frayed at the edge

An assortment of birds

First, we have the birdy bunting, which is now up in the kitchen

 

then we had the feathered variety on the feeder

 

I have finished my scarf, which will look good with my "best" navy coat (please excuse my scruffy housework-doing t-shirt)

 

Annette hasn't been well this week, so didn't bake a cake for us ........ but as she knows how much we love our Friday cake, she popped into Border Meringues and bought a delicious gingerbread, and a local delight, a Border tart

 

I have lots of sewing to do this weekend, and hopefully will also put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house.  Do you like to decorate your house now, or do you prefer to do it all on Christmas eve?  I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne

Rain, hail, sleet and .......

.......wind!  I woke up several times during the night, disturbed by the stormy weather.  Then later when I woke again, I turned over to check the time on the digital alarm clock, as I thought it must be neary time to get up.  But there were no bright green numbers - oh bother, the electricity was off.  Fortunately we were able to have breakfast, as some years ago we got rid of the all-electric cooker, and instead intalled a dual-fuel one.  Malcolm phoned the power company to find out what was happening, and it wasn't good news. A recorded message informed him that the power would be off for some hours.  So we popped into Hawick, where the power was on, and headed to Sainsbury's for a cuppa and to pass some time reading the papers.  Back home, the recorded message had changed to say that we might not have power until tomorrow ...... but at 1pm, hooray, the power came back on.  However, the weather didn't improve, with a rather scary hailstorm

 

however, we aren't complaining, as we are watching the early evening news while I'm writing this, and some areas have had, and others are going to have, far worse conditions than we have had.  Once the power was back on, I could get on with my plan for the afternoon.  I assembled these ingredients

 

I lined and buttered the cake tin

 

yes, you've guessed, I was making the Christmas cake.  The recipe I use doesn't require that the cake is made months in advance, a couple of weeks will do.  I hope you like my "action shot" of beating the butter

 

soon the cake was ready for the oven

 

and the kitchen was somewhat messy!

 

two and a half hours later, the cake was cooked - I wish you could smell it!

 

a bit of fun to finish.  I had an email from a very nice man who works for the FBI.  Various organisations around the world, including the CIA, have been .... well, I shall let him tell you what they have been doing

The FBI in group effort with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), World Bank, South African Reserve Bank, and other related agencies have verified every unpaid contract / inheritance / Lotto winnings and agreed to settle the beneficiaries through the easiest means by issuing them swift ATM DebitCard value US$600,000.00 only. We are contacting you because YOU are listed and approved for this payment

all I have to do is send another nice man $210 and he will rush the special card to me, so that I can take possession of my $600,000.  So, you see, there is money to be made with spam

 

 

Old-fashioned skies

When I was sorting out some photos for today's post, I realised that I had forgotten about these ones which I took late on Saturday afternoon.  Skies like this always make me think of those enormous paintings you see in museums, which feature God, angels, cherubs, saints etc

 

the maple toffee vodka has been bottled

 

and the Christmas pudding vodka has been strained twice.  First through a nylon jelly bag to drain the liquid from the fruit

 

and then through a paper coffee filter to remove the residue of the spices.  I'll bottle it tomorrow

 

as we are now counting down to Christmas, I changed over the quits on the guest bed this morning.  These aren't the best of photos, as it has been a gloomy, grey day, and I had to use the flash.  For most of the year, the row-by-row quilt is the top one on the bed

 

but this lovely quilt was given to me last year in Melbourne by the lovely Helen.  Although there are no Christmas fabrics in it, the colours are definitely Christmassy

 

Helen is well known for disliking fabric with birds on it, but she had been in such a hurry to finish this quilt, she didn't notice the birds on the border fabric!  So she very generously gave me the quilt top, which Kay quilted beautifully for me

 

underneath both quilts is this log cabin quilt which was one of the first quilts I made twenty years ago.  It is made from curtain fabric samples, and is very heavy!

 

I have been busy sewing all day, but I can't show you what I was doing as it is a Christmas present.  I was using my walking foot

 

but the bar across the centre was making it difficult to see where I was stitching a very precise line

 

I had a word with my resident Mr Fixit (aka, of course, Malcolm) and it was only a matter of minutes until he had solved the problem!  He simply used his junior hacksaw to remove the offending section

 

Topsy turvy plants

We may have had some frosty weather, but we still have two clematis flowering in the back garden

 

the hellebore has decided to flower for the third time

 

and then there is this - have aliens invaded the garden?

