Christmas, Xmas, Crimbo

Well the time is upon us and our day went very well although it was less than relaxing for me for the most part; the only real draw back if you want to cook a lot of food yourself. I managed to sew the festive napkins and a Christmas apron which has made me very happy.
I have a little tradition of getting a book to read and this one is about the various traditions surrounding this time of year and the origins of them which has led me to think about the names we call Christmas and how we all celebrate.

Looking at some of the crafting social groups and the pictures they have been showing of their trees and the stories of what they do and what they eat. Seeing the outpouring of love and care from everyone, expressed in the gifts they make their loved ones, the words of support offered to people who are feeling low this time of the year, have shown me that the spirit of Christmas is very much alive and well no matter how many people say it isn't.
Keeping this short and sweet as I have to glaze the ham.

Best wishes to you and yours this Christmas and every day.

With hugs from haggis land,

Jx

Adventures of Advent

Firstly, see how I am getting so much better with the titles of these blogs?

The past couple of weeks seems to have gone by in a blur of preparations and runs to the post office but in between it all I managed to take and pass my advanced driving test which was one huge bundle of nerve-wracking awesomeness. Getting ready for Winter up here is quite a thing it seems as we are mostly off grid except for the electricity so making sure we topped up the oil and the wood pile for the heating have been important. I have been squirrelling away  goodies for Christmas and in the depths of the freezer lurks a huge ham to be cooked in a couple of weeks. Before that though will be my beautiful daughter's birthday, the munchkin who loves the spiced biscuits I make more than anyone I have ever met. Today I will be making a batch of them and she will lurk by my elbow as I jiggle them onto the cooling rack and when I say she can have one for each hand she will, as always, pop a biscuit in her mouth before picking up two then dashing off. The tin always has these inside this time of year, the fridge has a roll of the dough ready to bake more as they go so quickly and friends will find a little cellophane bag of them in their hands as we rush apart from a hurried natter, all dashing about in this frenzied time. A couple of years ago I bought the popular stack of star shaped cutters and started making the Christmas trees out of a pile of stars graduated in size and this is the recipe for the spiced biscuit dough (I tried the vanilla biscuit that came with the cutters but my munchkins prefer the spiced ones):


3oz butter and 4oz caster sugar creamed. Mix in 1 beaten egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 tbsp golden syrup,1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp mixed spice, 9oz plain flour. Chill the mixture for an hour then roll out and bake at 180 degrees centigrade until cooked; cooking time depends on the size of the biscuits so check to make sure they don't get too dark. Leave them to cool before moving.

Today is a glittering world of ice and I was outside defrosting the car for my OH so he can get to work safely. It would have been the birthday of a very dear friend, a lovely woman who did so much for other people and as I go about my day I will remember her and smile. My sweetpeas are still going strong in the greenhouse so I will pick a bunch for her.

It seems to me that this time of year people are running around stocking up on extravagant presents, trying to keep up with all of the many social events going on, not least of which are the ones organised by the schools. I like to go to a carol service and each week the munchkins and I have a crafting or baking session maybe two. This week we made snowflakes out of paper and hung them in the kitchen window. JR has been moping as he has been put on a diet by the vet so no extra nibbles for him.

However you prepare for Christmas, enjoy!

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

500 Miles

As you may have gathered from my imaginative title there has been a bit of travel recently; if only it had just been 500 miles. In reality we drove 1050 miles in total. We drove from our home, over the hills through snow and all the way down to where my OH's family live for a big get together for an important birthday. It was a really good day out and we had a fancy tea in a hotel with finger sandwiches, freshly baked scones with cream and jam, french fruit tarts and raspberry panna cotta. His family is huge, noisy, smiley and wonderful so the time flew by and it was a shame it had to end.
We drove home and it seemed much later than it was by the time we finally arrived home because it had been dark outside since the afternoon but even as we drove we could see even more snow gleaming outside. The feeling I get when we are driving home, the warmth and relaxation, was made even more magical by the snow because I am a total child around snow. I giggle and watch it falling for hours, calling over the munchkins to look too. We make snow men, snow angels, have snowball fights and write words in the snow before going inside, changing into warm pyjamas and watch the snow fall over our creations as we drink hot chocolate with marshmallows. It is possible that one day I may actually grow out of this but, honestly, I don't want to!
My bread baking has continued and the flour from Logie Steading made such lovely bread that I am hoping to get some more next time I go by there. My sourdough starter is still going strong despite my reservations that I would forget it or it would stop working for some obscure reason.
Preparations continue for Christmas and although it may seem like a really long build up it is worth it to see the look on the munchkins' faces. I have been making little decorations in the forms of knitted stockings in red and white which are filled with striped candy canes and given to the children we know, crocheted snowflakes in white which have been starched to hold their shape better and angels out of beads to hang on the tree and to give as little gifts to people. Parcels with gifts that need to be sent have been posted or delivered when we visited family. I am feeling nicely organised and am looking forward to sitting down with a hot chocolate and the mound of cards that need to be written. I used to make sure all of the cards were the same designs and would buy the same multipacks to make sure of this but now I have cards left over from previous years that lurk from one year to the next and I buy one or two packs of nice cards when I see them.
Well I suppose it is time to wrap this up as the stove will not light itself and my day looks to be quite busy with surgery as a teddy has lost his arm.

