Deck the Halls

Today has been a busy day of Christmas prep as the munchkins and I, accompanied by the ever present JR, went off to the woods to gather greenery to make a wreath for our front door and one for OH's work. Here is how I did it...

coat hangers, secateurs, string, florist wire, gloves, moss, ivy, pine from my Christmas tree, holly and poinsettia

* note I used poinsettia as my holly was lacking in the berry department but you could use red carnations, red ribbon, wired up pinecones or even red roses if you want to push the boat out.

Pull your wire coat hanger into a round wish shape. As you can see you don't have to be exact because the greenery covers it up so perfection is not required.

Bundle up the moss and use the string to tie it all around the wire. 

Add the greenery in layers. I started with the ivy then added the pine and finished with the holly.

Secure the greenery by folding the florist wire in half then push it through the moss to the other side so it pins down the stem. Twist the two ends of the wire the tighten then bend safely out of the way.

Wrap the wire around the flower of your choice then add that where you want. I did two separate designs...

for my front door

for OH's work

Always take care to wash your hands thoroughly after arranging flowers.

  So because tramping through the woods then making a wreath for the door is not Christmassy enough the munchkins and I put on some festive tunes and baked some biscuits. It is an old favourite recipe, tried and tested, which I have written down in my Christmas Almanack. After wasting time year after year of trawling through recipes trying to find one we had enjoyed there was one year I forgot to make something we all really enjoyed and the munchkins were disappointed so I decided to write it all down, every last little thing we like so there is no chance it will be forgotten and I cannot recommend it enough. Find a nice notebook and start one this year.

Our biscuits have cooled down and are in a tin some are ready to be put into cellophane bags and given as gifts while others will be available to nibble after school or with a cup of tea.

Whatever you do in the week running up to Christmas I hope you enjoy it.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Fair / Fayre?

Hand carved Santa Pencils

Well I did it! The Christmas fayres/fairs have been and gone and, rather amazingly, my hair did not go white overnight from the stress. As it is the first time I have sold my hand made items my two biggest quandaries were how much stock to bring and at what price I should sell everything. I had a week between the fayre and the fair (what is with the olde worlde spelling?!) but could not decide if I should make any extra stock. My hands have been a bit rough with all the outdoor work I do so anything fine was out of the question.

mixture of little stockings

felt decorations

The fayre was at a local school and it was really full on with lots of sugar-high children running about  but it was okay to sit back and see how these things go as I was surrounded by seasoned pros! The fair was a much more sedate affair and I was very lucky to have my very good friend with me throughout and my lovely OH brought the munchkins along and left one to sort change but not until he had sat down and have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake with them at the tables and managed to sell something for me from there. My goal was well and truly smashed and I have been asked if I will go along again...I think so.

table at the fayre

It has not escaped my notice that more Scots gets dropped into conversations these days as if after a couple of years of being up here my Scottish friends are no longer constantly having to remind themselves to speak English without all of the little phrases and words that take little while to get used to. I'm strangely pleased by that. Today is a day of wandering about the next town over posting gifts and cards and shopping for the extra little bits but in all the preparation for Christmas I have a very important Birthday before that; my daughter. This week is going to be fun!



My promise to myself after the two fairs were over wass to have another go at making panettone. After spending all that time making the candied citrus peel last year only to have the cat attack the dough was disheartening but this year I am determined to make some without the Furry Assassin's intervention so that is for next week and if there is no meddling I might be able to post a picture.



Before I head off to start my day I will leave you with this very nice non-alcoholic recipe I tried from the food network: a dash of orange blossom water, 1 measure lime cordial, 1 measure elderflower cordial and top it up with sparkling water. Enjoy!

