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.

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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?

A Holiday in a Day

We spent the last weekend of the half term holidays in Durham staying with my in-laws. It was John's birthday and he had a few days off work; that combined with the children being off school yesterday meant it felt like an extra bank holiday weekend for us all. 

On Sunday we all went to Tynemouth for the day, a pretty seaside town up on the coast. It was like a perfect little holiday all in one day. The weather was clear and sunny. (It was also quite cold but you take what you can get here.) We explored Tynemouth Market first, a wonderful and unpretentious weekly market that is held in the train station. It's a mixture of local produce, stalls selling what can only kindly be called "bric a brac" and some real gems by local craftspeople. We bought a few treasures including a little screen print, which I'll show you later on. 

We ate fish and chips for lunch - with a cup of tea of course, this is the North - then went to the beach. The children and I took our shoes off as soon as we could and ran down to the see to paddle in the (absolutely freezing) water. As soon as I am near the water I become ridiculously happy and I was even happier than usual watching Bella and Angus. They paddled, ran back and forth chasing waves, collected stones, buried their feet in the sand, built sandcastles, did all the things children do on the beach. Where did they learn these things? I didn't show them. Is it instinctive I wonder? They were so occupied and busy, calling to each other and showing each other things like dead crabs and sea glass. Everything was fascinating to them. It was a glimpse of a different kind of childhood. I was sorry to drag them away when everyone else tired of the beach and I wish I could take them to the beach more regularly.

We ate ice creams on the cliff top over looking Tynemouth harbour then walked out to the lighthouse you see on the left in the last picture. I taught the children the "do you like butter?" trick with buttercups. When we got back I brushed the sand off their feet and shook it from bags and clothes. My skin felt all tight, like it does after a day in the sun and wind, and we'd all caught the sun a little. Everyone was so tired after all that fresh air. We drank beers in the garden in the evening sun.

A day well spent.

A Sunny Day in the Dales

In the UK, when we get really good weather in June, July and August, we say "Oh finally! About time too. I hope it lasts. But not for too long because we don't want another hosepipe ban...etc etc". But when we get sunshine in September everyone is grateful. And happy. Because it feels like such a treat, a blessing, to have such gorgeous weather when the schools have gone back and Autumn is approaching. 

The light feels like it has a different quality to it; softer, more mellow, less need for running around with sun hats and suncream. The air smells different. Yesterday I joined a group of friends who were camping for the night in the Yorkshire Dales. Eight adults, six children, one teenager and one baby. I didn't camp because 1. John was working all weekend, 2. we had plans Friday and Saturday night, and 3. we don't own a tent. Bella, Angus and I arrived at lunchtime and had an idyllic few hours with our friends. We picnicked, we played with water rockets and we spent hours paddling and splashing in a beautiful brook. When I left them all in the late afternoon sun, beers in hand, planning their evening barbecue I did think, hmmm - maybe I could be persuaded that  this camping lark is for me after all. 

Do you like camping? I think I could get into it if I had a proper, good tent and comfy mattresses with fitted sheets, and good pillows, and an electric hook-up with a fridge, cooker, (radio?) you know, all the kit. In fact the more a tent resembles an Actual House, the more I like it.

The other thing that struck me is, oh my goodness, the Yorkshire Dales are stunningly beautiful. It took an hour and a half to get to our destination yesterday, but we can get to other parts of the Dales like Skipton in under an hour. Why, when we have this amazing countryside around me, don't we go more? Also, because we are apparently the only family left in the world who does not to own a Sat Nav, I got very lost, going and coming back. But I didn't really mind, because the sun was shining and it was just all very scenic. Now, if I was lost on the one way system in Leeds city centre, that would be a different matter altogether.

What did you do with your weekend? Was it sunny where you are? 

A Few Postcards and A Catch Up

Well hello there!

I feel as if I have been gone for the longest time, but it was only a week, and what a glorious week it was. We've just returned from a break staying with my parents, a very relaxing and surprisingly sunny end to the school holidays. Indulge me while I share some photos of happy times and places that I love... (Warning - photo overload ahead...but there are good things if you can make it to the end.)