 

this is just a quick post, as it is Abbey Quilters' monthly meeting this evening.  I have my bag packed ready to go

 

we take our own mugs along to Abbey Quilters' meetings and workshops, and at the weekend Katy had this wonderful mug

 

I may not have a heron in the garden, but I do have lots of little birds visiting the feeders

 

and of course I always have these exotic birds, which never fly away

 

 

Logging on

On Saturday, we went to Jedburgh for a change, and popped into The Abbey Bridge Tollhouse Cafe  We haven't been there for some time, so we were surprised to see that there had been a major reorganisation, with the stove shop and the cafe swapping areas (if you click on the link, you can see what the cafe used to look like).  Malcolm liked the new counter, and had a good look when he was paying the bill!  The logs are only a few inches long - someone must have spent a long time cutting them

 

On Sunday we varied our routine, and went for our cuppa first.  We had decided to go to the  Mayfield Garden Centre in Kelso, and then go for a walk along the river.  We had a very good cheese scone ........ and I forgot to take a photo!  This magnificent tree hasn't changed colour yet

 

but these two are starting to show their autumn foliage

 

I like this gate ...... and the house is fabulous, but I thought it would be a bit cheeky to take a photo!

 

I missed my big lens yesterday, when we saw not one, but two, herons on the other side of the river

 

but I didn't need it to take photos of these birds

 

there were ducks

 

adult swans

 

and cygnets

 

 

I do like a nice bit of rust

 

this lorry was so big I couldn't get it all in the photo, so imagine how scary it is when you meet one while driving through the town

 

this is now the entrance to a shop, so it is good to see that they have preserved the intricate mosaic (I bet all of you who are quilters are taking note of the border!)

 

on the way back to the carpark, we passed the Abbey

 

there is a fruit and vegetable shop at the entrance to the Garden Centre, with lots of excellent produce

 

if you don't knoow what the knobbly green thing on the left is, it is a romanesco.  I used some of the cauliflower in the vegetable curry that I made for tonight's dinner

 

on Saturday I made the pear and bramble jelly.  Have filled three jars, I then added finely chopped basil to the remaining jelly.  I thought I had prepared enough basil, but once it was mixed in I realised that I should have used quite a bit more.  Also once I put the jelly in the jars, the basil rose to the top.  It tastes fine, but isn't really savoury

 

out in the garden, we have glorious autumn colours

 

but the climbing rose is stll flowering on the pergola

 

and the little clematis still has several flowers on it

 

and even when the outer petals drop off, there is still a pretty centre left

 

I think it is time I tidied the studio!

 

to finish ...... I bought these scary treats for Malcolm this morning.  He won't have to share them with me, because I really don't like white chocolate!!

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Gardening

When Malcolm took early retirement, he took over the gardening duties, but I thought I would show you the work I did in our first garden.  This heap of rubble .......

 

.....became productive vegetable beds

 

and I cleared, leveled and sowed the lawn, as well as planting up the borders

 

Olive oil?

When I was walking across the garden on Saturday, on my way to the studio, I detoured to have a look at Malcolm's olive tree, that he bought for a whole £3 at the start of the summer.  There are lots and lots of olives on it .......

 

...... however, as they are about the size of peppercorns, I don't think we will be producing our own olive oil!  We also have two grape vines, and we have had a few grapes in previous years, but this is all that has appeared this year

 

we gave Malcolm's Dad this little hardy fuchsia - it sat at his back door in a pot.  When he died we brought it home and planted it in the back garden.  Every year we think it has died, then suddenly in late summer it appears and starts to flower

 

when I was sewing on Saturday, I decided to watch some of our country music CDs

 

I was singing along as I finished the quiting on my New Zealand Vineyard walhanging.  As it has been a bit warm over the summer to wear quilting gloves, I have been using these rubber grips

 

they cam in a packet of 3 blue and 3 yellow ones - but as you can see the yellow ones are jsut a bit big for my fingers!

 

I have finished the quilting, so all that remains is to put the binding on

 

Reminiscing

A few weeks ago at patch-n-chat, we were reminiscing about treats from childhood, in particular icecream.  Anne S. and I remembered getting a "nougat" (or for a very special treat, a "double nougat") from the icecream van.  So when I did the food shopping recently, I popped these little goodies into the trolley, put them away when I got home ........ and promptly forgot about them!

 

so last night we had a little treat after dinner - delicious!

