Samhain

Samhain is, basically, New Years' Eve for Pagan folk. A time for remembering and reflecting. For making resolutions, clearing out old things and out-worn ways of being. It is also a time for a party. Best Beloved and I are having a huge bonfire, and eating a (traditional Pagan ) meal of sausages and baked potatoes, followed by hazelnut biscuits.

Happy New Year!

Baking

I really enjoy baking, and have tried a few new things lately.
Above is a photo of the 'tweaked' recipe, Pear and Almond Tart. Again, home grown pears.

Nigel Slater is one of my favourite cookery writers, alongside Elizabeth David, and Madhur Jaffrey. These Hazelnut Biscuits are his recipe, and they have been a real hit. They have become an instant favourite here at ''Dragons' Wood''.

Another of Nigel's new recipes, is his Mushroom Pasties. I did add a small amount of dried ceps (reconstituted )to the mushroom mix, but that is just me fiddling. They were quick and easy to make, no difficult ingredients, and disappeared off the plates in the clattering of a spoon, (or the squeezing of a lemon, to quote Mrs David), so I'm afraid there are no pictures.

These recipes are from the Observer magazine.

A bit of 'Magic'

On Saturday, Karen and I met Jacqui in Glastonbury. We were going to the Faery Fayre. None of us knew what to expect, never having been before. There were the most amazing stands - Art, Jewelery, trinkets, Wings, Clothes.
I did not find a card, or a label for this stand, but these little Goblins were so beautifully made.I half-expected them to move.

The wings I mentioned were gorgeous, but I was so carried away with looking at them, that I forgot to take any pictures. They are by Twinkle (www.fairywings.moonfruit.com).

This necklace, from the Punkfaery (www.thepunkfaeryartworks.com) was too beautiful to resist.

There was also a lovely young woman doing Faery-style make up. Lots of people were dressed up for the occasion. Quite wonderful.

To see adverts for these sorts of Fayre, and also the Balls which follow them , see Fae Magazine(www.faemagazine.com).

After that, we went to Star Child, (sublime)and bought incense, and oils, and candles. A quick look in a few shops, and then a visit to Gothic Image (bookshop), before leaving for home. Sadly, Gwydion McPagans' Yule to Yule 2010 edition of his calender is not available yet.

I can feel a Fairy Knitting Tea Party coming on!

Surprise Harvest!

Some years ago, when we first came here, I planted some Pear trees. Only one survived. (The ground is very damp). That one tree was slow to fruit. This year, it has been laden, but the fruit did not seem very nice. Today, I thought 'one more chance', and tried a mouthful. Fabulous! So I picked as many as I could reach. It is either 'Barone de Mello' or 'Beurre Hardy'.
I also thought I would pick any Damsons I could find, on our rather scrawny tree. As you see, I picked a few. I will have to pick again over the week-end, as there are lots hiding , tucked up tight under the leaves.

At the same time, I had a look at a self-sown curcurbit plant in the corner of the vegetable garden... And found lots of these little Squashes! I picked those which are of a useable size, and have left twice as many on the plant.

Three lovely surprises...gifts of Nature!

Equinox

Well, here we are again at the Autumn Equinox. Light and dark in balance, a little more than halfway through Autumn. As you see from the picture below, our trees and shrubs which bear berries or fruit have done very well. A good feast for the wildlife.

My sister, Nicky, has a very prolific Damson tree. We have had lots of crumbles, and the freezer has lots of little bags of damson pulp sitting in its' frozen depths, ready for winter puddings. These particular apples are Grenadier, an early cooker.

I also took the opportunity to try out a recipe for pear and almond tart. I have never made one before, but having the first pears from my own tree, I had to have a go. It wasn't perfect, but not too bad for a first attempt.

I also tried a new recipe for chelsea buns, as it was Close Knit. The classic Elizabeth David recipe, with ground Cardamom and Lemon zest, instead of dried fruit and cinnamon. Then made much smaller than usual, and finally, drizzled with lemon icing.

I have spent my spare (!) time over the last three months making a sleeveless sweater. It was for a friend who taught a session of Knitters Yoga to the Close Knit members, as a thank-you. Jacqui and I found some glorious yarn, Mirasol miski, in a deep Teal, at Hayes Wools. The pattern was from Yarn Forward magazine. The yarn was a joy to work, and is utterly fabulous made up.

