Attic24

Summer Days

We've not had the greatest Summer weather here lately, it's been incredibly wet and cool for June. The upside to all the falling wet stuff is the complete and utter lushness of the countryside, it's just so greeeeeeeen and beautiful everywhere, if a bit on the damp side.

On Monday morning J and I drove up into the Yorkshire Dales to walk around the picturesque village of Malham. This is only a short walk (around 4 miles), heading out of the village across lush green fields and into the small woodland that surround  Janets Foss waterfall. 

From there it's a steep climb up....

....until you eventually reach the top of the magnificent Malham Cove.

This limestone pavement is world famous (I'm saying that, but I'm not sure if that's actually true? It feels like it should be famous though!). Famous or not, it's an amazing geological feature and the subject of many school geography lessons.

It's not especially easy terrain to walk on and the "grykes" (the gaps between the limestone rocks) are pretty deep. But it's fun to hop from rock to rock, making a slow journey from one side to the other.

J really doesn't do well with heights, so I ventured on my own towards the edge of the cove to take in the spectacular view down the valley. It was drizzling with rain at this point so a little murky and grey, but nevertheless still very beautiful.

The descent from the top of the cove is via a very, very long higgledy piggeldy run of stone steps. Malham cove is 260 feet high, so that's a lot of steps....over four hundred of them believe it or not. It makes you very quickly realise you have a whole heap load of muscles in your legs that don't very often get a work out.

I took regular stops on the way down to admire the long distance views and to appreciate the close up details too. There was lots of wild thyme flowering amongst the rocks and the colours seemed even more vibrant that usual in the dull, grey light.

It always amazes me when we reach the bottom and look up to see how very, very high that limestone cliff face is.....and to realise that we were up there ON TOP just a short time ago. Wow....it takes my breath away. Every. Time.

The stroll back to the village is gentle and scenic.....

.....a beautiful meandering path through flowery meadows.....

....then a short jaunt down a quiet country lane.

It was lunch time when we arrived back into the village, so we decided on a welcome sit down in the local pub for a quiet drink and a very tasty light lunch.

It was a lovely day, and for the gazillionth time I said my silent thanks of gratitude for the six child-free hours that J and I get to spend together every Monday. It's such a blessing.

Back on the home front and summer is still blooming....it's Peony Paradise right there on my table this week, and I am so happy about it! One bud is still to open, but the other four stems are putting on a spectacular floral show. I am enjoying these flowers so much and drink in their beauty many, many times during the day.

Yesterday evening I rounded up Little B and asked him if he wanted to come with me on an elderflower gathering expedition. He was overflowing with enthusiasm (sweet boy) and so at 7.30, off we went into the soft early evening to see what we could find.

We have a place that we visit each year to gather elderflowers - even though they are very common hedgerow trees and grow in abundance around our neighbourhood, I prefer to go somewhere quiet and out of the way to snip and gather (rather than the local park where folk can be a bit on the blunt side when they see you snipping at trees, say no more).

The place we go now is a very quiet little lane off the beaten track on the edge of town - we can easily walk there, but it's out of the way and there are about eight trees that are can gather from so that we leave plenty behind for the wildlife. 

I put Little B on snipping duty which he was thrilled about - you can see how big and blowsy those flower heads are....

....we had no problem gathering in the fifty or so heads that we needed for cordial making. In fact, there were so many flowers this year that I'm probably going to head back again at the weekend if it stays dry and gather in enough for a second batch. 

I did two batches last year so that I could stash away some small plastic bottles of cordial in the freezer. It was such a delicious treat to pull them out in winter and have an instant reminder of summertime.

I called into the supermarket after the school run this morning and lugged back the huge two kilo bag of sugar along with the lemons and oranges that go with the flowers to make Elderfower cordial. It's extremely simple to make and the recipe I use is one that I adapted from Sarah Raven (I use less sugar in mine).

There you go ↑↑↑ I made this for me to print and keep, so thought I'd share it with you too.

Citric acid is magic stuff and super-easy to find online....Amazon sell it (of course they do, they pretty much sell anything). Although you usually have to buy it in 500g quantities, it's not too expensive and keeps for years if you seal it up well. Find it on Amazon ((here)).

The scent of this flowery concoction is a bit odd as it's "cooking" and to be honest it doesn't smell especially good. But........oh the resulting syrupy drink is absolutely divine I promise you. It's floral, sweet and citrusy and refreshingly zingy. I love love love it, it's a taste of summer that I never tire of.

