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