Harvest

Our days this week have been filled with fresh produce and flowers and our feet have barely touched the ground. We've been out and about; walking, picking blackberries, visiting gardens and farms, picking our own fruit and vegetables. The kitchen is in overdrive as I turn elderberries, blackberries and windfall apples into hedgerow and bramble jelly. Crumbles are made as fast as I can pick the apples and blackberries. Last night we ate fresh corn on the cob, picked that very morning by Angus and Bella in a field. I have a kilo of Victoria plums in a bowl, some ready to be baked into a cake and some gently stewed with sugar and spices into a compote to eat with vanilla ice cream.

I love this time of year. The leaves are starting to fade and yellow in places but the air is still warm and the fields and hedgerows are full of so much life and colour. This is when I start to really get back into cooking, into baking and preserving, and I can see that I'm already beginning the gradual retreat from time in the garden into time in the kitchen again.

Making bramble jelly is one of my seasonal rituals, something I really look forward to doing at this time of year. It heralds the gradual ending of summer for me like nothing else. When I first started making preserves, I experimented with so many different fruits and flavour combinations, trying different things, building my confidence and skills. But I've narrowed it down to three I make: bramble jelly in late August, some kind of chutney in October (for Christmas) and marmalade in January, when the Seville oranges are in the shops. These jamming sessions punctuate my year and I look forward to them, set time aside for them.

Yesterday we visited a wonderful Pick Your Own farm only fifteen minutes away, I can't believe I've never been there before. It has a farm shop and cafe, and field after field of fruit and veg to pick. I thought Bella and Angus might be bored but they absolutely loved it. All of it, seriously, I had to stop them picking everything there. And I discovered the wonder that is a Pick Your Own cutting garden; a large patch of dahlias, cosmos, cornflowers and sunflowers, and you cut as much as you like and pay by weight. One huge bunch of glorious dahlias cost me £1.22. I'm already planning when I can go back.

*

On a separate note, I've been thinking about cameras a lot lately, about how I use mine in my life and here on this blog. It's pretty central to most of the things I do. I adore taking photographs and take far too many, every day, of anything and everything. I always - religiously - used to take my big DSLR out with me everywhere I went and used the photos I took on that camera here on my blog. The camera on my phone was always for Instagram and family photos and I just didn't think they were good enough quality to publish here. 

But, increasingly, I'm leaving my heavy "proper" camera at home and just using my phone for most photos taken out and about. Partly it's the weight of the DSLR, but mainly it's because the camera on my phone is really quite good. It was my sole basis for choosing the phone I did, in fact, a Samsung Galaxy. Five years ago, when I started blogging, you could really see the difference in quality between DSLR and a phone camera, but now I am struggling to tell the difference. I still use my DSLR for any photos taken around the house and garden at home, but I'm not ashamed of my phone photos any more. All the photos taken above at the Pick You Own Farm (except the two of me which were taken by my friend Rachel on her phone) were taken with my phone. I've edited them a very little, mainly just cropping, levelling horizons and a little tinkering with light or colour, but I think they hold their own. What do you think, can you discern much of a difference in quality?

Horses on the beach

The beach felt huge today, ten times as big as usual. Our coastline is crowded around here; estuaries meet channels and flow into The Solent, the beaches are short and shingled at high tide. Look west and you see the high rise buildings in Portsmouth, look south and you see the hills of the Isle of Wight, and the horizon is always full with container ships, passengers ferries, Naval vessels. It's a busy stretch of water. 

But today, the tide was as far out as it could be, it was all sand and sky and the most perfect clouds. The air was warm with just the barest breath of wind, the water clear and quiet. The beach felt full with people, dogs and horses, but there was plenty of space to go around. I enjoyed watching the horses.  Horse riding is not something I'm keen on but I could see how freeing it must feel, riding by the sea. There was some kind of convention of labrador owners, about twenty of them, gathered together chatting. Dogs are allowed off their leashes on the beach from October first, so those labradors were all having a great old time, lolloping around, running in and out of the sea. We had our usual conversation about getting a dog - what kind, would it work for us as a family - the same conversation we have at least once a week. 

The clouds were building up as we left and the sky whitening. We went home for a lunch of soup and I spent the afternoon ironing and watching the Great British Bake Off with Bella (she's a great companion to watch this with, full of opinions and questions) while John cooked roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings. 

A pretty good day.

Sun and Roses

We spent last Saturday at Mottisfont, a National Trust property near Romsey in Hampshire. We last visited it between Christmas and New Year (and I wrote a little about it here) and while it was still beautiful in the middle of winter, I did very much want to return in the summer for two reasons; to see the roses, and to visit the Beatrix Potter exhibition. Neither disappointed. 

The weather was perfect, somewhere in the mid-twenties/high seventies, so hot enough to feel like summer but not so hot that we were all wilting. We took a picnic and spent the day with my parents and my sister and her family.  I think all National Trust properties are lovely but there is something about Mottisfont that I like very much; it's small enough to see easily but big enough to spend a day exploring should you want to, rolling grounds lead down to a river, the walled garden is stunning (I do love a walled garden), and there are excellent trails and features for children to enjoy. Almost everything in the house can be touched and handled, and you never see a sign saying "keep off the grass" (unlike Hever Castle...). 