You dilute the cordial with water (sparkling water is especially good), or add a splash to a glass of prossecco or gin/tonic for something a little bit more weekendish. Oooo, now I'm really looking forward to my weekend summer tipple....it'll probably be the highlight of my Saturday!

The sun was in and out today, with a surprising fall of light summer rain catching me out on my way home from the shops this morning. The kitty follows the sun around the furniture, usually finding a warm patch of sunlit crochet to curl up on for her extended daytime naps. She isn't really a laid back cat (she is a feisty little diva) but there are occasions when she really does appear to be very mellow indeed.

Over on the sofa this morning I found a monster lurking - like you do. Little B is running on Summer time and is getting up pretty early in the mornings right now. It's not unusual for him to be pottering around at 6am, immersed in his own nine year old world of play. He goes through phases where none of his toys interest him any more and all he wants is screen time (insane cartoons mostly) but at the moment there is a lot of playtime happening and I have to say it delights me no end. Long may it last. We've got four more weeks left of the school year here, then we are into the six week summer break, so I'm hoping the play phase carries on for a good while yet. Please let it (silent plea).

I've not photographed my view for a while, so I took a quick snap today as we walked to the top of the hill on our way home. The light was so clear after the earlier splash of rain, and everything is looking beautifully green and lush. 

Summer time always makes me want to feel lighter, healthier and more energised, so I'm making an effort to curb my sweet tooth and am forcing myself to stay away from the calorie laden pastries and biscuits when I go shopping. Instead I've been buying extra fruit, not just the ordinary every day fruits that we always have in (apples, pears, oranges, bananas), but special fruity things like mango and strawberries and passion fruit. I really love fruit so it's not a hardship to snack on a plate of it, I've just not got to be so lazy about preparing it for myself. 

I am so in love with these long, light days. Even when it's been raining and miserable and I've lit the candles to banish the gloom, I still love that the darkness doesn't creep in until well past ten o'clock at night. It's a magical time of year - Summer Solstice tomorrow and I'm keeping all crossed for a dry evening so that we can head out and celebrate. I'm not sure what we'll do - I kind of hope that there's cake or ice cream involved, and possibly a glass of chilled prossecco, but who knows whether I can motivate the family to head out into the greenery and be mid-summerish with me? I've been remembering this day, gosh, six years ago now, how is this possible? Our family dynamic has changed considerably since then and I am so grateful for my blog and the beautiful window it gives me back into the past. Happy memories indeed.

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A Week of Highs and Lows

Hello, how you doing? How's your week been? I wasn't going to post this weekend as I've had a rather traumatic few days (the lows in the above title) and am feeling rather worn down. But then I remembered how much better I always feel when I make time to sit quietly in the Attic and send my words out into cyber space for you to catch and read, and so here I am. Sitting, thinking, holding on to the memory of the highs in the above title.

At the start of the week J and I took advantage of our non-working Monday arrangement (which has been one of the best things to happen for us in recent times) and set out to walk some miles in the Dales. 

It's a beautiful time of year for walking with perfect temperatures and amazing light, and the freshness of Autumn air is invigorating. It's a lovely time for J and I to chat too, and we end up talking about all sorts of random things as we cover the miles.

Oh, I do love love love walking for pleasure, it makes me so happy to be out there amongst all that natural colour, climbing hills, rambling along quiet country lanes and woodland trails....

....strolling along peaceful riverbanks, climbing over stiles and striding across lush fields. I love it all.

As you can see, it's looking gloriously Autumnal around these parts, and if you could zoom in on the above photo you would notice that the ground is absolutely covered with fallen conkers - loads and loads and loads of them! I have honestly never seen so many in all my life - great big juicy, shiny conkers for days.

Linton Falls was spectacular in it's fullness, both the visuals and the noise levels, gosh this is one noisy bit of river! No matter how many times we visit this spot along the river Wharfe, it never fails to wow me, it's just so BiG and rushing and spectacular. As you well know, my heart is always happiest when it's be the sea shore, but this lovely stretch of river feels like home to me since we've been walking here for over twenty years.