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Home Sweet Home

Up here in what people seem to think is the freezing cold sheep ridden sodden wastes of Scotland Autumn is definitely here and I could not be happier. It is grey outside but that is because the sun isn't up yet. I am up and dressed having lit Mrs Jones, our trusty Rayburn, and as she fills the kitchen with heat I am sipping tea, writing this and watching the view from my window. The smell of woodsmoke in the air and the frosted carpeting on the trees and fields is the highlight of my morning. The different colours of the landscape all pop out gradually but not all at once as the sun comes up. The greyness was pierced by the golden field of cut corn although it still had a grey filter over the top then the burnished tops of the broadleaf trees behind it emerged from the grey quickly followed by the green of the sheep field on the other side of my window then the trees behind that. If I take my eyes away from the window for even a few minutes then look back there is a noticeable difference; the grey filter is lighter and a dusting of pink blusher has appeared in the sky and individual trees more golden or more red than the others start to stand out. There's snow on the hills again and is amazing how they gleam at me when the sun comes up so it is only right that I have a good look at them as I have my cup of tea. As a total aside; one indication of how much of a hoarder I am is that we have not quite finished all of the tea I bought for when we had people up for the wedding. Oops...

 In the kitchen the demi-johns of wine have been bubbling away and are looking good so I am pleased with that as I wondered if I had rushed them so my plan is to decant them into sterilised demijohns to finish fermenting then they can be bottled after Christmas; there is no rush. Yesterday I went through all of my craft supplies, tidying things up and checking that the glitter glue had not dried out, so that I could work out what things I plan to make for Christmas and enough for a stall at a local fair. This is a huge step for me and after years of people asking me to make things for them and telling me I should sell what I make this year might be the year...if I don't think about it too much and let my hyper critical thoughts rush in. Here is a preview of what I have done so far...

Is insanity is carving Santa faces into pencils...

...or is it carving cocktail sticks into crochet hooks and knitting needles?

Little tree stockings

in need of blocking!

Amidst all of this creativity we have been out in the woods. It looks as though it has snowed here already on some days as the frost on the Norwegian Spruces is so thick and it does get me thinking about Christmas, so much so that I went and ordered the turkey from the local butcher. The bees are all tucked away for Winter and they will not really come out other than on the warmest of days until next Spring now as they are all clustered in the hive. We have been cutting and splitting logs so the wood shed is heaving; it really is easier to split the logs when it is very cold. All of the flowers have frozen except for the funny little rose bush we planted by the front door when we first moved in and it seems to flower pretty much all year round. A new robin has appeared and watches  me from a few feet away whenever I am outside fetching wood but unfortunately I no longer get called by the tail-less pheasant (I am trying not to look at the Furry Assassin as I type this). JR has been as close to any fire he can be and has been working on his napping skills. The postman can even come up to the house without JR barking like a mad fiend.

A local glass artist offered a day teaching how to make stained glass hanging ornaments so all four of us went along and learned how to score, crack, tape and solder and these little beauties are what we made. Amazingly the munchkins were better at cracking the glass than us and that might be something to do with us having longer trying to not break glass! We will be hanging these up this year as our home made Christmas decorations which is good because I still haven't found time to make the wall hanging for the landing.

Well that's about it for now and I will try not to leave it so long next time.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

                                                                              Jx

Autumn Blues

It may be my favourite season for many reasons but not least is the stunning shade of blue that the  sky is in Autumn; not the pale ice blue of Winter, nor the sweet forget-me-not blue of Spring or even the warm blue of Summer that you can't look at for too long but the mellow blue which frames the Autumn leaves so perfectly. I am outside so much at the moment cutting wood, picking fruit, walking JR and it is wonderful. After a couple of hours work outside my OH and I decided to go for a little drive and as we did we saw a pair of kites engaged in aerial acrobatics that would inspire the Red Arrows. Our drive took us past a beautiful old farm which made us think how great it would be to live in such a remote place then we drove through heather covered moorland. Where we live is quite out of the way but the more isolated places we visit the more we think we woud like to move even further out.

I feel so lucky to live here.

