Strawberries in November

 I had a lovely time working in the garden today. Imagine my surprise to find a big ripe strawberry. It was as sweet as anything and a real treat. I don't think there's going to be anymore this late in the year 

Quinces and chillis

 On Friday at our folk dance club one of the ladies happened to mention that she's had a great crop of quinces this year. When I said that I'd love to make membrillo she offered to drop some off for me.  I kind of expected about a half dozen.  Today this lovely kind lady dropped off 7.5kg of them. Now I need to buy some extra sugar to make the membrillo. The house is filled with the most amazing fragrance from the quinces. And I've picked a load of chillis to dry for the winter 

 

Thoroughly lovely evening

 Tony and have been to our folk dancing club this evening and had a thoroughly lovely time.  We learn new dances every week amid much hilarity.  It's such a lovely group of people and we've made many new friends there. It seems no time since last Friday when we were there. I've also been to whist today but numbers were down so we played Oh Hell instead. Again, they're such nice people there and I always enjoy their company. 

Tomatoes

 Just when I thought I'd seen the last of the tomatoes. Look what I picked today.  I thought there'd only be a little handful so imagine my surprise to find this little bounty. They'll need to ripen before we eat them but they will be a nice addition to salads

And here is the box for my new Christmas decorations. It's really sturdy but I do need to make a nice eye-catching label for it.

A new project

 Yesterday Tony and I called in to a local garden centre and saw these sweet little china vegetable decorations. 

They needed a box so I've used up some of the packaging from the wardrobe to create a polystyrene tray. 

Then I used some of the cardboard box from the wardrobe to make a box to put them all in

 It's currently drying before I do the pretty bit of decorating the box.. I want to reinforce all the corners as I want the box to last for a very long time 

Wind damage

 I hope you all stayed safe during the storms. Thankfully the only damage we suffered was the loss of my beautiful sunflower.  I was bitterly disappointed but thankful that nothing was damaged

And isn't this a great use of a wasted hallway.  We're treating it more like a room than an entrance hall.  We're gradually adjusting our home to make better use of unused spaces. It's so nice to see our winter coats hung up on coat hangers rather than crammed onto hooks in the back of doors. The shoes and boots fit perfectly in the drawers. We have one drawer each so there's no fighting for space.                              

I salvaged the flowers from the sunflower and they've filled quite a few vases.

Clocks back

 Did you remember to put the clock back.  It means of course that it will get dark much earlier.  We've dug out a pile of jigsaws and last night we lit the fire. It felt wonderfully cosy.

I picked up a couple of bargains in Aldi on Friday. If my freezer wasn't absolutely stuffed full of home grown vegetables I'd have bought more. Pork is really cheap anyway and very tasty.                                                                         

 Today we're popping out to a local garden centre to buy some violas. It's time for a freshen up of my winter pots.

We spent yesterday afternoon putting together a small flat pack wardrobe.  It fits really well in our entrance hall and we've filled it with coats and shoes. I'll take a photo and show you what it looks like.  We never use the front door so the hallway was a large wasted space and we're trying to use the space we have in a far more constructive way. 

Home grown lunch

 I'm cooking liver and chips for tea tonight. That meant we'd only want a light lunch and utterly delicious it was too. Everything on the plates  grown  by me.  Sweet potato fries,  sauerkraut, pickled beetroot, pickled cucumber with mint, fermented tomatoes and a tiny cluster of grapes. I can't remember the last time I did a big shop as we've been eating fresh fruit and veg from the garden for months. Our freezer is absolutely full of home grown veg and I've shelves filled with pickles and fermented fruit and veg. 

Bit of a dilemma

 Next month Tony turns 70 and I wanted to buy him something really special. Off we went to Ripon to a lovely shop that sells really nice booze. He chose a bottle of whisky and I paid for it. When we got home I had a quick look online and discovered that I could have bought the exact same bottle for £30 cheaper. I could have kicked myself for not looking first.  But then I stopped and thought about it. The shop owner has huge overheads and needs to make a living. Do we really want to lose all the lovely little independent traders. I came to the conclusion that those of us that are lucky enough to be able to swallow the cost should probably do that. 

And here's my little fresh picked harvest for today

And here's yesterday's fresh harvest.  The sprouts are a bit strong tasting and I'm hoping that they will sweeten up a bit when the frost arrives. If not I'll just compost them. The carrots were absolutely beautiful. 

Patching jeans

 I've had a right old hand sewing session this morning.  I've taken up a pair jeans, a pair of trousers and two sets of pyjamas for Tony. Then I patched a pair of jeans and some 'working in the garden' trousers.  I've got a few fleece tops to shorten but that can wait for another day. 

The garden still looks really pretty but I don't think it'll last much longer as I'm really noticing how much cooler it is.