I snapped  a photo of a pair of chattering magpies sat on the house at the top of my street on Tuesday. It's not often we see these birds around here, but I automatically thought - ahhhh, two for joy!! Yay!!!! (If you' don't know this rhyme, you can read about it here). The thought of something joyful happening really put a spring in my step, which is a bit ridiculous really, but some superstitions stick with you from childhood and they are hard to shake. I seriously hate seeing just one lonesome magpie.

I've been finishing up the tutorial for my felted basket this week, taking lots of photographs and measurements before the basket goes on it's thrilling journey into the washing machine. I was meant to do that today, but chickened out haha!! I am both excited and nervous about putting all that work into a load of spinning hot soapy water, but I think tomorrow I should do it, don't you? I really want to show it to you and share the pattern - I've got a pure wool yarn pack all ready to go too, so I really do need to stop being a wuss.

I wanted to share this with you as it's had a big impact on me this week. This is called "Five Ways to Wellbeing" and I came across it as I was researching online with Little B for his homework. I completely love that he's been talking about this in school - we talked a lot about it together too,  about how we can look after our mental wellbeing and he made a fantastic presentation in his homework book all about it. I would consider myself to be very mentally healthy, but it's always good to be reminded not to take it for granted.

The weather this week has been sublime, a beautiful slice of autumnal perfection. 

We've woken to very cold mornings with frost and low lying mist, but accompanied by the most delicious golden sunshine. 

The combination has been atmospheric and breathtaking, especially the way the mist swirls over the surface of the canal as we walk along the tow path to school.

We played Eye Spy on this misty morning, Little B and I, crikey that child is ridiculously good at it. He picked something beginning with the letter T, and all the way to school I was trying so hard to get my brain to figure out what he might be seeing. All. The. Way. To. School. I had to give in when we ran out of walking time, much to his utter delight. Turns out is was T for Tag (as in the name tag on his guitar which I was carrying in my hand the whole way), I wanted to tell him off, but really I need to up my game.

I've started eating Brunch on the days that I'm at home, and it suits me very well. I sit down with just a frothy coffee at 8am when the Little People are tucking into their bowls of cereal, then make myself something more substantial around 10.30. My current favourite thing is toasted multi-seeded bread, topped with mashed up avocado, a little olive oil, heavy-handed seasoning, and a poached egg. All those flavours and textures make my toes curl with pleasure. I then eat a light bit of mid afternoon snackage instead of a full blown lunch, and I so look forward to it! Sometimes it might be cheese and crackers with some fruit, or maybe some bread sticks with hummus and salad, or sometimes a toasted crumpet eaten with the Little People when they come home from school. We still all sit down for our main meal at around 5.30 and it's the highlight of my day, truly. I love love love family meals, they are precious times indeed.

The past few days we've had a bit of an Indian Summer and I painted my toenails coral pink to celebrate. I even got to wear my sandals out today which pleased me enormously. As much as I love hand knit socks and colourful boots at the end of my feet in Autumn, nothing beats being able to wiggle your bare toes in the unexpected October sunshine.

I took the above photos on Thursday evening as we walked down through the park on our way to the swimming pool, gosh the sun was something else at that time of day. It was low and golden, slanting through the trees as it made its end of day descent. We were running late so I wasn't able to linger as long as I would have liked - I am such a sun worshiper, I wanted to stand still and drink it in for long, long beautiful golden minutes. But I had to be content with some quick snaps, and then a bit of a run to catch up with J and Little B who refused to wait for me while I faffed.

Little did we know at that time that within an hour, things would take such a dramatic turn. Gosh, life sure does throw a major wobbly sometimes! I won't go into detail, suffice to say that we spent six hours in the hospital that evening with J. He is OK and was able to come home, but it was flippin' scary at the time and we are still somewhat recovering from the trauma of it all. 

Despite very little sleep Thursday night, I felt the pressing need to be out of the house and surrounded by friends on Friday morning, with a much needed dose of caffeine and some gentle yarn therapy. I felt wrung out, but so so glad for the gentle rhythm of my hook and the happy conversations that flowed around me. I never cease to give thanks for the joy that crochet brings to my life, and how it soothes the soul when it is most needed.

Before I go, I want to say a heart felt thank you for all your Birthday wishes on my last post, I'm so grateful for your kindness! I love the friendship that surrounds my little Attic window, thank you so very much for all that you send my way. 

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ps without too much fanfare, could I possibly just show you this exciting news????