Last week we took to the water in the canoe while the munchkins were in school and it was exhilarating. It was a bit choppy so it was hard work but we saw a mass of ducks taking off from a small island on the loch and then on our way round we saw a massive heron flying low over the water. It really is food for the soul but then if these things are food for the soul then what would be the drinks for the soul? Well what can't be far off is the gorgeous elderberry wine we like from Cairn O'Mohr so we have been making yet more of our own home wine. Next year after drinking more of our own wine we may decide that it is the drink of a very troubled soul and never make another drop but so far we have been quite encouraged!

A friend of mine sent me a message asking if I wanted some plums from the tree in her garden so of course I said yes. The next day I collected the plums and found a recipe to try (here is the link...http://allotmentheaven.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/plum-wine-easy-recipe.html) and now I am waiting before I can add the sugar etc. I will keep you informed about any progress of that and the blackberry batch that is currently bubbling away. Hopefully we will try making some elderberry wine. That is the hope anyway. The juice carton wine made with apple is very nice, not particulalry alcoholic, very drinkable and not as much like cider as I thought it would be. We decided to make more of this although after trying the grape we were unsure about it so we are giving it a bit more time before trying it again in case it needs a bit longer to develope. I was surprised to have to buy more wine yeast as it does not feel like I have made that much wine yet but looking at all of the bottles in the cupboard I suppose I must have. A few years ago I gave a few demi-johns to a friend who was going to try a bit of brewing but she didn't ever get round to it so when she came up for the wedding she brought the demi-johns back which is handy considering how many are on the go at any one time now.


 

Tomorrow I will be opening up the bee hive for the last time this year and do the last things to prepare them for winter. I have been reassured that every time it is very windy or it snows I will worry about them and probably even lose sleep...they were right though, it is more of an obsession than a hobby. The second suit has arrived so next season munchkin the elder will be out with me, probably towering over me now she is so tall, as she plans to hold a frame of bees and get a good look at the girls as they go about their work. I bet it won't be long before she wants a hive of her own although she will most likely want to paint it pink.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Blackberry Time

It's officially Autumn here and it is wonderful slipping into the jobs that come with it. The fire is being lit now so wood needs to be brought in and I am still splitting it and stacking it in the wood shed. It turns out that while I enjoy exercise classes some of the time I would much rather do something with a visible result which also happens to exercise me and there is not much prettier than a good looking log stack. Yesterday after walking littlest munchkin to the bus stop with JR I picked lots of blackberries on the way back. People don't seem to do this as much as they used to maybe because you can buy them in the supermarkets now or maybe because they aren't sure what to look for. As a general rule I don't pick berries that are very close to the ground and I pick the shiny berries as the dull ones are usually past their best. It was a huge haul to the point where I had to use my newest pie dish.

 A quick wash and one easy crumble topping later it was all ready to go in the oven when the munchkins came home from school.

Finally after all these years I have worked out how best to carry the berries about; am I the only one who has found that they get squashed and drip out the bottom of plastic bags but carrying a bowl is awkward and impractical? Not any longer. When I was crafting with the munchkins we took two old t-shirts each and repurposed them and one of the things was a bag. This bag is the perfect size to hold one plastic pint size bowl which prevents the berries from getting squashed while being easier to carry than just a bowl.

This fabulous picture shows
you how to make one of these snazzy bags (please note the high quality of the graphics).

Now JR was very patient with me as I picked the blackberries but that could have been just because he was sniffing for the rabbits who live next to the dried stream bed where the blackberries grow. How is it he likes to eat raspberries but will not eat blackberries? Very odd.


As well as baking fruit based puddings I have been crafting even more than usual, partly to get ahead for Christmas gifts and partly because I need to feel productive every waking moment. Whenever I see fabric packs or yarn on offer I will buy it and add to my stash of crafty things. One such fabric pack was a pretty red and white printed fabric charm pack that I turned into a quilted runner for the kitchen table for putting hot dishes on when we sit down to eat and here are a few pics...

