Pickled Beetroot amongst the bustle.

What a lovely day it was yesterday.  Cool, with a little breeze.  Different neighbours popping in and out feeding Daisy their garden leftovers or borrowing hay making tools.  Yesterday I felt for the first time as though I was part of my little local rural community.  And that is hard as a foreigner in a Mid West region. People are close here. They only mind their own business.

Still, I spent a lot of the afternoon in the kitchen. Bottling more summer sauce. Beetroot and onion pickled in a jar. Look at that colour.  (If  you want the recipe email me, it is very simple and old fashioned). And a fresh farmers cheese flavoured with fresh rosemary for Friday cocktail hour. John bought me a pomegranate liquer as a treat so the beets and the drink looked lovely together.

The times allotted for chores went smoothly. Slightly less to do nowadays as we slide into late summer. Poor Hairy MacLairy with all those girls parading along the fence.  Shall I test you on their names or would that be cruel. 

I will write the names of all the sheep in this order at the end of the post.  See how you do. You can pretend I am a maths book and check your answers at the end, after trying to solve the problem by yourself. Though I am not sure I can write the answers upside down!

And look. How pathetic. 

ViV.. here is my lemon tree.. oh dear, it did not like the heat AND horrors of all horrors it is three years old so it does not like my wintry window either.. what am I doing wrong?

I have loaded the My Community widget (Thank you Gerry) because it will be easier for you all to find other people as you wander about the pages.  You have helped to develop a vibrant Farmy Support Group here and this way we can all visit the quiet ones too. And it is wonderful for me to see who is popping in too and maybe pop back when the internet is not at a crawl..

The clouds followed us about all day, with nary a drop! But I have a feeling that we have turned a corner in the weather scene. Our heatwave is over. Can you bear to Touch Wood just once more! Are we over-using this charm!? Little showers might come more often now wouldn’t that be nice and it is downright chilly sitting here at dawn this morning. Which is great for my seedlings.

We are having visitors this week so I am making more yoghurt this morning so that I can make another fresh cheese tomorrow.  That one will be made with fresh jalapeno.  The menus are written and so we will begin the cooking for the week on Sunday. I asked my Eldest Son who comes Monday what he would like to eat  and he said ‘MEAT!’  Well, I think I can manage that.   I also have more teenage visitors this weekend and they are taking over the kitchen (YAY) so we will eating at the other spectrum this weekend as the head cook is vegan… fine with me!  She is going to have a good rummage through the gardens and cook with whatever she finds.

So the house is full to bursting, the gardens are growing, cheeses are settling, today’s summer tomato sauce in the pot is already bubbling,  the chickens are laying, the gardens are weeded, The Shush Sisters are filthy, Daisy is waiting to be milked and TonTon has not been skunked for two whole days.  Best I get busy then. Anything could happen!

Have a lovely day.

celi

On this day last year I had received my disastrous lens extension thingies and was innocently searching for the shot.  There is a priceless image of a bee in a flower! And a warning for us all. Never buy extension thingies for your lenses. There is one so completely stuck onto my good zoom lens that I have not been able to use it  (the zoom) for months now, it took me days just to get it off my camera. I need to find someone who can fix it. But camera/lens repair people are few and far between!  Rare as hens teeth.

OK the sheep’s names. I bet most of you got them right! Mama (well you ALL got that right!).  Meadow. Mia (who is as big as her mother now) and Minty bringing up the rear.  How did you do?

c