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