 

 

 

Summer Snippets {one}

☀ It's the start of the long six week summer break here, and just as I did last year I thought it'd be nice to share some little snippets of life as we pootle gently through our days. I woke up late this morning completely disorientated, not knowing what day of the week it was or what on earth I was supposed to be doing. It was a blissful feeling when my brain finally woke up and I realised I could take my time and nothing much was needed of me for a while. I adore this feeling so much! It's relief mixed with an overwhelming sense of calm. All is well, it's the summer holidays and we will be operating on a completely different schedule for the foreseeable. Yippeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

☀ Summer holidays for me generally means a lot of juggling. As with most mums of school age children, I'm used to multi-tasking and mixing my parenting with work commitments, and this summer holds a fair amount of both for me. I'm cracking on with lots of Yarndale stuff, working on the content for the printed brochure as well as the big Creative Community project that I organise each year. I designed and made these little "treasure bowls" last week as a project for the Yarndale brochure - they are made from pure wool which means I can put them into the washing machine and felt them.......so much fun! I'll show you more in a separate post as I've got another felting project on the go right now too. 

☀ Luckily for us our allotment is only a couple of minutes walk from our back door so we are easily able to nip up most days and check on our small but precious crops. These are my minuscule, super-dwarf beans which I am so in love with - they are ever so cute! Despite their diminutive size they are starting to deliver us some delicious beans and I couldn't be happier. it's like having a row of really well behaved little children all performing over and above what is expected of them. Gold star award for the teensy bean plants, top of the class.

☀ The sweet peas aren't producing a whole lot of flowers to be honest, and look a bit on the spindly side. I have a feeling I forgot to pinch out the growing tips at the seedling stage, so the plants never bushed out like I expected them to. Ah well, I'm happy to be picking small posies each week which are scented to perfection, even if there isn't the abundance I was hoping for.

☀ Our small tenty green house is working out really well and keeping our plants nicely protected from the winds that whip across our sloping hillside plot. We've got cucumbers, tomatoes and chilies growing in here and I love seeing how well they are doing.

☀ This was yesterday's harvest, gathered with a great deal of happy enthusiasm by myself and Little B. We had to carry out a fair bit of adventurous hacking to get to the teensy raspberries through the riot of brambles in the overgrown soft fruit bed. It was rather painful and our haul was a little on the small side, but still, the excitement was unrelentingly high. I let Little B eat the raspberries with some greek yoghurt and honey and he said they were super-yummy. And check out my cucumbers, how good do they look?! So proud of my veggie babies.

☀ I'm working on the printed patterns for my new Summer Ripple blankets this week, which is quite hard going. Taking step-by-step photographs as I create the borders and writing up the patterns isn't nearly as enjoyable as the hooky itself which has been hugely pleasurable. But I'm making good progress and hope that everything will be ready to go by the end of this week. Maybe even Thursday.

And in other news, I know I am late to this particular party but I've just discovered frozen smoothie packs at the supermarket. Wow, they are brilliant! They nestle in the freezer between the massive selection of lollies and ice creams and the bags of ice cubes, so you have to kind of know to go and look there for them. There isn't a huge choice in Morrisons, but the above concoction was made from a Red Smoothie pack (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and mango), blended with a dollop of greek yoghurt and some milk. Yum yum yum, sooooooooo good. The Little People are ecstatic that I'm willingly offering to make these for them without thee need for begging or nagging on their part. 

We've had this multi purpose blender for almost a year now (it's a NutriPro 1200) and it's fantastic for general blitzing jobs in the kitchen (making breadcrumbs, chopping nuts, blitzing soup, making curry paste, hummus, dips etc) but I've never been bothered to make smoothies with it. However, it really is the bees knees when it comes to blending chunks of frozen stuff, I've been very impressed. 

☀ The curious mixture above came out of the Green Smoothie pack and consists of frozen kale, banana and mango. And in case you're wondering what that bitty sawdusty stuff is, well, that's lemongrass. Took me a while to actually read the packet and work out why everything was covered in sawdust. I divided the pack up into individual bags so that I can easily make up one smoothie at a time (that isn't all kale and no fruit)  - it gets mixed with apple juice and water to produce this.........

.....mmmmmmmmmm. It looks a bit overly health conscious, but actually tastes delicious. Little B couldn't be persuaded though, he took one slurp and said it made his tummy hurt and could he please stick to the pink one. Guess I'll be the one drinking the kale smoothies then.

