I thought I ought to use the two large sweet potatoes that I bought recently, so this is what I did.  I diced approx 225g of onions

 

and put them in a pot with a good glug of sunflower oil to sweat

 

I then peeled and diced approx 1000g of sweet potato

 

and added it to the onion

 

as I didn't have a spare chicken carcass lying about the place to make stock, I used my preferred stock pot

 

I added the stock and a tin of coconut milk .....

 

...... to the sweet potato and onions, and simmered it until the veggies were soft - about 30 minutes

 

once it had cooled a bit, I whizzed it up with my stick blender

 

ok, at this point you are probably thinking that's nothing special ....... but there's more!  I diced approx 200g of chicken breast

 

and got the chilli and ginger out of the freezer.  You could of course use fresh ......

 

but these frozen cubes are handy to have, if you don't have fresh ones available

 

it didn't take long to stir fry the chicken

 

I gave Malcolm a little taste

 

and of course tasted it myself.  We decided that it could do with more coconut (that was all there was in the store cupboard) and perhaps more chilli, as we both like spicy food.  The soup is now in the freezer - I think home made soup is one of the things that tastes better after it has been frozen.

While the soup was simmering, I looked out this recipe

 

Stuart had asked me recently to make more limoncello for him, as he likes to put some in his lmp, so I thought I would try this gin-based version instead.  It is now in a dark cupboard for the next week

 

when I put it in the cupboard, I checked on the sloe gin, which has been maturing since December

 

although it is pale ..... oh my, it is very, very good

 

that left one more task - to use up the six lemons!  I turned as ever to my go-to book

 

for this recipe

 

after twenty minutes of stirring this luscious mixture

 

I had three jars of lemon curd .......

 

....... and a very messy kitchen!

 

after all that, do you still have room for the Friday cake?  Of course you do!!

 

Malcolm is over in Berwick, and I am home alone ........ I'll tell you why on Monday!  Have a great weekend, love Anne

Hot and hazy

As usual, the media are going mad, with headlines like "hotter than Argentina" ....... but of course, our hot weather will last for a day or two, while Argentina (why Argentina, not one of the first places that springs to mind for a comparison) will stay hot.  Never mind, we decided to enjoy it while it lasts, and headed out this morning to Born in the Borders, for, first, a walk along the river, then a spot of lunch

the remains of a very big tree

the thistles will soon turn purple

 

this gate hasn't been closed for a while

 

a hazy Fatlips Castle in the distance

 

Ruberslaw, also hazy in the distance

 

you can read about Chesters House here

 

the river was very low, but still provided some good photos

 

there has been a lot of work going on in the area, renewing the electrical gubbins (hopefully when it is finished we won't have power cuts like yesterday's)

 

and of course there had to be an arty photo!

 

after an enjoyable (if slightly hot and sweaty) walk, we headed back to Born in the Borders' courtyard.  We didn't go into the brewery

 

but we had a look round the food hall

 

and the clothing and gifts shop

 

before heading into lunch

 

it turned out we were slightly early for lunch, so we ordered from the brunch menu.  Malcolm had egg and asparagus on toast with hollandaise

 

and I tucked into a sausage and bacon sandwich, on artisan bread

 

on the way back to the car, we resisted the temptation to try out the latest attraction

 

to finish - a warning for fishermen about the overhead electrical wires

Would you rather .......

........ have a leisurely paddle in a canoe

 

or go zipping across the water on one of these?

 

my answer is a definite NO to both!  You will only get me on the water on a very big boat!!  The canoes came very briefly into the dock on Saturday, and we saw the man on the jet ski when we were walking on the beach at Bamburgh with Stuart and Alison on Saturday morning

looking up at the castle

 

and down to a feather

 

looking out to the Farne Islands in one direction

 

and Lindisfarne in the other

 

of course, after a long walk on the beach at Bamburgh, the next stop has to be Seahouses for chips.  Stuart and Alison agreed that they are the very best of chips, and taste even better being eaten sitting in the sun beside the sea!

 

and the chips are much too good to share, even with handsome birds! 

 

I spent a lot of time at the weekend jumping out of my seat to take photos of what was going on in the dock.  First we had swans sailing in majestically

 

then the seal popped his head out of the water, with a fish in his mouth!

 

but the fish escaped - you can just see it to the right of the seal

 

then there was the whump, whump, whump of a helicopter.  I snatched a quick shot to make sure I got it before it disappeared

 

but had time to switch to the digital zoom to get a closer shot

 

the lighthouse looked good in the late evening sun

 

the swans were back in the early morning sun

 

look at this thing of beauty ........

 

 ....... it's the lid of the latest addition to my tin collection - and even better it is full of biscuits!

 

to finish ....... we didn't have scones at the weekend, but on the way home we popped in for a cuppa and scones.  A rather crumbly (but delicious) fruit one

 

and an exceedingly cheesy cheese scone.  No, we didn't have the jam on it!