Friday 2 October 2015

Weasels (dead one), wassups, bees, knitting, reading - oh, and a bit of baking


I woke early this morning - 2 hours before my alarm was due to go off.  I had things on my mind and knew I wouldn't get back to sleep.  Some friends of ours were due at 11 a.m. and I had things to bake. I'd made a Raspberry and Lemon cake yesterday, and a failed loaf of bread in the breadmaker (a smidge too much yeast I think as it overproved and collapsed), but I needed to make some Scones in payment for a chair they had recaned, another loaf of bread, and a traybake for Sunday when we have another Fair.




Windfall Apple cake as a traybake.  One half for the freezer and the other to cut up and hand around to friends on Sunday.  Plenty of windfalls out in the garden - well, Jackdaw-falls really as they are devils for pecking at the fruit.  The insects get their fair share, with all the half-destroyed fruit on the ground becoming a cafe for wassups (as we used to call wasps when we were younger), and the Hornet (in flight sounding like a jumbo jet by comparison) has been munching them too.



Then it was a successful loaf of half and half bread, mixed and raised to first rise dough in the breadmaker and then whisked out and knocked back, and put to prove a 2nd time in the tin before proper baking in the oven.

I finished off with using up some sausages as a batch of small sausage rolls, and left-over pastry sprinkled with cheese and baked up too.  The mountain of washing up was almost a welcome change after all this baking.

Below is a photo of the tiny Weasel that Alfie cat brought home (with much proud yowling) on Wednesday.  It was as dead as a doornail - I think they had just crossed each other's paths and then it was bye-bye Weasel as Alfie is a hefty lump, and used to catching well grown rabbits.



Today I gave myself the afternoon off.  I felt I had earned it, and the weather is SO glorious it would have been a crying shame to have spent a moment longer indoors.  So I took the lounger out to the patio, where I chased the sun around all afternoon, so hot at one point I even put on a SKIRT for the first time this year (too cold in summer), and I would do a few rows of knitting, and then read a bit of the biography of Coleridge Annie's daughter gave me last week, then back to the knitting.

It was so peaceful, and the air was full of birdsong, especially several Robins who have territories in the garden.  One loves to sing from the top of the telephone pole in the corner by the farmyard.  At one point some Long-Tailed Tits flew over me, and then a WaterWagtail serenaded me from the power line.  I was sat by some Sedum which is in full bloom right now, and there were always 10 or 12 honey bees on it throughout the afternoon.

When the sun disappeared behind the house, I changed into my trousers and followed it to our South-facing yard, where I absolutely roasted - it was still 70 deg. or more at nearly 5 p.m.  I was TOO HOT (in October!) and had to give up and come indoors.  I am NOT complaining, and this weather can carry on as long as it likes as it's like the first couple of days of July all over again.

The knitting is coming on well and the extra ball of cherry red wool I needed arrived today (Lanark Mills, I recommend them highly).  Another of the unfinished things I inherited from Annie was a big basket full of balls of wool and a half-finished teddy.  Looking through it today, I noticed a 2nd teddy's head had been started (one is finished and stuffed) and a jumper had been knitted, so I have two to finish now.  The cherry red wool is for a little teddy jumper, and is knitting up beautifully. Photos over the weekend.

10 comments:

  1. Wow somebody has been busy. Can I visit for tea looks absolutely scrumptious as usual BB. What a lovely way of saying thank you. Do we get to see the re-caned item. They always look so lovely. I like older pieces of furniture anyway. Your friends are in for a real treat. Good for you spending the afternoon relaxing. The sun will help you with surviving the cold ow winter - plenty of vitamin D. I have had the flu jab today in the hope that it will stop me being poorly catching everyone else's colds. A simple cold to everyone else always ends up crippling me. Look forward to seeing the finished teddies. Glad you got time to chill. Catch you soon. Pattypan x

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  2. Yummy makes and yummy weather..hope you have cooled down... It has been glorious...glad you got time to chase it and enjoy it..what is a skirt ? Xxxxhaven't worn one for YEARS!!!

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  3. forgot to say the header is glorious.xx

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  4. More enviable cooking for me to look at and failt to emulate. As long as the weasel didn't end up in there somehow

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  5. Is it not strange that we females end up in trousers most of the time, I have just bought a skirt, because I haven't any but of course have to take the hem up. Lovely long post and the food looks delicious but fattening, all I did was apple pie yesterday for LS, who has already eaten half of it...

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  6. Oh, i know all about waking up very early and knowing I won't get back to sleep BB. But, frankly, after all that amazing baking (it all looks scrummy by the way) you had earned an afternoon off in the sun. And yes, I agree, long may this weather continue - we can at least dream about it then in dull November.

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  7. Baking items for tea look really delicious - you certainly earned your break in the afternoon!!

    Look forward to seeing the knitting photos - I'm still working on a blanket of squares I started a year ago!! Its meant for son's single bed so I think I may start sewing the squares up to see if its big enough. Sadly, although I love knitting, I loathe sewing so this is the bit I keep putting off!

    Must admit I can't remember when I last wore a skirt or dress (but it was well over 12 years ago!!).

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  8. Hi everyone. Pattypan - How I wish you could come to tea! I know we would get on as if we had been best friends for years - but then, we do go back a long way on that forum. Are you on the rehashed one still?

    DD - I hear we are to meet up soon, which is great! Skirts are what I have in the cupboard for Special Occasions, but there aren't many of those! Glad you like the header. Have you been down that way yet?

    Simon - no, glad to say the Weasel was recycled with the stuff in the autumn clearup wheelbarrow.

    Thelma - trousers are just more practical for me and I always was a tomboy! Yup - all horribly fattening, so just as well I bake and give away. Whenever someone comes round for tea and cake, they are sent home with the rest of the cake (I just have one slice to be polite). All those scones were for our friend's freezer, as part payment for some work she did for me. (Photo later). I am the same with my preserves, I will keep a pot of not-quite-filled jam in the fridge and have some on toast about once every 6 weeks, but the rest are thankyou gifts for friends, My downfall is crisps (I daren't have them in the house) and Tesco Finest Tart au Citrone tarts . . . I try not to go near that corner of the store!

    Pat - I've not improved with keeping over sleeping - I have always been a light sleeper, as was my dad. I did, for once, feel I had thoroughly earned my relaxation! The Christian work ethic is hard to shift.

    RRobin - I have to be in the mood for knitting. I normally do crafts on the autumn and winter evenings, and garden on the summer ones. I like sewing too, but I think with big blankets of squares, it is probably better to sew them up as you go along, a row at a time.



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  9. All that baking looks delectable especially the windfall apple cake and your afternoon sounds idyllic. Times like that are rare and need to be savoured just as you did.

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  10. Sound like a wonderful afternoon rest and well deserved. As usual all your baking photos make me hungry! The teddy projects sound delightful.

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