Hugs from Haggis Land

Jx

Out and About

This week has been full of social activities and I went to a local place, Logie Steading http://www.logie.co.uk/ , with some friends. It was more than a bit of a surprise to me and had some lovely shops. I found a good selection of different flours for all my sourdough bread baking needs and then went into another shop where some gin was sampled. Only a little. Honest. The art work in the gallery was stunning and there were so many beautiful pieces in there that I could have gone nuts. The cafe was very nice and the lunch was delicious which makes me a lady who lunches. Suffice to say that I will be going back. The visit reminded me that my liqueurs needed to be bottled so my cupboard now has four new bottles of liqueur; cherry, bramble, raspberry and wild berry (the leftover raspberry and bramble that wouldn't fit into the other bottles mixed together). There was a cheeky glass leftover for me and OH so we were more than happy. The colours of them are gem like and they look ready festive and ready for Christmas. At Logie I was chatting to the lady who runs the whisky shop and mentioned my liqueurs and she poured me a taste of the bramble liqueur that they sell and I was very happy with how they compare. I promptly started on a spiced ginger liqueur after I bottled the others because a bit of warmth is always welcome and why not?
Okay, I admit it, I cannot hide how excited I get about Christmas. It's everything really; the lights, the cooking smells, the drinks and the wonderful snuggly cuddles in front of films. The turkey has been ordered from the local butcher, some bottles have been put away and this week I have made my mincemeat for the mince pies. I am not a fan of the mincemeat you can buy in shops and much prefer to make my own and have a couple of favourite recipes. One huge snag with a few festive food items such as cake, mincemeat and pannetone; I do not like candied peel that you get in the shops although I have tolerated it until now. No, this year it seems something inside me snapped and I went a bit crafty loopy and decided to make my own. After a bit of web surfing I found this method http://wonderlandkitchen.com/2013/11/just-like-candy-diy-mixed-peel/ (sorry if it seems I am going link crazy but I have only just realised that if anyone is reading this then they may actually want to know what I am waffling on about.) and it worked much better than I expected and it tasted great. Not 'I can tolerate this' great more like 'oh, <bleep>, what have I done? I will end up making tons of this as it is so very yummy'. So, to clarify, it was nice and it meant I could then make my mincemeat which got mixed up in a very old casserole dish and left in the Rayburn overnight. It is now all potted up filling four 2lb jars and sitting at the back of tthe cupboard with other goodies I am squirrelling away from my OH and my darling little munchkins. JR has handled all of this kitchen work very well and has sat at my ankle hoping to be given a carrot top or two without noticing that I have not been chopping up carrots. Bless.
We took a trip to our local big town and I went to a cook shop to buy a tin for the pannetone; I am a woman on a mission. We had a brilliant day out and my face was wreathed in the sort of smile that only someone who has managed to buy a lot of things at a very good price, which is far less than their OH was dreading, can understand.
Although I am planning for Christmas it does not mean that Halloween or fireworks have passed me by entirely. At the munchkins' insistence JR has a little pair of bat wings for Halloween that he loves to wear and will whine if he cannot have them or if they are taken off, so he still wears them now when he is in the house and pottering around. It is a bit odd, even for me, and reminds of when my munchkins were much younger and used to dress up in tutus and superhero suits. Who am I kidding? They still do! In a few minutes I shall slip JR's little quilted wax jacket on him and take him out for a walk but before that I should tell you about the fireworks night we went to in our local town. It was brilliant, no pun intended, and the bonfire was huge then the fireworks went on for ages. We met up with some friends and watched the display before going home to snuggle up in front of the fire with a glass of wine. A perfect Saturday evening.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Turning times