Okay so that last pic was of my sewing machine but I am so proud of myself for changing the lightbulb and put it back together again without somehow breaking it that I had to show you. My gran told me when I moved out of home that a woman needs a sewing machine so she can make tablecloths, napkins, curtains and cushion covers so I saved up over three months and went and bought this machine which is still going strong fourteen years later.

Unfortunately when sewing the binding onto the runner I stabbed my finger with the most vicious needle you have ever seen in your life and had to administer emergency wine to stop the bleeding...then an extra glass to test out the runner when it was finished.

see? a terrible injury!

things were getting really tough...

ahh..the finished item works just fine.

That is about all at the moment. I will be back soon with more fruit-related tales.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx

Creating a buzz

This is the time of year when a huge sense of relief usually settles on me; the munchkins go back to school. I feel guilty even as I write it but to be honest it has seemed to me that parenting is basically an exercise in guilt and sometimes it is more of an endurance exercise. As it is I feel relieved that they return to some sort of normal routine, that I do not have to try and work out how best to entertain them and that finally I can get the house tidied up a bit because the mess drives me crazy. This summer I actually gave up cleaning up after them and for the last week and a half of the holidays I decided to leave it all until they went back...then of course felt guilty for being so lazy that I was not prepared to spend two or three hours cleaning only to find it all made messy again before I had even sat down. Well this summer I have found it relaxing to be able to sit and watch the bees for half an hour or so every couple of days as it is almost a form of meditation watching them zoom in and out of the hive carrying different colours of pollen, looking in the hive when doing weekly checks and seeing all of the larvae and how far they have spread inside the hive. When I am not checking on my bees I am researching and reading about bees. It is hugely relaxing.

Pollen watching

My current reading book

 I brought a couple or drones in to the kitchen for the munchkins and my OH to hold so they could all get used to being around bees. Drones are the male bees and they do not have a sting so they can be handled without any fear whatsoever. This worked really well to calm everyone until they decided to explore the kitchen and JR ate them. It sounds cruel but it was very quick and I am not sure if they would have been accepted back into the hive by the workers if they smelled different or because it is the time of year when the workers usually get thrown out. Now seems as good a time as any to mention that I named the bees after characters in my favourite series; the workers are Esme (all of them), the drones are Ridcully and the queen is Granny. Gold stars to everyone who can name the series and author.

drone in my hand as I write out my hive check notes

I have a little folding stool that I take into the woods when I go t see the girls and I sit next to the hive and watch them for a while until I feel more relaxed and now JR comes too. He doesn't chase Esme and he doesn't try to eat the bees but he sits under the stool and watches them with me which is kind of nice. At the beginning of this week I went and did a hive check then spent an hour splitting wood (who needs the gym?) and after I filled the trailer I took it home and stacked it. My hope is to fill the wood shed and lose an extra inch or so from my waist but either way it is all good. As I was filling the trailer I saw this huge buzzing thing that was definitely not a bee, it was a wood wasp. They sound loud and look scary but they don't actually sting which is really reassuring when one lands on your leg because they are about 4cm long and it looks like they have a big sting but it is an ovipositor which she uses to lay her eggs on the pine tree. Still didn't like it though!

wood wasp with ovipositor clearly visible

In between the cleaning and hive checks there has been a rush in the Christmas crafting area. 'Why so early?' I hear you ask, well this year not only do I have  a lot of people to make things for but I am also hoping to make enough little things to have a stall at one of the local Christmas fairs so I had better start now if I want to be able to get it all done. In the past two weeks I have made one shawl, one pair of fingerless mitts and one toddler hooded cardigan for gifts as well as two baubles for the fair.

crocheted snowflakes and knitted 'scarf'

Looking back I can see it has been busier than I had thought. Oh well, time to go as I have some knitting to crack on with but that is after I go and pick a bunch of roses, the ones that were not ready for the wedding but will get ruined by the rain this afternoon if they are not picked.

