So the story continues ....

At 1 o'clock the crane arrived and was positioned in the front garden.

Six men were needed to carry the roof light to its lifting cradle 

Then six men watched 1 man working .....

and finally the roof light started to rise ......

up and over to the other side of the house ....

Then the tricky bit with telephone contact to control the lowering  ....

until it was almost in position

Phew! It worked!!

The rain came down later in the day, by which time the glass roof was secure.

Quite an exciting day!

Neighbours having an extension!

First: - Order your roof light.
Second:- Puzzle over how to get it on your new roof.  (the bit with grey bricks)

After much head-scratching (and I might add hair-pulling!) over design of support cradle and the logistics of lifting and careful despositing of roof light ..... pondering was over and a decision made. 
Hire a crane to lift  the roof light high over the top of the house and lower it 'blind' into place.  There's not a lot of space on the roof top for juggling!

Now on to Rosehips ....

I remember having Hagebutter Mark (Rosehip jam) as a child, and I remember my Mum telling me that when she was pregnant it was one of the things that she 'craved'!
So, off to collect a bag of rosehips - just the perfect time for harvesting as they are bright red and the calyx dried.  
First job was to carefully 'top and tail' the hips, a job that gave me neck ache.
Then for each 1lb of hips add a cup of water and bring to the boil and boil gently until the hips are soft.

 Then the hips have to be boringly pushed through a sieve to obtain the smooth hip puree and the pips are discarded.

In my picture it looks a bit like tomato paste .... anyway the stuff in the sieve was thrown away on the compost heap.

 Now the sugar is added.  To each pint of puree add 1 lb of granulated sugar.  Slowly bring the temperature up to boiling (so the sugar doesn't burn) and the colour will darken and the jam thicken.  I think I boiled it for about 12 minutes.

Finally pot and label in hot, sterilised motley bunch of jars!

 And I created a childhood memory.  Beautiful.

Quinces - lots of them!

Making Quince Jam and slow-cooked Quince slices ....

First pictures and maybe tomorrow I'll add some more!

Start of the jam ....this is the grated quince boiled for 12 minutes and waiting for the sugar ....

And this is the part-cooked slices, which should end up a deep carnelian in colour.  Slow cooking at its most useful.

 See you tomorrow!

Fruits of labour?

After my last blog, I went out and started hacking at the triffid-like growth .... then did some picking ....

here's the bowl full and then here's the courgettes with the 'snail' damage

 and finally, the fabled achocha!

They look lovely, but have been a HUGE disappointment in the culinary sense.
Growing like a triffid all across the back of the garden, producing fruit in enormous number and ending up as a huge big fat zumper.

Today, overcast, raining, spitting and dribbling.  So, made an Apple cake with 'cookers' from the garden and a cinnamon streusel topping.  It tastes delicious, and when we eat it with some whipped cream later .... it will be magnificent!

 

Over and out! 

 

Death to the invading achocha!

Decided to kill off the achocha that's slowly killing off my new trees by strangulation  ...
Will take the camera down the garden and record 'death by chopping!' 

Knee update

Knee hurts when I press on it.  Not made of rubber.

Fell off bicycle today

Wobbled off and fell sprawling onto the pavement on Kingston Bridge.  I'd started off, then veered to the left, hit a 1" ledge and lost it!
How embarrassing, but only a grazed knee! 
Got back on the bike and peddled home.  Had a cup of tea. 

Beans, beans, beans!

Allotment beans!   Thankyou to Adrian.
(Don't worry about the brown/scarred parts - just beauty failings, not flavour failings!)  
My first Cookery 'How To' blog! 
Top and tail, then wash ....

 Cut the beans small

 Put in boiling water for 3 mins

Drain and pour over COLD water

 Drain the lovely green part-cooked beans

Bag, bag, bag ...

Finish and freeze!

Pop in freezer without any labels!  Too lazy for that, anyway got to do the washing up!

Nice day outside, sun shining although it doesn't feel very summery. 

Guernsey days

Lovely few days in Guernsey (not the weather though!)  Doing Granny and Gpa duties.  Time on the beach building sand castles ,a bus journey to Town and then Castle Cornet and the loud bang of the Noon day Gun.
All went well ............ here's the bathtime pics

Nearly August - where does time whizz to?

Time to do a bit of catch-up.
Sorted out 'Blue shed' aka 'Conservatory' to make room for the arrival of 3 big mahogany chests full of shells.  Brian can do sorting, photographing, cataloging, advertising and ultimately selling from there!!  Laptop works out there and it's warm.  Lucky him.

Me, I'm still faffing with making curtains for the spare bedroom etc.  Only just coming up to 2 years since I had some of the material!  I need a bomb-let to get me 'needling' again!  My mum used to call it 'needling' Aaah.

Booked to go to Spain in September.  Taking up the Hotel we paid for last time and  then had to cancel. @Spect the countryside won't look as green as in May, but the towns will be just as beautiful and mellow. 

Would have been my Dad's 100th Birthday today!

A picture says it all!  Big hug and kisses xxx

 

This is the path devastated by laurel hedge cut down

Here's the path ... then it rained so no cleaner yet.

 

Sale price camellias!

Just went to local garden centre and bought 5 camellias at £5.00 each.  Brilliant.
But I couldn't resist a glorious orange Campsis for the back of the garden.  That was £19.99 - but I hope well worth it for the showy blousy nature of the plant.  Think the bees will love it too!
It's raining now and so I can't take a pic, but I'll do one tomorrow.

Trying to put up a pic

I will show you a patch at the bottom of the garden - first just to try it all out!

 

Hedge down

Paid a bloke to take down the thug of a Laurel hedge on the west side of the property.  There's still a hedge behind it, easier to cope with as it's privet.
Makes the side of the garden look a bit empty! 
Will try a photo!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 

Freshly laid eggs

Bright yellow yolks from foraging and pecking around.  I heard somewhere that eating melon seeds gave chickens those coveted golden yolks.  Funny how we like the brown shelled eggs, whereas in some other countries they like white shells.
All down to conditioning!


My mum used to write the date of lay in pencil on the outside of the eggs.
I was going to say that Mr F. Fox was to blame for the demise of the Woking girls.  Their gorgeous names didn't save them from him.  Muses all; Penelope, Clio, Thalia, Caliope and Erata. (There must have been another but her name has gone heavenwards with her.)
Ah! who can fail to be delighted by the absurdity of energetic scratching followed by quick reverse running steps to see what has been uncovered!  Certainly not me.  Or the girls crazy, delighted race when I opened the back door,  ever hopeful of some kitchen scraps.

Thoughts on chickens ...

What colour shall I write in? What's a 'chickeny' colour?




As a kid my parents kept Rhode Island Reds - it was after the War and many people kept chickens for their eggs as a supplement when food stocks were scarce. Of course they had names ... but my favourite old girl was 'Biddy'. Laid an egg on the day she died. (of old age!)



Then in the bright and interesting days of the 80's, in urban Woking - no less, I decided to give a home to half a dozen girls who were being chucked out of their deep litter system, after a year of laying.


I had no part in their choosing, so when we opened the box we were shocked to see the 6 hens had about 10 feathers between them .... and it was autumn and the nights .... were fair drawin' in!