More photos

Just been out to move electric fence for the horses. With this cold weather I'm now giving them more grass every day. So far the paddocks are standing up well to the rain we've had, but it could all turn to mud quite quickly.




Zac and Brea waiting for me.





This is the railway carriage we've got grand plans for. It's an old stock car and was previously used as a field shelter. The idea is to restore it and then use it as a summer house.





P (my husband) has helped one of his friends dismantle a deck, in return for getting to recycle the decking. We'll have a deck around the front of the carriage, hopefully to sit and drink gin and tonics on! (Not on a day like today though)





View of field from railway carriage.




Meanwhile Coco checks out the ground works for the new tractor shed. It's slow progress due to the horrible weather but at least it's progress!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

some photos from a peaceful week

I've been having a quiet, reflective time this week.  Started off last Sunday by a visit to Findhorn, one of my favourite places.  Situated in a beautiful spot on the Moray coast, there is a calm energy to the village and, of course, it's the location of the world famous Findhorn Foundation.
http://www.findhorn.org/index.php?tz=-60

Darling daughter and 3 dogs on Findhorn Beach

 

 

Next week, my husband (P) is going to be digging and building, as we are cracking on with building a new shed for hay, tractor bits, log storage etc.  As usual,our romantic plans about getting on with the railway carriage have been put down the priority list, as we have to get on with the practical stuff first!  Never mind, it's all good and moving forwards which is the main thing.

On Thursday this week, P and I took the opportunity of a free afternoon to go for a walk around the Back o'Bennachie.  It is a very beautiful spot, perfect for a quick walk - the photos speak for themselves I think.

Sculpture in the burn

"the tumbling of the waters is the teeming of life"

 

I love spaces like this, the smells, sounds and atmosphere are so wonderful - I really feel as if I'm reconnecting and recharging, it's good for the soul.

tipping it down Tuesday

Pouring with rain today, just been out to bring horses in to their stables to dry off with some hay.  I'll put their rain sheets on before I put them back out in a couple of hours.  So, I'm sitting here with a coffee, perfect for catching up with what's happened in the last week or so.

Coco

Last Tuesday we visited D.A.W.G.S (link to their website below) rescue centre in Aberdeen.  We were interested in rehoming a wee dog from them.  After various questionaires and a home visit, I took our kids and our two other dogs into the D.A.W.G.S. Kennels to meet up with the dog (my husband met us there too, as he works in Aberdeen).   It was a huge success, we loved her and she seemed very happy with us too.  So we brought her home and she has settled in really well.  She is learning to respect our other animals, is a bit wary of visitors but she is a lovely addition to our brood! 

http://www.thedawghouse.co.uk/

fruit in here somewhere

On Saturday I braved our completely overgrown fruit patch to pick blackcurrants for jam and some gooseberries for pudding that night.  Whoever decided that gooseberries were good to eat deserves a medal, in my opinion!  They are the scariest looking fruit and the thorns and spikes on the plants make picking them downright dangerous (I have the scars to prove it).   My hens were very pleased with my efforts though and decided to help themselves to the gooseberries I had picked too.

Happily I've now got 7 pots of blackcurrant jam and made delicious Gooseberry Snow pudding (from Valentine Werner on Saturday Kitchen).

beetroots (and hornets)

Been really busy these last few weeks, spent a fortnight at home catching up with friends, then had 10 days in Norfolk/London visiting family which was lovely.  I've got a few photos to upload but have taken the huge (for me) step of getting an iPhone so I'm hoping that my blogging will be easier, and perhaps a bit more frequent.

We've had our first harvest of beetroot from the polytunnel - did my favourite roasted beetroot with balsamic vinegar, garlic and fresh herbs.

Absolutely delicious, really sweet and tender.  Roast the scrubbed (not peeled) beetroot in a foil parcel with some garlic, olive oil, a couple of good splashes of balsamic vinegar, scatter some herbs on top (I used thyme and marjoram), add salt and pepper and roast for 35/40 minutes in a moderate oven.  If the beetroots aren't so fresh I sometimes sprinkle some sugar on too.  This is nice served with quiche or maybe some a salad with some baked goats cheese.

The polytunnel is blooming, in fact quite a lot of things are bolting, so we need to work out what to do about that.  One thing that hasn't worked very well is that a lot of our broad beans are empty, which could be to lack of pollination? 