In conjunction with the art exhibition in the house, there was a charming Beatrix Potter trail that lead all around the grounds. You collect a map and pencil at the entrance and work your way around the twenty of so hidden doors, finding various things at each one; a clue to a puzzle you complete at the end, a challenge, a lovely display, Mr McGregor's Garden, a game - at each one something to do or find or enjoy. 

I don't think we finished the whole trail but it is a enchanting way to connect the exhibition indoors - which was very good but photography not allowed - with the landscape outside. 

And then the roses. You could smell them before you could see them and they were just beautiful. I know nothing about rose varieties but I know that I like the way they smell.

There was a little ice cream stand at the entrance to the walled gardens and they were selling, among other things, rose flavoured ice cream. It tastes like Turkish Delight, floral and sweet and utterly delicious. Rose ice cream in the rose garden, that might be a highlight of the whole holiday.

Do any of you know the children's book The High Street by Alice Melvin? It's a favourite of mine and Bella's (she still asks me to read it to her sometimes) and it's about a girl called Sally and her shopping list, and all the interesting people and things she sees on her local high street. The final item on Sally's list is yellow roses, but the florist doesn't have any, and she's sad until she walks into the park on her way home and sees an enormous yellow climbing rose, just covering the entire walls of the park. She can still enjoy them even though she can't take one home. It's the loveliest book, I can't recommend it enough. Anyway, this spectacular pink climbing rose reminded Bella and I of that straight away.

It was pretty hot inside the walled gardens, sheltered as they are from the breeze, and absolutely humming with bees and butterflies.

The scent of lavender here was everywhere. Many of the bushes had already bloomed and their flowers were brown and dry, but still full of that intoxicating smell. 

We walked down to the river in search of some shade and cooler temperatures. 

We were looking for the wonderful Wild Play Area, where children can paddle, pump and play with water. We did this in December with our wellies on, but it was even more fun in the summer, even if we did forget a towel to dry off wet feet. 

As I write this it's cool and grey, and my feet were so cold in my flip flops that I had to dig out my slippers. It doesn't feel very summery and I'm glad of my cup of tea. It's distinctly chilly in the mornings and evenings at the moment and, what with the blackberries appearing in the hedgerows, I'm reminded that we are now in late summer, and about to turn the page into autumn. We are soon to have our holiday (I've checked and the weather in the Loire is currently around 30°C, ie. total bliss) and of course I don't want to wish away the summer, but I won't pretend I'm not looking forward to the changing of the seasons. Even with the inevitable return to school and work, I love the way summer slips away and autumn emerges.

Thank you for your very kind comments on our kitchen-dining room. I'm really glad you all like it. I have appreciated your comments and interest so much throughout the whole building process - it really was like you were all cheering us on - and it was nice to be able to share the finished room with you. 

Mud Flats, Pubs and Castles

I really thought I'd have loads more time for blogging this summer, but so far that's not happening. I will persevere. We've been really busy catching up with friends and this week and it's been lovely.  Old friends from university and from Leeds came down to stay with us and it was so good to see them, to catch up, to eat and drink much too much, to stay up too late.

Some highlights:

:: Langstone Harbour, where the blackberries were flowering and it won't be long before we're picking them.

:: The Bishop's Palace Gardens in Chichester, which were looking sensational in full bloom. 

(I was quite taken with this type of hydreangea, below, which I believe is called  Annabelle.)

:: Emsworth Harbour, for more walks at low tide. Our friends commented on the smell of the mud flats when the tide is out, which is kind of a salty, sulphorous smell. I love it, but apparently not everyone does. 

:: Bosham, again. In the rain this time, but that didn't deter us, and made stopping in the pub for a drink all the more enjoyable.

:: A wet and windy (but also strangely mild) beach walk, followed by an excellent pub lunch.

:: A trip to Hever Castle while staying with my friend Abigail. 

Every summer the kids and I spend a few nights with Abigail and her family while John is working, and I really cherish that time to catch up in an unhurried way. Bella and Angus get on well with her two girls and we get to spend a lot of time talking and laughing. 

Hever is more of a house than a castle (Angus was really disappointed) but the grounds are beautiful and the two mazes - one yew and one water - are wonderful.

It was really good to get home last night though, to unpack and put the house back to normal. A night in front of the tv, just John and I (watching Stranger Things, which is creepy and excellent, and nostalgic too, full of 80's references, I can't recommend it highly enough - is anyone else watching it?) and everyone sleeping where they normally sleep, not on a airbed or in a different room. Today has been spent in a bustle of pre-holiday chores and admin. Bike racks have been chosen and purchased (yawn), holiday insurance sorted and car breakdown cover "upgraded" to include Europe. Honestly, the amount of stuff you have to take with you to drive in France is bewildering. I am writing lists, it's the only way to cope. But all this preparation does add to the feeling of a forthcoming holiday - there are craft projects to choose, books to select - and I'm enjoying the feeling of anticipation.