I have been waiting all year, (actually two years, as last year was a complete washout and nothing thrived) to have bouquets of fragrant delights adorning my table; and now, much to my inescapable, palpable excitement, I have more than I could hope for 

My grandad was a rose-gardener, and I have inherited his obsessive compulsive love of these flowers…

My plan is to have them rampant throughout our garden (all two acres of it!!) although I’m frequently reminded that that won’t work if I keep filling vases of them… !!!

a lemon drizzle cake (also delicious, I’ll post the recipe tomorrow) and rum truffles (need I say more?)

Then had dinner (always a good idea to have dessert first, just in case the dinner ruined the ability to pack in the sweet stuff)

After we rolled away from the table, and waddled outside to mind the children in the warm March sunshine, my brother in law let me have a go of his super-dee-dooper camera with ultra zoom lens.

Heaven in a piece of equipment… I could have played with it all day.

I took these pictures of the new life and buds in the garden.

Guess what I’m saving up for??!!

And, even though the weather is rather inclement, there is nothing nicer if, like me, snuggling down in a warm bed with a little nursling, with the rain is drumming on the roof, is your idea of heaven!

But… we have plenty of food and plenty to do, and this morning when the sun came out we had a wander around our sodden garden… and a splash in the puddles…

The polytunnel was warm, and I came in with my pockets bulging with tomatoes, courgettes, RASPBERRIES!! (in late November!!!) and  a bunch of roses, geraniums and hebe for the table.

I have been trying to finish dolls and corsages for the “handmade weekend” next weekend;  I have a commission for a doll so I’m presently making her a head of hair and want to make her clothes tomorrow. And I’ve been working on a pattern for a weighted baby doll, trying to co-ordinate what is in my head and put it down on paper (and fabric!) So there are bits of dolls all over the place: here is one of my boxes of body-bits!!

And so to tell you more about our “handmade weekend”: well! Next weekend (last weekend in November) and the following weekend (first weekend in December) we are showcasing beautiful, handmade crafts and gifts made here in Ireland by independent crafts people- and truly have we a feast in store: dolls, patchwork and crochet blankets, cushions, corsages, felt, cards, decorations, soaps… to name a few and whatever else we find between here and next week! My mincemeat is made, ready for mince-pies, and I’ll start the mulled wine later in the week to ensure the Christmas aroma in time!

Hope to see you here, or if not, online from Thursday when I hope to have uploaded most of the delights… and delights they really are, unfortunately I won’t be able to provide the mince pies over the ‘net, but I’ll post a few pictures instead!!

My little one and I did some crafting recently… yes, you read the clock correctly, and it wasn’t early afternoon when that photo was taken let me tell you….

After being roused from my bed by a teething baby we decided to continue making the corsages and brooches for our shop. I crafted, she de-crafted… Note the scattering of pin backs… labels everywhere…. crochet flung…. ah, yes, we bonded.

Almost literally as I had to wrestle the strong adhesive from her steel grip….more than once…

We eventually retired back to bed at around 4.30 (AM!!) and were up again at the usual hour in the morning. I had a crafty plan (pardon the pun!!) to let her run around the garden and between fresh air and exercise she would become ultra-tired and go for a lovely long sleep… I would have a quick nap while I nursed her, and then do lots of all those things you can’t do with a (silent-but-deadly) baby running around. So out to the garden we went…

Stomping through crunchy leaves is so much fun when you are 1… or 101…!

Where ever are those cats???

On the trail of the cats… through the small woods… (a bit of an over-statement there)

Aha! Do we spot something?

Come on Tabby!! You are about to be dragged out from under the fushia!!

A little helping hand to get moving…

Down to Tabbys level for a quick rub…

…and a quick chat….

Okay, enough of that, off we go again…!

A quick spot of pruning… badly needed as you can see…

The last flowers of summer

Thank goodness geraniums are so hardy!!

Finally! Summer has arrived… a tad late, but no matter! Baby Grace, boys, Pebbles (the handsome hound, above) and I went down the boreen for a walk in the afternoon, hoping for a delicious crop of blackberries. Didn’t come back with quite as many as I would have hoped for- but then again, Grace and Liam ate their body-weight in blackberries, so maybe that’s why I only ended up with a few…

…I picked some other gems along the way….

And then we came home to another batch of delicious Banana and Chocolate Bread, just as Fergal walked in the door (which necessitated a large pot of tea of course!!)

One of these days (maybe even today?) we are going to walk down to the bridge with the kiddies and my camera and photograph it in detail, for it’s the details like the old gate, autumn leaves and ancient walls that make it such a treat.

But before I go any further, here is the recipe for:

Banana and Chocolate Bread

(I use a loaf tin lined with greaseproof paper & preheat the oven to 160’C)

Needless to say I just turn on the Kenwood Mixture and start flinging the ingredients in… Queen of Finesse, thats Me)

Cream 1 packet (approx 125g) of unsalted butter (softened) with 125g caster sugar.

Break in one of 2 large eggs, mix completely, then break in the other egg. Mash 3 large over-ripe bananas and add to the mixture.

Add between 100-200g of chocolate-we favour a good milk chocolate (i.e. one with about 35% or 45% cocoa solids- can get this in Lidl) The more chocolate, we find the chewier and delicious (and, strangely, flatter) the cake is. (I’m getting light-headed at the thought!!)

Add 200g of self raising flour to all of this, then scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for about 50 mins- 1 hour. Then when it is cooled, turn it out, or else like what happens in our house, I’m taking it out of the oven, find “someone” (a.k.a. Fergal) has made a pot of tea then the resident savages start into it and demolish it, still hot and runny (be careful of the very hot chocolate!). 

Stores well for a good few days (and that’s why I made four for our “Bat Walk” tonight, and now I’ve only 1 left which I doubt will last till evening… I think I’ll have to crank up the mixer for another few loaves)

While I was out photographing the garden:

I decided to photograph our shop displays-I’m always putting these off because I think I need the light to be a certain way etc etc (procrastination) but anyway, I went and gave it a go, and was quite chuffed with the result. I want to do some more, set up specific things, but as I was doing it at speed while Grace was asleep (she loves helping/dementing me when I have the camera in my hand- takes twice as long) I didn’t get quite that far. But at least I’ve made a start… 

I’m off now to make up a spiced mulled fruit-wine for tonight, something warm and sweet and delicious to set us up for tramping around a wet, dark forest with a bat detector… oooh, I can’t wait!!!!!