On Monday we spent a leisurely afternoon at a farm tea shop with my parents and my Grandma. 

My grandparents used to live nearby and knew the farm owners and my sisters and I would often visit as children and feed the horses and look at the animals. I remember seeing a cow give birth there once.

It is still a dairy farm but has now branched out into ice creams and cream teas.

We took the train to Chichester on Tuesday. I still underestimate how much little people like train journeys!

We met my very dear friend Abigail and her daughter for lunch. Chichester is the nicest town, full of lovely shops, gardens, parks and cafes. 

We (well, just me really) are always plotting ways to move to West Sussex, but it is SO expensive!

It rained on Wednesday but I didn't really notice because my Mum, my sisters and I went shopping while the children were in Daddy Daycare. And we had Moules frites for tea.

On Thursday we had fantastic day out at Beaulieu, where we rode the monorail before my camera battery died. Not captured on film is the car museum, open top bus tours, parks, playgrounds and the beautiful abbey.

On Friday it was really cold first thing, and felt like Autumn was in the air. We decided to feed the ducks and have a pub lunch. Then the sun came out and by lunchtime it was glorious.

This place is precious to me. I could look at the view every day. I don't know why I love it so much. It just feels peaceful. Even when we went last February, in the freezing cold, it was beautiful. I guess some places are just like that. Do you have a place or a view you love that much?

We paddled. The sea was warm and shallow and clear. Perfect for big and little people.

Looking for crabs...

...and a lunchtime tipple.

My trusty Saltwater sandals did me proud this week, on sand and pebbles, for paddling and walking.

Well done if you made it to the end of that photograph marathon!

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I'm sorry I have not visited many blogs this week. It's been busy, what with one thing and another, but I will catch up over the weekend to see what you've all been doing.

Also, something rather lovely happened this week - I reached 100 followers! I'm still slightly baffled that you visit and read and comment, but I do love that you do! So thank you very much. To celebrate this happy occasion, and to share the blogging love which I have recently received, I am plotting a little giveaway. Details and photos to follow when I get round to finishing the bits and pieces I am making *stitches furiously*.....

Beside the Seaside, Beside the Sea

We have spent the most glorious day on the beach with my family. It is the August bank holiday here in the UK, and we are enjoying a three day weekend. I feel that by spending it at the seaside, I have spent it properly, which I realise is ridiculous. Despite gloomy weather forecasts predicting wind and rain we had hours of sunshine today.

It was a bright and blustery day with big, scudding clouds and constantly changing light. Not warm enough for swimming, but certainly warm enough to be outside all day. The views across the Solent were crystal clear. You could almost see the individual houses on the Isle of Wight across the water.

I could not stop looking at the clouds today. Look at that bright, silvery light.

Bella surveyed the view. John says she has copied that stance from me.

My parents have a beach hut on Hayling Island. We have had a beach hut there since before I was born, and many sunny weekends of my childhood were spent there. It was wonderful to take Bella and Angus there and see how utterly happy they were. Although, after an initial exploration of the beach hut, they ignored it continued with normal beach behaviour; running around, digging holes, throwing sand everywhere and shouting.

The inside is like a shed but much prettier. I can imagine how fun it would be to really go to town with decorating the interior of a beach hut - whitewashing it, making cushions and curtains and tablecloths in matching fabrics...it's probably just as well we could never afford one.

We flew kites...

...explored the fun fair...

...and bought ice creams.

By the end of the afternoon, the view had changed completely. The air was hazy, the light grey, and the wind cool. 

John taught Angus the universal male art of throwing stones into the sea.

Happy days.

The kids fell asleep in record time tonight. Also, John has really caught the sun. He has hilarious streaky red arms, neck and face from careless sun cream application. He is radiating heat. He had to go and find some after-sun in Mum's bathroom. Of course I am distracting him from his discomfort by laughing at him constantly, good wife that I am.

I hope you are all enjoying your holiday weekend, whatever you may be doing.