☀ A photo of our Big Chair, just because I love it so. It's an oversized chair-and-a-half that we inherited from J's parents who were throwing it out and it fits an adult and willing small child quite nicely for film watching and snuggling. I change the blankets over regularly as they get a lot of wear and tear on this chair, and I'm really enjoying the bright pop of colour that the Sunny Granny Stripe is delivering right now. In case you were wondering about the cushion, that's the Water Lily cushion I made last year using Stylecraft Batik yarn (see here for yarn and pattern details). It's grown on me considerably since I first made it, and I do appreciate the more subtle colouring set against the exuberance of all my blankets.

☀ The Big Chair is where I sit when I can't sleep and come downstairs in the very early hours of the morning. I'm generally a good sound sleeper, but due (I suspect) to my hormones, I'm having some very disrupted nights just lately. I wake at 3am feeling as if someone lit a fire under me, and then find it almost impossible to get back to sleep again. I feel anxious and a little panicky, with a racing heartbeat and a mind that refuses to switch down a gear. I've learnt not to struggle with this any more, and instead of tossing and turning I get up quietly, come downstairs, make a cup of tea, sit quietly with the cat and read or crochet a little until the rest of the household wakes up. I was surprised when I got up yesterday morning to see that it was still dark at 4am. So I switched on my my fairy lights and lit some candles, and waited for the sun to wake up. It was so peaceful as I yawned my way through those darkened early hours of the day.

☀ Little B - so very, very happy to be on his summer break home from school. His happiness radiated out of him today as he loafed about listening to music, playing with his lego and watching insane cartoons on Netflix. He played outside too, kicking a ball around with his friends on the street and riding his bike up and down and up and down. The start of the summer holidays always feels so light and joyful, with endless days stretching ahead to be enjoyed and filled with good things. Oh, I'm hopeful for many Good Things. Always hopeful, that's me.

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Strawberry Love

We are devouring punnet after punnet of British grown strawberries this summer, I just can't seem to get enough of them. Along with nectarines and cherries, they are a true taste of the summer season for me, and as a summer-loving soul I cannot resist their sweet charms. As a family we eat a lot of fruit every day, and it's my go-to solution during the holidays when the Little People seem to be continuously snacking and grazing. 

During this past week I've been working on the big Creative Community project for Yarndale*, and have been searching for pretty little crochet things to add some extra decoration to my makes. Flowers are the obvious choice, and I always love creating a bit of floral embellishment, but I was after something a little different. I looked at crochet butterflies (I've already designed bees and ladybirds) but decided that butterflies were something I'd love to explore in more detail at a later date. So I was thinking of various pretty summer things, and suddenly the idea of strawberries popped into my mind.

There are already plenty of crochet strawberry patterns out there in the world, but I wanted to have a go at creating my own.

I've had a huge amount of fun playing around, and really it would be selfish of me to keep my strawberry-making know-how all to myself don't you think? So I've spent today making, photographing and writing a tutorial, and it is right here all ready and waiting for you in the usual place.

{STRAWBERRY TUTORIAL}

I've named the pattern "Strawberry Appliqué" - appliqué is a very useful term if you are searching for two dimensional crochet patterns as opposed to three dimensional ones. At some point I'd love to make some three dimensional strawberries as I've got a partly made Summer Wreath sitting in my studio and I know it really must contain some summer fruits. But right now, it's all about the flat things......

.....this is a little taster of the "Creative Hearts" project for Yarndale* 2017 which will launch tomorrow. There will be a full tutorial for making the heart decoration shown here, as well as lots more beautiful hearty inspiration and details of how you can join in with the project. I'm excited to show you what I've been working on!

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**Yarndale is a creative yarn festival held in North Yorkshire, UK. It is a for-profit organisation, and I am one of the five organisers. You can find more details on the Yarndale website.

 

Elderflower Cordial Time

Since moving from the outskirts of a city to a rural market town seven years ago, one of the many things I really appreciate is how I feel so much more aware of the seasons. I think there are several reasons for this, the first one being the beautiful view from my Attic window. Every single day I look out across the rooftops to the fields and hills beyond and observe the ever changing colours as the weather and seasons do their thing.