So this month has been a busy one, the children have been on holiday so things have been busy and the fields around me have changed noticeably. The trees have turned from green to bright yellow and the silver birches drape their pretty yellow leaves over everything. All of our wine has been bottled and the ale we made has been going down well. The spiced Christmas ale will be made next week so it will be ready in time and on our walks we have gathered pinecones for Christmas crafts and they have dried out on the Rayburn.

A week ago a kind of madness set in and I bought a huge pumpkin to cook down and make into bread. The experiment, while foolhardy, went well and resulted in 8 loaves of bread. The taste was far better than anything I expected considering I made up the recipe as I went along. My most beautiful loaf so far came out of this bake; a boule, proofed in a banneton and slashed to perfection. I froze most of the loaves ready for stews and soups and we have already enjoyed one of them. My addiction to baking hasn't helped the electricity bill at all so I will be trying to cook it in the Rayburn soon. Every day she is lit and the cat curls up next to it while JR lurks by my ankle. I have some bad news; it looks as though Fat Pigeon has met his end as I have not seen him in over three weeks. Admittedly the happy cat and the pile of feathers only added to my suspicions so it does look as though the cat got him but hopefully he just went elsewhere for a few weeks in an attempt to scare other people as they open their curtains in the morning.

I have been thinking about getting a camera in order to take some pictures of the world around me in this beautiful place but let's just say I am not gifted in this area so for every good picture I take there are several fuzzy ones that get deleted. It's that time of year when most of my baking is spiced with warm flavours and fruit tea loaves are served alongside gingerbread men. Halloween crafts were minimal as we were out in the woods on the night but we still carved some little squashes, one each, and used some LED tealights (a first for me) and they worked brilliantly. Gone is the odd vegetable caramel smell of singed pumpkin and no risk of a repeat of the disaster year for me when the lid shrunk with the heat of the candle then fell inside the pumpkin.

October brought a new drink discovery for me and I can definitely recommend Cairn o'Mohr which is made in Perthshire. So far we have tried the Autumn Oak Leaf, the Elderberry and the Bramble and all of them are delicious so if you fancy trying some here is the link: http://www.cairnomohr.com/

Hugs from Haggis Land x

Confusing

This week has been interesting with a few minor problems. I bottled up one of the demi-johns of wine but seeing as neither of us had thought to label it there was over an hour of guess work involved to try and identify it. It didn't smell the same as the pea pod wine but then it smelled far nicer than the dandelion wine. Oh dear. What made it worse was finding out how easy it was to put the cork in the bottles thanks to the gigantic device that looked like a cross between a nut cracker and a corkscrew because after proudly lining them all up I noticed a tiny black fly had somehow made it into one of the bottles. Argh!! The second demi-john has to wait to be bottled as we have run out of bottles and it may take a little while to drink enough wine so we can use the bottles. What a tough life.

I harvested all of the beetroot, being careful not to cut the stems too short in case they bled out and as I laid them on the potting table to dry out a bit my OH pointed out that I had laid them all out at the same angle...then moved one so it was upside down while I was looking away. Don't worry, I got my own back. My sweetpeas don't seem to want to die back at all so I am still harvesting a bunch of flowers every three days. Things could not sound more productive although I had to wrestle with some guilt over not growing any vegetables over the winter.

Yesterday started with a giggle because I opened the sitting room curtains and it must have scared Fat Pigeon who was sitting on the little gate because he fell off it. Nothing was hurt except his feathered pride. JR continues to warm my ankle as I potter about and he has faithfully warmed my toes as I have finished knitting all of the mini Christmas stockings. Every crafted gift for little ones this year and the snowflakes I am crocheting for Tewkesbury Abbey Christmas Fair have been completed so now I shall start working on the decorations for the house. My little ones have helped gather pine cones which have dried out in Mrs Jones, the rayburn, ready to be beaded, bowed and glittered however they choose. It might seem silly but in some ways I am very frugal and the growing trend to attach labels to clothing with little ribbons and safety pins has added to my stash of ribbons and pins but this time of year I like to order extra ribbons. Actually 'extra' doesn't quite cover it. Last year I bought a cute length of ribbon which had little gingerbread men on it and my plan is to buy some more just like that. These fine details will have to wait though as the splint on my hand is restricting my crafting more than I would like although I admit that there was a rather dreary day last weekend where I just sat and watched one Christmas film after the other. Yes, it's early but thinking about Christmas makes me all happy.