 

having made the jelly and chutney, I had to make room in the cupboard, so I took out all the jars of jam, jelly and chutney from previous years ....... the jars on the left and on the chopping board are the old ones

 

......... these jars had got lost at the back of the shelf.  The oldest one is from 2009

 

having made more space in the cupboard, I put the jars away (in date order!).  Then I headed out into the garden for some photos.  This clematis usually flowers earlier than this, but at the start of the summer quite a lot of it suddenly died!  Malcolm had to perform some brutal pruning, and it has put out some new growth - and just in the last week, lots of buds and flowers

 

this clematis flowered at the start of the summer, but every so often puts out another flower

 

this little clematis has all four stages of blooming - first, a bud

 

then just opening

 

fully opened

 

and last, minus the outer petals

 

the climbing rose has been flowering all summer

 

the miniature rose has decided to flower again

 

there weren't any butterflies today, but the bees were busy

 

I thought the front garden was looking really good - but the head gardener obviously didn't think so, and cut the grass after I took this photo!

 

I have mentioned that it is decidedly cooler - and the horses in the field across the road obviously agree, as they have their winter coats on

 

I forgot to post this yesterday - the two wallhangings from Tuesday's workshop

 

and finally - there are lots of berries on the purple elder in the front garden ........ which means we will get some interestingly coloured bird poo spattered on the cars!!

Foraging

Yesterday we headed to Newtown St Boswells, where we recently discovered a new walk.  This time, instead of parking in the middle of the village, we took the car to the start of the section of the road which is closed to vehicles.  This meant we could walk much further along the road than last time.  It was a glorious morning - it had been decidedly chilly during the night, and the air was crisp and clear

 

as we approached the end of the closed section of road, we found the Rhymer's Stone

 

when we did the walk before, we saw a lot of rosehips, so we went armed with bags to pick some, and we also picked some brambles

 

having worked up an appetite, we headed for the Mainstreet Trading Company.  For a change, we didn't have two scones!  We had a delicious cheese scone ......

 

....... and a piece of the most wonderful moist lemony Tunisian cake

 

refreshed and revived, we headed for the Deli, behind the main building

 

is that a beehive on the left of the photo?  It may look like one, but it is a compost bin.  I suggested to Malcolm that he should make some - this one costs £170 (yes, you read that correctly, one hundred and seventy pounds!).

 

back home, the butterflies were enjoying the sunshine

 

in the kitchen, I washed the roships thoroughly

 

I topped and tailed them, then blitzed them in the processor

 

I had already put the leftover hedgerow apples and the brambles in my big stock pot (note to Santa, I'd love a proper jam pan).  I added the brambles more for their colour than their flavour

 

I added the rosehips and simmered the mixture for a short while.  I let it stand so that the liquid woud be infused with the flavours.  I then put it in to the jelly bag and left it overnight to drip through

 

this morning I measured the liquid, put it back in the stock pot and added the sugar.  It didn't take long to reach setting point, and I put it into jars.  Along with the bramble and apple jelly which I made on Saturday, we have more than enough to put on our porridge all winter!  (if you like my jars with their spotty lids and labels, I bought them here)

 

this afternoon, I packed my two big workshop bags, and folded a small selection of wallhangings ..... but you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out why!

 

to finish - this plump robin was sitting prettily on top of the bird table late this afternoon.  Normally I would have taken a photo with the long lens, but Stuart has borrowed it, so I took this with the full digital zoom on the short lens, so it isn't as sharp as it would have been with the other lens

A new walk

I had recently picked up a leaflet showing walks starting from Newton St Boswells, so yesterday we parked in the village centre and set off for a quiet Sunday stroll

 

the scenery as always was stunninng, if a little hazy

 

there were lots of brambles, which was good to see after last year's poor crop

 

this was the first time that I have seen black rosehips

 

this tree was laden with apples, and it was very tempting to pick some as we walked past!

 

a little bit of higggledy piggledy fence

 

and a weathered fence post

 

I think this is an old tree root, set in to the side of a large barn

 

part of the road has been closed to traffic since the by-pass was built, so we were enjoying the peace and quite without any traffic roaring past

 

then ........ first a man went past

 

then two runners

 

then two ladies on horses

 

and a man on a bike

 

and ........ dozens of runners!!  I was puffing a bit walking up the hill, and they all ran up it at speed!

 

at least we knew when they had all passed us

 

this post box ........

 

is from the reign from of Edward VII, so it is over 100 years old

 

we popped in to the garden centre for a cuppa and a scone - but I had left the camera in the car!  Back home, there were still lots of butterflies about

 

and bees

 

but this morning Malcolm discovered some unwanted visitors under the roof, just above the buddleiia - wasps

 

Malcolm phoned the council, and a pest control officer will come out to deal with the nest (and give us a bill for £54!).  But the wasps buzzing about didn't stop me from taking yet more photos of the butterflies

 

I heard a tractor in the field behind the garden, and sprinted up to the gate just in time to see it cutting hay

 

we are going away for a few days, to celebrate our wedding anniversary, so I'll be back on Thursday to tell you what we've been doing!

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