Where I used to live there were no hills. None-what-so-ever. The landscape was as flat as a pancake and as such it was hard impossible to really get a feel for what was going on around you. The compensation for this was Big Skies, but oh I do really love to be surrounded by hills and I don't miss that flattened out landscape one little bit. I also used to go almost everywhere by car when I lived on the outskirts of the city, as everything I needed to get to on a daily basis was so much further away. Living here I walk absolutely everywhere, which means I am very much more aware of the weather conditions/seasons as I am not riding around in a metal box.

Blogging my daily life is also a terrific help in reminding me of my connection to the land and the seasons. My blog gives me a precious little window to gaze through and gain access to my faded memory banks, and I am often surprised and delighted by the rhythmic and repetitive nature of my lifestyle. It tickles me that year after year we do the exact same things on more or less the exact days of each month!

For the past three years, June has been the month of the Elderflowers. There are a lot of trees in my neighbourhood, they sprout like giant overgrown weeds in the most unlikely of places - along roadsides and verges, in hedgerows, along paths and even out of walls. In early June as I go about my business to and fro, I keep an eye on the flowers, waiting patiently for the tight little green bobbles to open up and produce a froth of creamy white, teeny tiny flowers. Last year we made our first pickings right in the middle of the month, with a second batch a week later.

This year, the flowers have been late as we had a very long, cold Spring and Summer has been slow to get going. But during the last week in June I suddenly noticed creamy white flowers everywhere and knew it was finally cordial making time.

I went with the Little People on Monday evening after dinner to gather in the floral booty. It had been a very hot sunny day and the evening remained balmy and completely summery, it was a gorgeous time to be out and about.

This year I found a new place to go not far from home where there was an abundance of trees laden with flowers. So I was able to snip the stems freely, taking only a handful from each place as we strolled along. There was also the bonus of finding a great swathe of ox eye daisies growing wild along the road side, so I thought it would be ok to gather a few. We were walking along a quiet access road along the back of the railway track, not very picturesque but the flower bounty more than made up for the rather industrial feel of the location.

I filled my bag with flower heads, emptying them out onto the back yard table once I was home. I spent a little bit of time freeing up the critters and snipping off as much of the green stems as I could manage, counting the flower heads as I went. This year we had gathered 63 so enough for 2.5 batches of cordial - result!

I have adapted this Sarah Raven recipe, leaving out the limes and reducing the sugar. Elderflower cordial is a cinch to make, this is it in a nutshell....

Put 1.5L boiling water into a large pan on the hob with 1kg of white sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring as the sugar melts.

Add in 25 polleny elderflower heads (stalks removed), stir well and bring back to the boil. Take the pan off the heat.

Add in 30g citric acid (I buy from the local health food shop, but you can find it on Amazon), plus 2 sliced oranges and 2 sliced lemons.

Stir well, cover and leave to cool. I leave mine to infuse for 48 hours, then strain using a jelly bag (this sort of thing), giving the bag a good squeeze to get all the juice from the citrus fruit out. Then bottle the precious liquid and keep it in the fridge ready for when you need to quench your thirst....

....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, the very taste of Summer in a glass!

Elderflower cordial is diluted with water the same as you would dilute a fruit squash, but I have heard rumour that it is also very good added to a glass of prossecco. I may have to give that a whirl over the weekend (this recipe sounds delicious) as the idea of sitting around in the sunshine sipping a chilled Elderflower Bellini is very, very appealing indeed. Roll on Saturday.........

x

ps elderflower cordial also freezes well, I save up small 250ml water bottles to use for this purpose.

 

 

 

Two days of Lovely

#1 :: I've loved looking upwards as I've walked around and about the place. It's made me so happy to see the most beautiful blues skies and feel the gentle warmth from the bright winter sunshine.

#2 :: I've loved pottering around my town, visiting friends, the market, the park and local shops.

#3 :: I've loved seeing my two boys slowly recover their energies and appetites, kicking those germs into touch. We've eaten lots of fresh fruit, salad and veggies this week.

#4 :: I've loved watching my Little People at play, both individually and with each other. Some very sweet role-play games have been taking place (we are at home for half term this week), and the pop up tent has been in almost constant use.

#5 :: I've loved seeing my little clump of snowdrops get ready to open their petals as the sun shines down on them.

#6 :: I've loved making (and eating) an incredible new snack/addiction which is thankfully a little healthier than tiffin. These are curly kale crisps which I learnt about on Hannah's lovely blog Homebaked. Half a bag of sliced curly kale with a drizzle of olive oil massaged in and a sprinkling of sea salt. Spread on a baking tray, bake in oven at low temp (150C) for about 25mins until kale is crisp. Utterly delicious.