There is now a tub of crumble topping living in the fridge as I do like to make it as a quick pudding on hungry days or just days that need pudding. I don't tend to measure it all out as it makes extra washing up but having a quick standby comfort pudding on grey days is essential.

Unfortunately I have to admit that my homemaking skills do not extend to taming ironing piles so I had better go and practice that now.


Hugs from Haggis Land

Jx

The Turn of the Year

This week has seen the Autumn equinox come and go so now the days are officially shorter than the nights. As I was thinking about the seasons yesterday when out for a walk with my OH and JR it is obvious to me that Autumn is my favourite season. The leaves are turning beautiful warm colours and soon, in the right shade of golden syrup light, the trees will be on fire but in a good way. We are lighting the Rayburn on most nights and it makes the place cosy. My little quirk in naming inanimate objects has risen to the fore and the Rayburn has been called 'Mrs Jones' as it heats the home, heats the water and it is easy to cook in the oven or on the stove top so it is practically a housekeeper and what would be a good name? Why, Mrs Jones, of course!
I'm not crazy just differently minded.

There is always at least one plastic bag or empty drinks bottle in my bag when I go for walks now as I can never quite tell when I will find a huge cluster of gleaming blackberries and the gin has been needing topping up. Fruit pies and crumbles are a big hit in our home this time of year and later today I will be stopping by a friend's house to pick some plums at her invitation. There are some family favourites in the recipe books that we have at this time of year and my two children love a classic apple and lavender tart which is on my list of things to bake tomorrow. My store of jams and preserves is quite full now and the pressure barrels are full of ale which will be ready to drink at Christmas. Yes. I am thinking that far ahead already. My project bags that sit by my side of the sofa are filling up with little knitted stockings in red and white also tiny crocheted snowflakes are collecting in drifts.

My first year with a greenhouse is drawing to an end and although there are things I could grow over the winter, according to books and things, I am not sure as there are a couple of panes missing so things might get a bit chilly. Hardly any tomatoes ripened on the vine which was really disappointing so they are now sitting in bowls on the side in the kitchen to ripen a bit before I slow roast them and make a basic tomato sauce to put in jars for the winter. Next year I am trying some italiam tomato varieties at someone's recommendation. The chillies are ripening to fire engine red at a few per day and there are so many more than I had hoped for so they have been going into our dinners already although a slight miscalculation on my part led to some discomfort on my OH's part but let's gloss over that for now. The squashes are growing slowly and all that is left to harvest is some beetroot and carrots...oh, and some runner beans. Okay, maybe the greenhouse is doing better than I thought! My ginger experiment seems to be working better than I had thought and I am getting impatient to empty out the bucket to see how much root ginger I have managed to grow from the original three inch root that I planted a few months ago. Some of the online sources have said to leave it a year before digging it up but I really want to know how much it has grown so far...argh! Decisions, decisions.

Looking out the window I can see that the snow patch that was still on the hills in August has finally melted which would be good if they weren't starting to forecast snow on the hills. It's time for me to head outside to pick bunches of herbs for drying and if I am quick I might be able to give JR the slip as he has left my side long enough to fall asleep on the sofa. His self confidence has been dented by yet another large spider which scared him so he is hiding somewhere high up.

Hugs from Haggis Land

Jx

Golden Grains and Ripe Berries

This is my favourite time of year and it is definitely Autumn now. The sky has that shade of blue reserved for now and the warmth that is is the air has an undertone of the cold that is on the way. Walking around I love watching the golden fields bobbing gently and how they are turned into wiggly lines of piled up corn before a machine comes along and seemingly sucks in the corn only to spit out a perfectly round bale at the other end. Soon all of the fields will have standing bales, corn henges, dotted around them. We cut the grass yesterday, well my OH did, and the smell of the grass was a reminder that soon it will be the last cut as we get ready for Winter.