Hugs from Haggis land,

Jx

larvae visible and a bee hatching in the top right corner

Beekeeper now

In case things were not hectic enough just before the wedding I decided to take a course about beekeeping. A friend of mine has several hives and suggested to me that the woods would be a good place for some hives so added to my interest in regenerating the woods, my love of honey and my interest in traditional past times it was only a matter of time. Years ago as a child I was stung twice when playing in an allotment not that it matters but I was right by the rhubarb so since then I have been very wary of bees but at some point in the last few years that has stopped and I cannot pin point when. The course was very well set out by the local beekeeper's association and in the afternoon we donned the massive suits and opened up the hives to take a look inside. It seems the tutors watch you as much as you watch them though and when I had gone to the loo I saw a small hive perched on a water butt only a few feet away and was completely absorbed by watching the girls zoom in and out with a funny wobble on the approach when they were fully laden with pollen, so much so that I did not see one of the course tutors watching me and how close I was to the hive without a suit on (about 10 inches). It makes sense that they want to check we do not freak out and panic when the bees fly close to us. JR doesn't join me when I do the checks as he likes to try and catch all flying things.

When I knew that I had a place on the course I bought a hive and a set of tools including the smoker and spent a couple of afternoons assembling it and my OH helped me to get it set up in the woods.

      

Once that was done I checked on the water situation as bees need a source of fresh water but not too deep as they will drown also they need a decent amount of forage so I tramped about to check what flowers were out and what they would have to keep themselves busy. Collecting my NUC (nucleus of bees, usually 5 frames of bees with a mated queen, bees and brood which is the sealed eggs) was nerve wracking and exciting in equal measure although the munchkins were not happy to have the sealed box in the back with them so they were put in the boot and wedged in so they wouldn't bounce about. Unsealing them was very unnerving too but my suit had not arrived by that point then transferring the frames into the hive was something I had skilled help with from my friend who had suggested bees to start with and her dad. My bees are Buckfast bees which have proven to be calmer, more productive and good in this climate. We have a very short season up in Scotland and a wet summer like this one can kill off whole colonies as they starve if they cannot get out to forage.

I have been going up to check on the girls as much as possible and keep the sugar syrup topped up to help them increase in numbers so they are prepared for the winter ahead. Luckily my OH encourages my fascination with these creatures and when I go to check on them I will sit next the hive afterwards and watch them bringing in pollen of many different colours.

Pausing after a long flight

Rush hour at the end of the foraging day

I wonder if they have flight control bees?

For some reason I thought it essential to keep a diary of each check, noting how much syrup they take down, how active they are, whether I see the queen, whether I get stung (not yet!), what colours of pollen they bring home. Identifying the pollen is interesting and I have already seen two types that are not found in the woods which shows that the girls are foraging a decent sized area. With the idea of regenerating the woods and providing good forage for the bees I have bought some wildflower seeds which are bee friendly and plants which are native to this area so next year I am hoping the girls will be making lots of honey. I have already seen lots of eggs which my queen has laid, lots of honey the girls have capped ready to get them through the winter. When my father in law was here he was very interested in the bees and came up to see them in their hive and took some pictures.

Yes, that's me in my suit, lifting out a frame to check it.

My suit is so comfy and I have lots of room to move, bend and lift, and do a funny space walk which I do every time. It was not the cheapest of suits but it is sturdy and should last a long time. https://www.bbwear.co.uk/beekeeping-clothing/fullsuits/bb1

The girls have drawn out the foundation wax and have started filling it with nectar. See the whitish line near the top? That is capped honey, three cells of it.

The view as I look in the brood box where they live. You can see which frames are new and which came with the NUC.

There will be updates and more photos if only because I have no pictures of the dark grey and white pollen they have been bringing in over the past two weeks.

Hugs from Haggis Land,

Jx