En vacance

I would truly recommend the south of France at the end of the summer. The buzz of the tourists have died down and the kids are back to school, so it's a lot more laid back - décontracté, as the locals would say.




Grecia has a good scratch and yawn


Figs from the tree

Listening to the owls and watching the bats

Anyone know what these beetles are? They are everywhere - always attached to each other or sucking the insides out of these seedlings

I'd gladly have a Gladiolus

These flaming crimson swords, part of the Iris family, are very underrated in my view. They are really rather beautiful, and jolly cheap for the amount of flower you get for your money.

Maybe people think of them as common, old fashioned, and remind them of dusty grannies, I don't, but then I also like Pinks, Chrysanthemums and Geraniums and I am rather fond of dusty grannies, as I don't possess any anymore.

A beetroot smile

I kid you not, I did not arrange this bootiful beetroot in the bottom of the bowl (check out that illiteration). I was just preparing my lunch and took one of the baby beets out and it left a smile stain. I am a bit sad taking a picture, I know, but it might be because I've just had my new Canon 500D Rebel (it's even got a cool name) delivered and I felt like taking pics and playing around with smears of betalain pigments rather than eating them.

Which I did eventually, and it was quite nice.

My Jam Jar wedding

Stitch and I (code I used when our blossoming friendship was hush hush) are getting married, hoorah!

Ideas for my wedding in May 2010 include a jumble of jam jars, pretty peonies, sprawling hydrangeas, tea-lights, lanterns, and spotty ribbons. A Mad Hatter's Tea party but with champagne, bunting and hay bales - a British country spring day that's sassy not sophisticated, rustic and fun, flowing with flowers.

I'll be updating this wedding blog throughout the year.....any suggestions, ideas and inspirations are welcome...

The wedding will be held in a little Cotswold village, the ceremony in the local church and reception at my parent's lovely Cotswold cottage...well it will be lovely when it's ready. It's patient exterior is strapped in by scaffolding, it's stone work climbed on by roofers, and it's interiors muddied by builder's boots.



Stitch and I visited a few weekends ago to check out the seasonal foliage, get a feel for the site, meet the vicar, caterer and marquee peeps. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny weekend. We camped in the garden, got sun-kissed, drank lots of wine and had lunch with (mostly) all the parents - there are a lot!





We shared our campsite with mooing highland cows, dozing dogs and screechy birds.




Moving the table to the bottom of the garden by the stream, we lunched on barbecued sausages, and roast lamb followed by strawberries, then took a stroll to the beautiful church where we become man and wife!





A nice walk back with the future father in law




We were joined by a huge audience of moo cows at the end of the evening.

Ooh I love a peony, so creamy.

Chilli chilli jam jam

I don't really like jam, you know the sweet stuff you have for breakfast or maybe at tea time, if you are a little bit peckish. I would have Marmite or tomatoes (ripe and raw of course, with olive oil, basil and sea salt) on toast because I am a savoury girl. But the exception to the rule is chilli jam oozing with crushed garlic and lip-tingling fresh chilli, with a hint of Nam Plaa and red wine vinegar, and of course, huge amounts of brown sugar. This goes brilliantly with your favourite cheese...and I have a few favourites.

I used Scotch Bonnet chillis, mainly because that's all my corner store stocks - they give one hell of a kick, if you'd like something a little more subdued try a few birdseye or whatever you find in your local shop.

Do not follow recipes to an inch of their life! Experiment and learn for yourself. It helps to have approx ingredients and instructions, but I find things take longer than people say they do - my chilli jam takes a few hours before it turns into a delicious jammy, sticky substance and it tastes different every time I make it. You might want to add ginger or red peppers for your next attempt...

Ingredients

• about 1kg ripe tomatoes (this makes 3/4 smallish jars)
  
• 5 Scotch Bonnet chillies or 8/9 red chillies
  
• 5 garlic cloves
• 50ml Nam Plaa (Thai fish sauce)
• 300g brown sugar (you can use castor sugar)
  
• 100ml red wine vinegar

Method

Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for 5-10 min until the skins are ready to peel off - drain, and let them cool a little before you take the skins off.

Peel and roughly chop the garlic and chillis, you can add the seeds depending on how hot you want it. Be careful what you do with your fingers for several hours afterwards, even though I'd washed mine, my fingers were still full of heat all evening!

Puree the tomatoes, chillies, garlic and Nam Plaa in a food processor or blender until you have a smooth puree.

Place the puree, sugar and vinegar in a large saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, stirring regularly with a wooden spoon. When boiling reduce to a slow simmer and leave to cook for about an hour and a half (or longer). Remove any scum that rises to the top and stir regularly. The cooking smells are divine!

Remove from the heat and pour into sterilised jars, when at room temperature store in the fridge until ready to use.

By the way I just use any jars (peanut butter, mayonaise etc) that I have stashed away for these purposes - any shape or size - washed and the labels peeled off (after a good soak in the sink with hot, soapy water). They make great presents, especially with a ribbon.

Water Babies

A few weeks ago, I noticed, to my surprise some see-through jelly-like blobs on the inside of my Goldfish bowl, and they were filled with lots of minuscule white dots.

Not being completely au fait with Goldfish reproduction I immediately and excitedly assumed Flash and Gordon were not only a mixture of male and female but also expecting... After much Googling, it was agreed that the eggs belonged to the unassuming water snail that hitched a ride on my pond plants without me noticing, a few months back. My disappointment gave over to a feeling of pride for my clever mollusc. He/she had been very busy with her/himself!




I'd waited as long as possible for the babies to squeeze themselves out of the jelly cocoons but the fish were getting pretty filthy in their fishy slick and it was time for their monthly bath. Luckily I had a smaller Goldfish bowl from when the fish were young, and transported as many tiny snails as I could, grasping any hard little shells I found amongst the floating gubbins. Now I have a bowlful of about 20 baby snails (see first pic for the tiny dark spec).

Uh oh, is that another freshly delivered blob I see clinging to the sides of the bowl...I know you are clever and fertile, but please give it a rest. Anyone know what type of snail I have? Any advice on mollusc motherhood?