In the kitchen I am taking stock of the jars of preserves and working out what we will want for the next few months. Last year the blackberry gin was very popular so there will be more made as soon as the berries are ripe. With all of the sorting and reshuffling as I check for jars, bottles and kegs while making space on the shelves and in the freezer JR has been watching from under the huge kitchen table. He has been continuing his persecution of the postman but he has been spending a lot of time with his bone. This bone has been chewed but was maybe a teeny bit too big for him and remains quite unchanged despite his every effort to nibble, knaw, and chomp through it.

Another sign of Autumn is that the buzzards are back in the field next to the house. Last year there were three and this year we have seen two but they might not like having so many pheasants so close to them. Fat Pigeon is still very much in evidence and getting fatter seemingly by the day. The other day I looked out of the window and saw him strutting around the yard out front before he took off and flew to a nearby tree except his wings were creaking and working overtime to get him there. This is the only time I have seen him flying as he usually wanders up and down the bank behind the house, eating his way through the undergrowth and fluffing his feathers at any sparrows and robins that come close. This morning when I opened the curtains he was perched on the small gate at the top of the bank, he was watching me as if to say that he knows I've been telling you about him, although I really can't imagine him flying up there even after seeing him in flight; maybe he walks up the gatepost like SpiderPig in The Simpsons. The crow that knocks on my front door is back and if someone in the village hadn't told me they knew of him I would swear he is a figment of my imagination as he never appears when my OH is here.

Despite the menagerie I have never wanted to be a vegetarian although I have been perfecting my favourite meat free pizza. A couple of months ago we went camping in Wales and on the site the was a fabulous pizza business (it wasn't a wagon or a shop, just an oven and tressle tables under a tarp) and there I had a pizza with goat cheese, rocket and balsamic vinegar. I have changed it in that I use my homemade sourdough bread base, add onions cooked down with balsamic vinegar and seasoned with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar, tomatoes, basil, chillies and rocket from the greenhouse, goat cheese slices and a little mozzarella. Yum.

Hugs from Haggis Land

Jx

Foraged feasts

This week has seen me serving up sorts of food including beetroot and walnut bread along with runner beans, peas and carrots from the garden but then my focus drifted further afield...again.

We went for a walk in the woods with JR and now have blaeberry muffins for this morning's brunch, chanterelle cream sauce to go with the beef at lunch and raspberry gin...for next summer as it will need to mature. Looking for the blaeberries was a lengthy task and mostly on my hands and knees. It was odd learning to 'get my eye in' as it were as these things are little dark blue ninja berries and not at all obvious. They hide under leaves and seem to almost grow into the moss (yes, I know this doesn't really make any sense but they just do). The raspberry gathering was easy by comparison, they practically waved flags to say where they were, although the thorns were a bit tricky and I did get stuck by a couple but that's the price to pay for homemade raspberry gin. Last year I made blackberry gin as a gift for my OH's dad at Christmas which was more than a bit popular so I want to make more this year beacuse it was lush. This year I am aiming to make some sloe gin as it has been a few years since I made it and there is a good quantity of sloes to be foraged nearby although the thorns are huge so I might want to use some gloves. Correctly identifying the chanterelles was brilliant; I thought I recognised them and decided I was certain enough to pick them and take them home for a final check of their identity (thank Google!) and cooking.

Note to self: there is a line and I must obey the line. I may have ruined Sunday roasts from now on because that chanterelle sauce was so tasty and anything less than beef roasted with a salty thyme crust and served with chanterelle cream will not be good enough. My OH has actually said it is so.

chanterelles gathered in my cap. Always be certain when you identify mushrooms as some are toxic and will make you ill rather than happy.

My OH has suggested that I put the receipe for the lunch on here so here it is...

beef roasting joint
fresh thyme
rock salt
freshly ground black pepper

*sear the beef joint in a hot pan until it is very nice and brown all over
*combine the fresh thyme, salt and pepper on a plate and roll the seared beef joint in the mixture before putting in a roasting tray. Put the rest of the mixture on top of the beef then roast at 180C until cooked to your preference.



1 handful of chanterelles, cleaned and torn into chucks
knob of butter (2oz approx)
2 shallots, peeled and sliced
1tbsp brandy
3 tbsp (approx) double cream
salt and pepper to taste

*melt the butter on a low heat in a saucepan then add the shallots to soften them (1 minute)
*add the chanterelles and allow to cook down, stirring occaisionally for ten minutes
*add the brandy and cook off for 1 minute then add the cream
*add seasoning


As you may have already gathered this is why I cannot diet!

