Scotch Eggs

 While shopping in Sainsbury's this morning (half price legs of lamb with a nectar card) I picked up a tray of pork stuffing balls. This afternoon I'm having a cooking day and have just squished the stuffing balls around some hard boiled eggs, coated them in beaten egg, rolled them in sage and onion stuffing and popped them in the air fryer.

And while they were cooking I peeled and chopped a load more quinces. They're currently simmering on the stove where they'll will continue to cook for at least two hours.  I'm making more membrillo after discovering how utterly delicious it is. 

Membrillo and quince jam

 Yesterday I spent most of the day making a batch of membrillo and a couple of little jars of quince jam. It's not something I'd ever made or even tasted before. It's a long drawn out process but the end result is utterly delicious.  It's set now like a very firm jelly and apparently will store for a long time. I could even pop it into my dehydrator to create fruit leather if the urge takes me. Half way through the process I put some into little jars as it's got a great set. I'm planning on cutting a block of the membrillo and giving it, and one of the little jars, to the lady that gave me the fruit.

Here's how I made it

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.

Lovely autumn harvest

 We're back to normal after spending a lovely few days away. I popped out into the garden to pick some veggies to add to a pan of soup. The chard is so colourful and the carrots are incredibly sweet.  Nothing like the tasteless ones sold in supermarkets.  There were plenty of windfall apples and pears too. I took the last of the grapes off the vine.  I've given it a really good trim and hopefully it'll be very productive next year. 

A visit to York

 We've spent the day in York today and thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the historic sites. Tony bought me a lovely warm coat which will be perfect for walking in cold, wet weather. We stood and watched a street entertainer and it looks pretty impressive.  Unfortunately we saw a similar thing many years ago. A power outage killed the sound so it became obvious that the entertainer wasn't actually playing the pipes. Can't say for certain that this chap was faking it but we're highly suspicious.

The Minster never fails to impress me.

Beautiful art deco hotel

 Tony and I are having a few days away from home. Our friends Deb are Phil are staying in Doncaster and asked if we fancied meeting up in York.  We decided that we'd visit Doncaster and stay in a hotel close to theirs. They came up on the train on Monday and we're taking them to York for the day tomorrow. Our hotel is really lovely and far nicer than we expected for the amount we paid. We won't be booking breakfast at £17.50 each.  We aren't really breakfast eaters but will have a coffee and cake when we get to York. It'll be considerably cheaper and we'll be ready to eat something by then

My smashing jewellery/makeup cabinet

 On Saturday my new drill got its first tryout.  I put up my lovely new mirrored cabinet. 

I've replaced the mirror that was there originally.  The cabinet hardly takes up any wall space and is really useful for storing some of my bits of jewellery 

Beautiful colours in my garden

 Yesterday I had a visit from fellow YouTuber Jenny #jennyfromtheplot . We had so much fun chatting and wandering around my garden.  Check out her channel and subscribe if you like a fun lighthearted gardener.  And I'd love it if you subscribed to my channel  #mybeautifulediblegarden. And speaking of my garden. Isn't it colourful.  I'm really going to miss all the colour when the first frost arrives.

Upcycled make-up compact

 You all know that I can't look at something without wondering how I can reuse it. When my make-up compact was finished I couldn't bring myself to throw it away as I knew I'd be able to do something with it. I've turned it into a tiny garden handbag mirror.  It's a gift for a fellow gardener and I hope it makes her smile every time she uses it. It just needs a little polish before I wrap it.

Bought myself a drill

 A couple of weeks ago I  bought a mirror fronted jewellery/makeup cabinet to hang on the bedroom wall.  It's sat in the bedroom since then. Today I decided that I'd hang it on the wall. Unfortunately I couldn't find the small drill and the big drill is just too heavy for me to handle safely.  When Tony came home I asked where the small drill was. He's chucked it out... grrrrrr. He asked what needed it for and I told him. Did he offer to hang the cabinet????? Nope.  He watched me order a small drill online. Thank goodness I'm handy with a power tool. 

Crikey it's cold this morning

 Last night Tony and I danced our legs off at our absolutely favourite ceilidh.  It was a really good fun multicultural ceilidh and a group of young Indian and African students from the local University came along. They joined in with most of the dances and clearly had enormous fun. If only the TV news would actually show that people of all nationalities are happy to mix. I'm sick to death of watching miserable awful divisive news. I worry that we're being pushed into the unthinkable horror of war. 

Now that October is well underway the garden is starting to feel the nip of the cooling temperature. I wanted to make sure that I have a record of Sweetpeas growing in my garden in October.  If you haven't seen the videos of my garden on YouTube please pop over and have a look. I'll be uploading some more changes in the model garden in the next few weeks. You'll find me at

mybeautifulediblegarden 

And here's how my garden is looking this morning on the 4th of October