The pattern, however, was an utter disaster! I have been knitting for over thirty-five years, and have never come across such a badly written pattern before. I checked the magazine's later issues for errata, but no hope.What needles to use where? Great chunks of information missing, and I had to completely work out a cable that would fit at the neck, because the instructions given just did not work. Yarn forward may boast that all of their patterns are new, but it might be a good idea to have them test knitted too! This is the second time I have made an item from that particular magazine, where the pattern did not work. It is also the last. I shall not buy it again.

You can see from this detail that the neck is quite different from the pattern.
On a happier note, several of the younger women at work are due to have babies before long. so, goody, a chance for some baby knitting. I have started a Louisa Harding kimono for a little girl, and have my eye on a stripy Debbie Bliss for a little boy, with maybe a random blanket for the unknown third. Oh, the joys of the possibilities!

Honey Harvest

I mentioned that we were due to start the Honey harvest. Well, we did start..and the electric spinner broke down. Oh, well, at least we still had the old hand spinner. So on we went - and then we found that a lot of the honey had already set in the comb. We knew that it was not oilseed rape honey, as the bees were not bringing it in, and this was also in later supers. So we think it must be Clover honey. Clover makes gorgeous honey, but it meant that the harvest went on into the following week-end. We can't spin off honey that has set, so we had to clear up one set of equiptment, then get out,and clean and prepare another lot.

This is set honey, cut from the frame, ready to be extracted.

The main problem was that it ran into Fibrefest weekend! I finally left home, and got to Coldharbour Mill at 3 pm on Sunday. Not ideal. I did manage to get around and see everything, though. I met Jowatso, who set up and ran U.K. Ravelry Day, and hope to see her again.

There was an amazing display of fibres. Actually, I was boggled. So many lovely things. Getting there so late, did mean that many things had sold out. Which was great for the stall holders, and probably just as well for my bank balance. I did buy some wonderful stuff, though.


The lovely rusty brown alpaca is from Alandale Alpacas. Two 25 gram skeins of hand spun, from an alpaca called Fiona.

The verdigris green is merino and silk. It comes in 100 gram skein, and is double knitting weight. This is for a cardigan.

The red is the same, but I only got one skein, probably for a scarf. I bought them from Fyberspates.

These gorgeous Vintage buttons were on the Wheeldale Woolcrafts stand. I don't think I would have seen them, if I had been there when it was busy.

Quite a busy couple of weekends. Now we are preparing the bees for Winter. The supers are clean, and we have put feeders on all of the hives. Now feeding comences. We have to make sure they have sufficient stores to last the winter.

And at last it is cool enough to knit! I have a sleeveless pullover that I have been working on, which is a 'thank-you ' present from the knitting group I belong to, 'Close Knit', to Karen, who taught us Knitters Yoga. Just a few inches left, and then the making up. It has a fancy cable neck border. I am looking forward to seeing it finished.

Sunny week-end

It was 'Close Knit' on Friday....pleasant (warm!) enough for us to leave the door open for part of the evening. I made Lemon Drizzle cake, N. made lovely lemon cup cakes, Caro brought fruit cake. Delicious!
I seem to be taking forever to make a simple vest/tank for a friend, but managed nearly six inches of stocking stitch, while chatting with my knitting family.

Saturday morning was Beekeeping time. We did our usual health/Queen check, and are pleased that six of our eight remaining hives are Queen-right. One has a newly hatched Queen, and the final hive has an almost-ripe Queen cell. Once sure of the conditions in the hives, we put clearer-boards on under the supers. This clears the bees from the honey boxes, so that we can remove the honey.The hives are left for twenty four hours or so, for the bees to go down into the brood nest. So, on Sunday evening, we took the supers (honey boxes) off the hives. We hope to do the honey harvest next week-end.

Best Beloved and I went to the Taunton Flower Show on Saturday afternoon. We had a good look at all the stalls, and visited the Marquees. Had ice-cream, admired crafts.Then we went to the Taunton Beekeepers tent, to see the Honey Show. The observation hive is always fascinating. There were several children watching the goings-on in there with rapt attention. The Queen was not only marked, but had a number on her thorax! The numbers were about the size of the head on a dressmaking pin.

Looking around at all the classes, I saw this dramatically painted W.B.C.hive, which was in a decorative items class. It was painted and entered by Polly Fox-Strangways.

This was the view from my bedroom window on Sunday. It was a field of Barley. Cut and carried Saturday, baled Sunday, stacked by evening, it was a clear field by the time I got home from work today.