Hugs from haggis land,

J x

End Of Summer

Summer is nearly over and I am not sure if it ever got properly started. The other day it was odd to be standing outside in the warm sunshine the other day and looking over the way to see snow patches on the hills, I mean, it is supposed to be summer for the raspberries tell me so. A mere two hours later a blackness descended and the rain pounded down while thunder and lightening had a good discussion outside and the power went out for a while. When I was little I used to like power cuts, lighting candles and listening to adults wondering about the contents of the fridge and freezer but now I am the adult I find I still like them every bit as much only there is a little guilt attached that I don't worry about the contents of the fridge and freezer. Oh well.

It has been very busy here and it has been a whirlwind of new bread experiments, foraging for raspberries and cherries and various crafty results but throughout it all JR has been a constant. He is glued to my ankle as I type and has been by my side as I bake with varying amounts of interference and dragging me to the best raspberry patches. My love for these sweet fruits is such that I decided years ago to grow some and in my last two gardens half the garden has been full of raspberry canes, however, the first year I had my tiny little Jack Russell puppy the harvest was awful. I had been checking and waiting and it all seemed to be going well then it was as if there had been a plague of birds that had stripped the canes. It took me a couple of weeks until I noticed that JR's, ahem, shall we say 'deposits', were studded with raspberry seeds. His fondness for raspberries puts mine in the shade and whenever he can he will eat them. The walks have been a bit of a battle to see who can find them first, well they were until we found the absolute motherload of raspberries. I was able to pick enough for a few jars of jam without JR huffing at me. There were lots of cherries too, sweet and sour, but they were so small that we ended up with some in a compot to go with some bread and the rest had to be turned into liqueur. I mean, there was nothing I could do about it, they just fell into a jar with some spirit and sugar. Luckily JR only munches on fallen cherries and there is no way he can climb trees to harvest them although that is a funny mental image.
It seems though that there is a limit to the bonds of hound and owner as I discovered the other night when a gigantic spider rushed me and JR ran for his life insead of protecting me. He looked particularly ashamed when he came to find me half an hour later and he has been extra vigorous in his guarding against the perceived evils of the postman.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Doe Ray Me

Not a very imaginative title to the post, I'm sure, but the rather obvious ear worm from The Sound Of Music was playing at the time so maybe you can see why. First a little about myself. I am a lady of many varied interests and I live in Haggis land or Scotland if you were to be looking at a map. The title of the blog came from the weekly newsletters I have been sending my nearest and dearest via e-mail since moving here which are signed off that way. My hobbies are more of a way of life and frequently revolve around yarn of all types since I learned to knit at the age of nineteen. At the moment I can't knit, sew or crochet as I have fractured my wrist for the second year in a row but fret not folks as this will not be an annual occurrence as next year there is a rather important wedding to attend and I am doing all the flowers, making certain accessories and setting up the venue so both hands will be required.

My family are all very supportive of my crafting and encourage in different ways; my other half enables mad schemes, my daughter has perfected the 'negative eye roll' which is the most positive of all pseudo teen gestures imaginable, my son asks questions then offers brilliant ideas which are of the nutty professor ilk and my Jack Russell remains firmly attached to my ankle throughout. For example, today I am experimenting with a new sourdough bread recipe and JR was clamped to my ankle like a saggy leg warmer while the first stage of mixing was completed. When I made some goat's milk and honey soap an hour ago JR was doing an excellent impression of a dodgy ankle cuff, the sort you could have found in the indoor market in Cantebury when I was a teen. As I type his affections have been transferred to my elbow but only for my convenience you understand; JR would never want to be in the way.

It is possible that my world view is slightly flawed as I have been noticing certain trends more and more. "Hmmm...I should eat more salad" led to me refurbishing the greenhouse in the garden and growing salad but then because lettuce on its own is not all that interesting I also grew tomatoes, beetroot, carrots and potatoes. "I'm a bit cold" led to me cutting up tea towels, sewing them into rectangular pillows and filling them with rice to make heat packs then teaching myself to crochet so I could start making blankets out of the ends of all my leftover yarn from knitting projects. Affordable, useful crafting preferably with an element of learning something seems to be the result.

Having made a huge batch of pasta sauce for the freezer and sending my OH off to work with some new soap in a tin with a request to try before reporting back I have decided to curl up with a glass of red wine.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx