jam and jerusalem

Look at my gorgeous, new look Tales from the Village! The blog has been beautified by Liz at Violet Posy Design who is psychic, I think. And a bit of a kindred spirit, too. If you haven’t visited her blog Violet Posy you must. She loves all the stuff I do, and she’s a Doctor Who geek too.

Meanwhile, back to life in the village. I have to confess that although I haven’t yet joined The WI (or Women’s Institute, as it used to be known) I suspect it won’t be long. You know you’re being lured in when the reports in the village newspaper of what they’re up to sound quite tempting. And Jerusalem is one of my favourite hymns, so I would love that bit. (Do they still sing it? My singing is so spectacularly bad that it’d probably be best for everyone if they gave it a miss.)

Anyway, I digress. This week’s theme at Tara’s Gallery is Food.

So here I am again, harping on about getting out into the countryside and picking it. It’s there, it’s free, nobody minds if you pick it as long as you stick to The Countryside Code. The blackberry jam I’ve made from these berries is a million times nicer than anything you could buy in the supermarket, and with no pesticides and a million times more vitamins. (disclaimer: I have no idea if that’s true, but I sort of think it ought to be)

I may even enter the WI Real Jam Festival. It’s a slippery slope, isn’t it? Oh dear.

a tale from the village

Once upon a time there was a girl with four children and about a million animals. She was very tired because her husband had disappeared to New York to do, er, whatever-it-is-he-does (even he can’t describe his job) and looking after four children was rather wearing. So instead of going to bed she stayed up playing on the internet and drooling over plant websites. And then, because she was one of those irritating people who gets excited about Christmas in September, she decided to start a wish list.

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my front garden

You’ve all seen photos of my back garden which has lavender bushes and redcurrant bushes and clematis and alchemilla mollis and is rather lovely, if I do say so myself. But my front garden is – well, my front garden isn’t anything.

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an autumn day

This is why I love living here. This was taken from my front driveway. 

I went for a dog walk with my friend Jane and her gorgeous new Cocker Spaniel puppy.

I found a blackthorn bush absolutely groaning with sloes, so I’m going to take the children for a walk this weekend and collect them for sloe gin. I’ve collected some sloe recipes (sloe and crab apple jelly sounds gorgeous)  and I’ll be putting them on here at the weekend. Yummy.

Isn’t she gorgeous? It’s virtually impossible to get a photo of her though, because she’s so zoomy and squirmy and allovertheplace-y. Polly tolerates it for so long, but then she gets a bit disapproving. 

Breakfast was handfuls of brambles, and my hands are still stained purple this afternoon. By the way, if you are out picking this weekend, here’s the recipe for blackberry vodka which you can make now and it’ll be ready to drink by Christmas. (Only 99 days, not that I’m counting – well, actually, I am, and I am sooo excited!)

Ooh, I love autumn. I took all these photos with the iphone whilst I was out, so they’re a bit fuzzy around the edges, but never mind. It was such a beautiful day I wanted to share it.

a celebration of family

The theme today at Tara’s Gallery is Celebration.
My (eminently sensible, clever, wonderful) mum pointed out that instead of being maudlin yesterday about it being four years since my dad died, I should be remembering the lovely things about him. And there were lots of lovely things.
So here’s to my dad, to my gorgeous sister Zoe, and most of all, actually, to my mum, who is all things to her two daughters and doesn’t get enough thanks. And who was, as ever, behind the camera when this celebration was happening back in 1978.