Therefore, we decided to leave the doors open on the polytunnel since we got back from London last Monday.  Unfortunately, we have ended up with some rather unpleasant insect visitors - I have no idea they are, hornets perhaps, but there was one buzzing about (quite scary!) and my husband found this one (see below) floating in his watering can! 

scary beastie!

 

Finally a photo of the polytunnel with everything growing like mad!  Kids are back to school this week (yipee!) and I'm hoping that Brea (my quarter horse) will have recovered from her recent hoof abscess for me to get back in the saddle.  It's been a brilliant summer but I have to say it will be very nice to try and get back into a routine again, well sort of.

back from our Cornish holiday

Or perhaps should be entitled what I ate on holiday!  But first of all just wanted to put a quick link to my friends' garden which is a few miles along the road from me.  They have started to open under the Gardens Scheme for charity and have transformed this beautiful garden by themselves!  It's well worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

http://www.mansefieldgarden.co.uk/index.php


We have just returned from our family holiday to Cornwall, around 700 miles from home and the first time I have visited.  So we had to make the most of it!

During our first week we had lunch at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant - Padstow, beautiful restaurant and food (I achieved one of my foodie ambitions by eating here) -  Seared Fillet of Seabass with roasted fennel seeds and sauce vierge; Braised Fillet of Hake with Mussels, Spinach, Chervil and a Malt Whisky Sauce and to finish had Strawberry Pavlova with Creme Chantilly and Vincotto. Fantastic.

On the second week we met up with friends (who own the garden above!) at Watergate Bay for lunch at Fifteen Cornwall - absolutely amazing food.  To start I had Grilled Cornish mackeral with herby fregola di sarda and green olive salsa; then Bocaddon Farm Rose veal 'scaloppine alla pizzaiola' with verdura mista of Florence fennel, red onion and zucchini followed by Strawberry and mascarpone mousse cake, Tamar Valley strawberries and almond brittle.  Completely brilliant food, amazing atmosphere and of course surfing at Watergate Bay too.

The rest of our holiday was spent on beaches, and sightseeing with the major highlight being the Paolo Nutini concert at the Eden Project, followed by a visit to Eden the next day.

All in all, had a brilliant time, now back to our own Eden project (polytunnel has gone mad in our absence), a wee injured cat - Spooky had to have surgery for a discolated hip we have no idea how he managed to hurt himself, and with BIG plans for the railway carriage project.  Looks like a busy summer ahead.

Last night's book group

I organise a very informal book group, which mostly involves 10 or so ladies who live nearby meeting once a month or so.  We discuss a book we have chosen to read (or not sometimes!) and generally drink wine and have a chat!

Last night was our final meeting before everyone heads off for the summer holidays, our next meeting isn't until September now.  Instead of nominating a book for reading over the hols, we came up with a list of suggestions which everyone can choose from (or ignore and add their own) and we'll have our first meeting back to discuss and review.

The books we have on our recommended list are as follows;

Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

 

any books by Andrew Grieg - especially The Return of John McNab and Electric Brae

 

Shit my Dad says - Justin Halpern

 

One Day - David Nicholls

 

Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

 

When will there be good news - Kate Atkinson 

West Coast - Kate Muir

 

Notes from an exhibition - Patrick Gale

 

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson 

 

I'm looking forwards to a very relaxed summer full of plenty of time to read a good book and have also sneaked some more cookbooks onto my personal reading wish list - 

 

Sarah Ravens Food for Friends and Family, 

 

Plenty by Ottolenghi

 

the Nigel Slater Tender books (couldn't resist!)

 

We've got one more week of the school term left, and then are looking forwards to two weeks in Cornwall, then three weeks at home before a trip to visit family and friends in Norfolk/London.   

Really hoping for a nice laid back summer, and hoping that we'll maybe get round to starting the renovations of our railway carriage too.

 

 

 

Photo catch up

Since the weather has been pretty cold and yucky I had decided to wait until the next sunny day to take some photos of our progress.  Here goes;

The chickens new spot -  Peach exiting the hen house, she's not quite at point of lay yet so I reckon she's just being nosy.

 Inside the polytunnel - so far we've planted broad beans, peas, salad leaves (mizuna, rocket,
mustard etc), sweetcorn, cucumbers,tomatoes are ready to be put into our big homemade grow bag, we've also got some strawberries in big pots too.

Hopefully this weekend we'll manage to go and collect some garden bark for the path between the beds.
I've managed to get a Brown Turkey fig as a Father's Day present for my husband from the kids.
(it's not in the photo, as I've hidden it until Sunday).