#7 :: I've loved putting a few stems of baby narcissus into the old glass bottles on my bathroom windowsill. They completely light up the room and make me smile every time I walk in.

#8 :: I've loved using this bar of handmade soap bought from a local shop. My last soap (wild rose) from the same shop ran out a few weeks ago and so I treated myself to a new one...it smells lush.

#9 :: I've loved browsing through this beautiful book-zine at bedtime. The pages are filled with colour and inspiration, it's quite wonderful. More info here.

#10 :: I've loved getting this book in the post today, I ordered it from Amazon after reading about it in the above mentioned Mollie Makes Home. I think the author (the founder of my fave company Rice DK ) somehow sneaked a peek inside my Creative Mind and made this book especially for me. I'll write more about it soon when I've had chance to read it properly instead of just dribbling all over it.

#11 :: I've loved taking a train journey through the cold, frosty landscape with Little Lady today. We went to The City to shop for clothes (her) and pretty things (me), and had a lovely time out together. She is the sweetest companion, I found I laughed a lot in her company.

#12 :: I've loved bringing these sweet new tins home to the attic, they are of course from Cath Kidston. Destined to go and live very soon in my new work studio. Shall I say that again? Uh-huh...that's right...s-t-u-d-i-o. The most exciting, wondrous developments happening here behind the scenes. Squuuueeeeeeeeeeeeeal! More of that very soon. 

#13 :: I've loved coming home from The City with exhausted achy feet and flopping down on the sofa to drink tea from my new mug. Cath Kidston again, I LOVE this new design called Daisy Rose Check.

#14 :: I've loved (LOvEd-loveD) opening up a surprise parcel today, and finding this incredible piece of handmade fused glass inside. A very generous and beautiful gift from a lovely Attic visitor, Charlotte I can't tell you how much I love this, you have an amazing talent. When are you going to open an online shop? Perleaaaaaaase?! ♥

#15 :: I've loved having a crochet idea, working on it before breakfast (not particularly successfully), pondering on it all morning (whilst shopping in The City), tweaking it in my mind, then coming home and re-working the imagined tweaks. And it worked! I made a little hooky daffodil! I have in my mind to create an Easter Wreath, similar in style to my Christmas one. Think lots of crocheted spring flowers, leaves, pretty ribbons, buttons, feathers, decorated eggs, pom poms (of course) and an Easter bird nestling at the bottom....oh cripes, the giddy shivers are back again :o)

#16 :: I've loved looking forward to going to the coast, yaaayyy! This gorgeous looking building is the youth hostel at Whitby,  and we've booked a family room to stay here tomorrow night...it's right up on the top of the cliff next to Whitby Abbey. I am really, really looking forward to it, we leave tomorrow morning for two days of seaside pootling. Fingers crossed for good weather, well dry weather (without snow, hail or rain) will do nicely.

See you when I get back from beside the North Sea!

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Elderflower Cordial

I have wanted to make Elderflower cordial for the longest time. I absolutely love it and due to the high price of the commercially produced stuff it's something of an infrequent treat when I've got pennies to spare. Come to think of it, I've absolutely no idea why it's taken me so long to get round to making it? One of life's mysteries, but most likely connected to my incredible Lazy Gene and uber-strong Procrastination Tendencies. I very often have Big Thoughts about doing all sorts of productive, creative things, but the following through with action just doesn't always happen. Oh, and the other thing is that I am quite allergic to elderflowers, or rather the vast amount of dusty pollen they contain. Cath Kidston tissues at the ready for this venture.

This year I noticed a real abundance of elderberry trees/bushes in my neighbourhood throughout June, they seemed to be everywhere I looked and were smothered in flowers. A few weeks ago I had been chatting to a friend about wanting to make elderflower cordial, and she gave me a brief run down of the recipe as she remembered it. Twenty Five flower heads she said. Plus lots of sugar and some lemons. Sounded simple enough, and I figured that twenty five flowers would be fairly easy to harvest.

Not sure what prompted me finally to go forth and Make It Happen, maybe I wanted to do something so very Summery to combat the un-summery weather. Maybe I was just plain bored one damp, overcast Sunday morning. Bored and thirsty perhaps?

