8000 Pageviews - Thank you



8000 PAGEVIEWS

Thank You

'Poppy Day' - Giant Poppies

For a couple of weeks these will be the Stars of the garden. 

I am rather fond of the buds, I think they look funny.  I love the fuzzy texture.

Then from the Fuzzy Buds burst enormous, 'In Your Face' Poppies.

This is the first and the only one in full bloom so far.  Isn't it gorgeous.  I took this photograph in fairly overcast light and I have not altered it in any way.  These Poppies brighten up the Garden regardless of what the weather is doing.

These Yellow Poppies bloomed today for the first time too, they are wild and have just decided they like it here.

Kiwi Spinning Wheel Trolley - A Thrifty Invention

I love my Ashford Kiwi Spinning Wheel but it is not very portable.  I found this shopping Trolley in a Charity Shop last weekend.  (The dog wanted to be in the picture and I didn't want to argue.)

The Spinning Wheel did not fit on the frame like this.  So my parents found some old board/wood.  Then my Dad attached these bracketty type of things.  They hold the board tightly onto the trolley frame.

My Mom found some old carpet and my Partner found some strong glue (it was seriously called 'Sticks Like S**t'.)  It seems to have done the trick anyway.  The carpet stops the wheel from slipping about.


The wheel can be strapped on using strong elastic cord and there is still room to put the trolley bag on back to front to carry my stash!  I have no idea where I am going but now my wheel can come too.

Is this ingenious or what!

Cheese and Beer Scones

I have posted my recipe for Cheese Scones, I have also posted my recipe for Lemonade Scones  and now (Drum roll please.......) I would like to introduce Cheese and Beer Scones.  These are a cross between cheese scones and Lemonade Scones.  They make a deliciously different 'cheese Scone' and are very simple and quick to make.  They make the humble cheese scone a little bit more modern and funky.  You can really taste the yeasty beer flavour which is delicious with the wholegrain mustard and cheese.  I used a 'Strong Traditioal Ale', 'Speckled Hen'.  This recipe calls for approximately half a bottle, which is a shame because then you are left with the dilemma of what to do with the other half bottle of the 'Amber Nectar'. 

Makes about 12-14 Cheese and Beer scones

325g self-raising flour
75g grated Mature Cheese
2tsp Wholegrain Mustard
2tsp Finely Chopped Chives
170ml cold Beer
170ml Double cream (It needs to be a heavy cream as no other fat is going into these scones.)

Preheat oven to medium to hot.
Sift flour into a large bowl, add the cheese, mustard and chives.  Combine Beer and cream in a medium bowl. Add Beer and cream mixture to flour and gently fold ingredients together until just combined (don't over mix the dough as this will make tough scones). The dough should be fairly soft and sticky.

Place dough on a lightly floured work surface, form into a round and press out to about 3.5cm thickness. Cut scones using a floured 5cm diameter cutter.   Use a quick, firm motion to cut the scones to gives them a better shape and it makes them less likely to stick to the cutter. Form the offcuts into another round and cut some more scones.

Place scones close together on the tray, so they are just touching. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until pale golden and cooked through.

If you like your scones to have a soft crust, cover them with a clean tea towel for one minute after removing from the oven.

Happy Easter Chicks

 The Chicks are spending more time outdoors now which is wonderful as I can reclaim my living room.  They still need to come indoors at night and sleep under a heat lamp for a couple more weeks.  As the days have been so warm I have had them in their coop or run in the daytime.   The above picture is my youngest supervising them for their first time in their run.  'One Man and his Chickens'.

 Forgive me for the photograph of the chickens bottom, it is quite tricky to take photographs of chickens as they are fast and not very obedient, like my kids and dog!  They really enjoyed scratching and pecking on the grass and they are amazingly adept and swift at chasing and catching tiny bugs to eat.

 They are friendly and rush to greet us if we go out, but they  protest when they are picked up.  I left them out until dusk last night and they were all stood on their flower pot cheeping their alarm calls, I think they are afraid of the dark!  They didn't protest to be carried indoors.  It was a very warm night so they spent their first night without their lamp so it was dark, but indoors.  I went to bed listening to their pitiful cries, their alarm call is quite loud, shrill and repatitive, but their unhappy cries are a constant little worrying squeaks.  Tonight when I brought them in they were worrying again, I put the lamp on and they have gone straight to sleep.

I am wondering how long it will be until they are big girls and brave enough to sleep in their coop without causing a noise disturbance to all my neighbours!  It thundered today for about half an hour, they coped with that by running for cover in their coop.  They show no fear of my dog that eyes them up like Sylvester the cat after Tweety Pie.  Everytime the dog thinks I am not looking I can see her licking her lips!  These Hens will not be free ranging.  I have found out they are F1 Brown Link Hybrid variety - Battery Hen variety. 

 "Various combinations of pure breeds were originally used to create egg laying hybrids, the most popular being a Rhode Island Red cockerel and a Light Sussex hen. These breeds have of course been modified over the years to create better parent stock that will lay even more eggs. It is thought the White Leghorn has also been used and this is where the battery hen has got her large floppy comb from". 
Poultry Keeper - This is where I found the info
 They have been bred as the most prolific layers and lay more eggs in their lifetime than any other breed.  This is when they are kept in an artificial environment with artificial light constantly.  These ladies will not produce as many eggs as a battery hen would and will stop laying when daylight drops to less than fourteen hours a day.  Fantastic I might get three eggs out of each of them this year!  An egg still seems a very long way off.  We will probably fight over the first in this house or share it!   For now I will have to console myself with eggs of the Chocolate variety.  I hope you are all enjoying a Happy Easter Weekend.

Cinnamon Rolls and Maggie Sefton Knitting Mysteries

I may aswell come completely out of the closet!  I do enjoy reading 'Knitting Fiction'.
 There I have said it!  My favourites are the Maggie Sefton 'Knitting Mysteries'.  In the winter I went through a spell of getting cosey and reading until I nodded off.  The titles of the books themselves are great.

To go to sleep with a head full of knitting, Yarn stores, Alpaca farms, sheep shearing and fleece, spinning etc is the thing that dreams are made of.  I don't like anything scary or gruesome so these mysteries are about as hardcore as I get.  I think there are eight in the series.  Each book contains recipes and knitting patterns at the back too.  The main character 'Kelly' spends a great deal of her time either in the Yarn Store or the Coffee shop, when she isn't solving mysteries.  In one book she was drinking 'Gingerbread Coffee' and in every book she eats 'Cinnamon Rolls'.  I tracked down a place in town that served 'Gingerbread' flavoured coffee so I did a 'Kelly' and treated myself.  It was delicious.  Then last week I found this recipe...At Sheep Spinach and Strawberries  a blog about

"Food, Farm and Fiber -raising, growing, cooking, sharing".  I love this blog and today tried my version of this recipe.  I didn't have Craisins but I used sultanas and Walnuts.  Both of my Son's sampled when the rolls were still warm and when I asked for marks out of ten, the youngest said '100 out of infinity' I think that means he liked it.

I won't be solving any mysteries but I do like Cinnamon Rolls, coffee and 'Yarn Stores'.