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Showing posts from September, 2009

Knitting

I've been knitting on and off for about 17 years. The first thing I made was a green cardigan and it was a total disaster and ended up in the bin! In the last few years I've come back to knitting and find it the best way to relax. Now that I get home and it's getting dark and I don't have time to be in the garden, knitting has become my new passion! I have several projects on the go. 1. I get bored with knitting with the same wool 2. I find a more interesting wool 3. I find another pattern/project. So last night I was finishing off a wide ladies scarf in raspberry knitted in seed stich (very apt!) and Jack asked when I was going to knit him a scarf for sixth form. Big mistake as it meant I had to go to Rochester to the wool shop at lunchtime. Now I know I won't finish the ladies scarf as now I have a mission to knit with some new wool! So watch this space for the finished pieces. In the meantime here is the seed stitch scarf (work in progress!) Seed Stitch : Any odd

Minestrone Soup

I found this easy recipe last week and decided to cook it tonight. Really easy yet it looks like Minestroni soup and you should have most of the ingredients to hand. I cut up a fresh courgette out of the garden and added two tins of chopped toms instead of all stock. It has come out a lot thicker, but I prefer thick soups! http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4807/chunky-minestrone-soup
After a hectic week, it was nice to be able to get up late this morning and walk around the garden in my PJs with a cuppa! Actually I do this quite a lot! I managed to harvest some French beans, courgettes and tomatoes. The courgettes and toms went into another batch of chutney. I popped into see my sister yesterday, I never come away empty handed! She gave me some fresh red chillies out of her veg garden, and they were huge. So I used two of them in the chutney to give it a good kick. I made four jars of chutney. On Wednesday evening I was invited as a guest to the W.I. Harvest Supper. They really know how to look after their guests, and the food was lovely, especially the fresh beetroot salad. The evening included a raffle, chatting to people and a sing-song with our local church organist at the piano. It's not all jam and Jerusalem! It's a valuable network of women originally set up for rural communities who get together once or twice a month. Each month they invite a guest

Saturday morning ... Butternut Squash

I decided to get up nice and early today so that I can make the most of my Saturday. I had a quick look at the veg patch and checked my two butternut squash. They have grown but are still not that big! I've never grown them before and I got my plant from Anne, so lets hope I get to eat these two. I had other fruits but sadly they died before they got to any size. I've added a couple of pictures. One is growing up a support with a cucumber, and seems to like it there. It just grew that way! The other is growing on the ground where I planted the actual plant. If this warm weather continues, it should keep growing. It is the church cycle today, so I plan to walk round to give my support this morning and have a cuppa with everyone. There has been lots of support, and the money goes to restoration work for All Saints Church Iwade. Enjoy your weekend. Amanda x

Autumn has returned

Well after a nice hot sunny start to the week, it is now raining here in England. For once I have to say I am actually pleased it is raining! I didn't have to water the veg patch tonight, and probably won't for a few days. It should boost my late sown dwarf French beans (I had a good crop this week), carrots and spinach. I also noticed on my way home that the leaves on the trees have turned to orange and red, a clear sign that autumn is here.