Despite the ridiculously unseasonal weather, I really enjoyed my early morning picking trip to the park. I find elderflowers incredibly pretty, they really are beautiful when you study them in close-up.

As anticipated, I had soon gathered twenty five pollen-filled flower heads into my basket. It didn't take long at all and I wished that it had lasted longer. It was definitely the bestest bit of the whole Cordial-making experience (although consuming the finished product is pretty darn good). I felt so pleased with my efforts as I tramped back up the soggy hill with my hedgerow booty swinging in my basket. How wholesome and productive to venture out and gather natures harvest to do fantabulous homemade things with!

Ahhh, long summer grasses, swaying gently in the breeze......you would never believe from this photo how cold it actually was on that first day of July). Freeeeeeeeezing it was.

Just had to share these roses with you, I pass them on my short walks to and from the park and have fallen in love with them over and over again this summer. I so wish that they were mine! Need to purchase and plant roses at number 24. It's a Must-do. Is rose-planting an Autumn pursuit? Any rose-lovers/growers out there, please do pass me some rosy-growing info!

Right then, pull my thoughts away from gorgeous, delightful, fragrant, smoochy pink roses and back to the sneezy, creamy white elderflowers. I loved the look of them inside my strawberry oilcloth lined basket. So pretty.

If you read any recipe for making elderflower cordial, it will always tell you to wash the flowers in water first to get rid of any critters. I didn't actually do this (plain forgot), but I did give the flowers a good shake and an inspection as I pulled them one by one out of the basket. I was completely mesmerized by this spider that crawled out, it is the exact colour of the alchemilla that's frothing away in my front garden. It's the first time I have ever encountered a lime green spider, it was a lovely little critter indeed.

I have to tell you that there are a gazillion-bobillion recipes in the world for elderflower cordial and they seem to vary wildly. Although the main ingredients (flowers, sugar, water, citrus fruit) are pretty much the same in each recipe, the quantities and proportions were staggeringly different. I flicked through about a dozen variations on the internet and perused a few in my books, eventually settling on this one by Sarah Raven.

Sarah's recipe has rather more citrus in than other recipes (2 lemons, 2 oranges and 2 limes, although I left out the limes cos of not having any in at the time). I love citrus flavours though, and I also loved her no-nonsense method.

One other ingredient she also uses (that I miraculously did have in) was citric acid. From what I know of this ingredient, it's a natural product that's mainly used in wine making to act as a preservative. It might possibly also give a little extra fizz-kick to cordials, although that's just a guess. It's perfectly possible to make elderflower cordial without it, but I think it does make it taste better. You can buy it easily online, even Amazon sells it (well Amazon does sell just about anything these days).

So this is Sarah's easy-peasy method :: water and sugar in pan, bring to boil. Add in flowers, bring back to boil. Remove from heat, throw in sliced fruit, stir and leave for a few days. Easy or what?

I left my concoction to infuse for 3 days for maximum flavour to develop. Then I strained it through a muslin bag into a big jug and poured it into two empty 1 litre soda bottles. 

The Little People were suitably impressed with my efforts and couldn't wait to sample it. The cordial is quite strong and needs to be diluted with water :: we made it first with normal tap water, then later with some bubbly soda water.

It really is delicious. Delicate, refreshing and oh-so-summery. I just wish I'd made more of it now, but there's always next year.

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♥ Three Things ♥

Three Things that are making me heart-skippy happy today......

:: Thing #1 :: on my table ::

The most Gorgeously Vibrant bunch of tulips, brought to me today by a visiting friend.

Don't think she realised quite how happy these would make me today, or quite how glad I was to have company today. Yesterday I was home alone with Little B and to be frank, we had a rotten day together. Lots of screaming, very little let up. Today has been so very much calmer and for that I am truly thankful.

:: Thing #2 :: in my tummy ::

The most Gorgeously Delicious white chocolate and raspberry muffin.

I find I am missing my home baking activities, but eating shop-bought alternatives is not so bad. I would even go so far as to say it was pretty damn good actually.

 

:: Thing #3 :: on my sofa ::

The most Gorgeously Inspirational catalogue from Sarah Raven, which arrived this morning. 

I've been flitting through these pages ooohing and aahing and getting all quivery with excitement at the thought of all the colourful floral goodness to come this year. This catalogue is Grade A eye-candy, highly recommended for top-notch January sofa-day-dreaming.

Hope you find some things to make you heart-skippy happy today xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx