Nice pear!

Yes I know, its an old joke...but so appropriate! The trees dad bought me for my birthdays over the last few years are really starting to produce now, last year I ended up with a half a box of pears. This year it looks even better.

What alot of pears!

These are the trees dad bought me, next to the older orchard :)
Another cake tried...I bought a bag of 23p toffees...

So I thought they could be useful in caramel brownies.

I didn't have any choccy chips left so I hacked 2 cheap bars up instead!

Toffees and condensed milk!!

There should have ben twice as many toffees but it'll do...topped with the rest of the batter..

Swirly! and bake..

Dude this is naughty cakey! Sticky, chocolatey, toffee-ey!
I shall have to go look at vegetables to get over the calorie intake!

Ah courgette flower, splendid! Soon time for homegrown veggy curry ingredients:) Far more healthy than brownies!

And yes, I ate the 2 cherries that were ready :)

And as I put pennies I'd earnt in my jar (which was labelled 'food')  DS piped up..."Yay, we can eat". So I renamed the jar!! Gotta smile at the world! And lastly...I treated myself to something other than food.

Freesias :) I love the way they smell and as DS had to buy roses for his G/F (yes, he had done wrong!) I decided o buy me something lovely too. Add some long stemmed daisies from the garden and i have a happy thought in the kitchen! 
Have a lovely weekend, hopefully it will stop raining soon!
BBS x

A wheelbarrow fairies big behind

I am behind...in everything, hence big behind!!
Today the land was finally good enough to get some beetroot and low beans in!

Out came the bag of seeds..chard..

Beetroot..

And low beans as dad used to call them :)
Now I need grandads hand drill, which I believe he codged together from parts of old seed drills..

What a wonderful device!! But i had to change the hole size...lay her down..

Now to remember what to do..

Twist the snail...unplug the knob..lick your finger and wipe over the rusty numbers and find the biggest hole, number 26 for beans, 16 for beet, twist the ring, replace the knob and tighten the snail! Sorted I remembered! so now I have 5 rows of beans, 2 of chard and 2 of beetroot. Most of which is for us...and late!!
Another litre of raspberries saved from the snails tonight, pulled out some weeds and reclaimed some garden, and picked alot of little potatoes :)
And I was given...

A dozen free range egs :) Lovely:) I do like freebies! Haircut tomorrow...I won't look any different..apart from maybe less fringe! And then the joy of more hoeing!
BBS x

Redcurrants, raspberries and rhubarb

I have been missing again I know!! Tis due to far too much hoe hoe hoeing! And potato picking of course :) And OH hogging the PC in the evening when I have some time left. So I'll show you some of the things I've been up to shall I?

Chocolate crumb bars were yummy!

 The new potatoes are getting quite large!! I thought I'd try new potato chips and even though I soaked them for quite a while they were still, as always dissapointingly soggy! I don't like new potato chips!

Lemon bars , these are amazing and zingy! (I had a couple of sorry looking lemons left!) and OH won't stop eating them, good job I cut them into little pieces!

The old greengage tree had a bit of a moment...because...

I hadn't noticed just how laden with fruit it was!! All the branches are like this...for the last few years we've been lucky to see a couple of handfuls! Yum...I will be eating far too many and regretting it!

I spy itty bitty courgettes!! Itty bitty green ones and....

Teensy weensy yellow ones :D I love courgettes and get overexcited when they are nearly ready! Ask me how much I like them at the end of august though!

 Gah weeds...to be honest the land was pretty weedy when I planted the brassicas...so hoe hoe...

And I do believe I can now see rows! Ok, just about! But its better:)
The raspberries keep on giving, picked 2 litres today!

All safely in the freezer where the snails can't get them! Still not sure what to do with them, I think I might can some as pie filling, possibly can a 'fruit salad' mix later in the year, depending on what fruit we end up with. 
And then theres the redcurrants...

Seriously, if anyone wants redcurrants and isn't too far away let me know and you can come pick them for free. Its only one big bush, it cost 99p a few years ago, but I'm not keen on them, no one likes redcurrant jelly, no one wants them in the little stall and I hate to see them wasted. :)
BBS x

Bleugh

Another day with no pictures...I forgot to take my phone up the field today. Planting brassicas..I'm not exactly sure what, I forgot to label as usual!! It'll be a nice surprise. The field is already weedy, they just keep coming back so guess what I'll be doing tomorrow!! Hoe hoe hoe again.
Poor OH has had a bit of a downer. Both of us are self employed and the place he does alot of work for is up for sale:( (and not as a going concern, just as buildings)Looks like it might be a harder year than I thought! I'm lucky as I have no debts at all. 
This is just a quicky tonight, I'm a bit bleugh as money is on my mind again!
BBS x

No hoe so scare crow

Today started out most moist...with the kind of drizzle that sticks to you. So definitely no use for hoeing, rain just replants the weeds somewhere else! 
So I did something I've been meaning to do for a while. I remade the scarecrow that sits and guards the little stall. It was supposed to be dad having a cuppa. It was first made seven odd years ago and had got a little saggy to say the least! So I rummaged in the old clothes from dads wardrobe. And made myself a new dad!

Thats better :) And it wasn't too wet under the weeping willow tree.
And we'd nearly run out of bread...again...so I made scones for lunch...using the Bisquick biscuit recipe with some additions.

I added eggs and removed some of the milk...and cheese of course..

MMM and some past their best tomatoes..

Yum!

happy sconelet! And very nice too...and very quick to make with the Bisquick.
Forgot to show you my lovely jar mommy sent...

Groovy Ball canning jar :)
And look what DS's girlfriends mommy gave me..

A kilner handled glass jar! I do love my kilner things. 
Todays super tightwad-ness....
Every time the kettle boiled I put any excess water into a flask..

So, that was quite alot of little bits of hot water saved over the day...which I used to do this much washing up...

Cheapskate-tastic!! We don't have an elecrtic kettle, we use one on the gas cooker as its supposed to be more efficient! And thats my wednesday!!
BBS x

Exploding rhubarb

It exploded!!! I was happily canning and a jar went POP!
Anyway...rhubarb...thought I'd experiment with canning it.
Out came the Ball book of preserving (Thanks mommy!)
First chop up rhubarb...

Add many cups of sugar...and sit for 3-4 hours..

Sugary!!!

Syrupy!!!

Even more syrupy!!

Everything ready to can...I do like everything ready. Better than not having everything to hand!

Ah joy of rhubarb. The other three jars were fine, so I must have either knocked that one or there was a flaw in the glass. Who knows. Quite a surprise to have icky sticky rhubarb floating in my canner though! And it was very icky sticky! Live and learn don't we?!
Today has mainly been spent hoeing..again. The lovely sun/wind combination kilss weeds a treat. Finally hoed each one individually and guess what? Time to start all over again:) (I'm smiling on the inside, honest)Every time it rains a new batch of weeds pops up. But hoeing means I don't have to use spray :D I don't like spray!! 
BBS x

Mischief, mayhem and a funny little bug

Girls night out...Looloo....ah a drink in her handy pandy..and lookin good as she's lost weight!

Tash...hmmm..may have also had a drinky...

Jimjimmyjimjimjim...still single ladies...hes a very nice chap if you're single!!

Then they had Jager bombs...

Oh dear....

Looloo's face says it all! They had one before I left and were having seconds as I left (I'm an early bird and I go home at half ten!) 

Anyway, it was lovely to have a gossip...and I had my J2O's and half a lager..and my chinese on the way home:D what a treat!

 Getting quite a few raspberries in my freezer box now :)

Redcurrants are going red. Though I don't really like them much!

Cherries are not red yet...pity.

One strawberry...we will be fighting over that one!

The artichokes are growing fast, taller than me now!

All six trays of assorted squash planted now :) My thats alot of squash! And the odd lettuce squished in the end as theres some space left.

Would you look at that catty pillar that was in my wildflower garden!! Wow :)

And his furry mate...groovy!

And rhubarb. Put some in my little stall but theres loads so I think it might get canned. We shall see...off to find something that the 'kids' will eat for tea. DS's girlfriend had decided she is 'vegetarian'. To me that means no meat, but to her it would seem to be just no chicken! I can do vegetarian, I ate that way for 5 years and am happy with little or no meat. But she doesn't like pasta either...and isn't a great eater of veg!! Ho hum and off we go to rummage in the freezer....new potatoes for us adults :D 
BBS x