Deblyn

Thanks everyone! We had an interesting day (posted separately), not what "normal" couples would don on their "normal" anniversary, but there you go!!

Absolutely! Certainly not for chickens and children either! The fruit makes a lovely grown-up's pudding over vanilla ice-cream, I'v found. Or you can just eat it out the jar with a spoon like I do, to my eternal shame..................not!

Here you are Brigid - get all those plums ready! any fruit steeped in alcohol will produce a liqueur type drink after several months. Plums could be used with vodka, gin or brandy. Because vodka is flavourless, it is a preferred "carrier" for the fruit drinks so that you get as much fruit flavour as possible. Take your plums and prick each one several times with eg a darning needle or similar. Place in a wide neck jar; cover with the chosen alcohol. I use twice the level of alcohol to fruit. You can add some sugar if sweet drinks are liked - a couple of large sponnfuls should do it. I don't add sugar myself as I prefer the drinks without it. Put the lid on the jar and store in a cool dark place (exclude light to keep the colour), and shake gently once a week. After about three months, taste the drink and see if there is enough fruit flavour in it for you; if not, just leave it longer. If there is, strain out the liquid from the fruit and bottle it. Then drink it - just the thing in front of the fire on a winter's evening! The plums or other fruit can be eaten, but be wary of the alcohol strength - certainbly do not feed them to the chickens! Hope this helps - I'll come over at Christmas and test the results to see how you did...................! (Wouldn't you be surprised if I actually did!)

I've just gone and posted under the special signature thingy - never mind. I'll get the hang of this thing one day. I love the sig, it's great.

This is my very favourite time of year, when there is a perceptible change in the light; the harshness of high summer has gone, and the light is mellowing, especially in the morning - I love it. Some leaves have dropped, with the damson always being first of all. The leaves on the snake bark maple are turning colour and some have fallen already. Looking forward to when the trees we planted are big enough to produce enough leaves to make leaf mould for the garden! It's definitely cooler here too, which suits me better than the hot weather - I can get more done. I like all the season as each one has its own special things to offer.

Although we live in a rural area, our village itself lies mainly along an A road, which can be quite busy, although not as busy as the house where we lived before. Alot of the traffic is agricultural - feed lorries, tractors, combines, etc. It's busier in summer with lots of tourists about, and ofcourse there is the extra traffic from the pub. Our house sits 50 or so feet back from the pavement, so it's not too bad, although I think double glazing would make a difference inside the house! You don't notice it much when you are in the back garden. The Great Dorset Steam Fair finished yesterday and a lot of the traffic going back down to the West country goes past our door, so we have laods of vintage vehicles, tractors and steam traction engines trundling along and shaking the foundations - good fun!

Did anyone see the planet Mars on Saturday night? It's the clsoest it's been to earth in 60,000 years at the moment. We all went out to have a look - even I could see it without binoculars! We used the bins and hubby's telescope; you could see the shape of the planet itself and the red colour. I don't use this word very much, but it was awesome! Quite special.

What lovely pictures - you must be very proud! Loved the bikes too!

Bob is the foremost organic gardener in this country, and has a huge following, especially me! So much so I named a duck after him.................... Anyway, here is what Bob has been saying recently: "Gardening is about nurturing. I have always wwanted not just plants but all kinds of living things in my garden...... I sympathise with the English essayis Addison who declared' "I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs."." Bob Flowerdew's garden: "How you approach garden problems is a matter of perception. For example, an aphid attached to a honeysuckle plant does not necessarily destoy its value as a flowering plant. A large number of predators will breed on those aphids, and they in turn will g on to control aphids in the rest of the garden. The honeydew that the aphids produce encourages the soil to produce more nitrates, which feed the plant that has been debilitated by the aphid attack. Once it is understood that aphids are not so much a problem in themselves, but part of the system, then we can appreciate the wider benefits."

I found this in a magazine. The article is titled "Perspectives". Polystyrene(Styrofoam) can take about 500 years to break down in landfill. Americans throw away enough office paper each year to create a wall twelve feet high reaching from Los Angeles to New York City. Every ton of recycled paper saves almost 400 gallons of oil. a single chlorine atom can destroy over 100,000 ozone molecules. children from the Chernobyl area who spend four weeks a year away from home, eating uncontaminated food and breathing uncontaminated air can potentially increase their life expectancy by two years. Turning down your central heating thermostat by one degree can save as much as ten per cent of your fuel consumption. Wetlands are the second largest store of carbon in the world - but half of all the world's wetlands were destroyed in the 20th century. One hundred acres of land can produce enough beef to feed twenty people, or enough wheat to feed 240 people. One crop of hemp grown on one acre of land produces the same amount of pulpable fibre as one acre of twenty-year-old trees. In peninsular Malaysia, more tree species are found in 125 acres of tropical forest than in all of North America. About thirty per cent of the carbon that accumulates in the air each year comes directly from the continued burning of rain forests. Facts taken from One Makes A Difference by Julia Butterfly Hill, published by HarperSanFrancisco, priced $14.95

Every few weeks the pub here holds a quiz for teams of four members, where the proceeds go to charity. They held one last Sunday and we entered as a team - that's Mr Lowie, B and E - and we won! E was thrilled that there were some questions he could answer, inclduing one about the Titqnic, and B was good on general knowledge and wildlife. We got a bottle of champagne as a prize, which was duly shared out! The downside of winning is that we have to set the questions for the next quiz in about 4 weeks time, so I'll have to dig out some of my quiz books!

To keep the chill out (not that it ever gets that cold here in Dorset, really!) I make one or two liqueurs to drink over the winter. Today I made astart on them; bullace (wild plum) gin, bramble whisky, bramble vodka and sloe vodka. They need shaking and turning about three times a week and should be ready in time for Christmas. I also started elderberry wine and elderberry port, made damson jam and poached some pears to bottle.

My uncle died this morning, the seond death in the family in as many months. His wife has lost her sister (and best friend) and her husband in two months - my heart goes out to her. I will miss my uncle - he was always there, and had a great sense of humour; we got on well, and he liked his whisky! I hope to go to the funeral, but other members of my immediate family seem unable to make the effort, which makes me angry, It's their loss, though. Sad again. Crying.

Isn't it queit around here - is it because I am back online?!

Hmmmm........ thought I'd worked it out, but Deb's change d the rules again! (I think!)

Interesting stuff, there Hill; I will definitely go back and have another look. We were only talking about swallows flying low this evening. We have lots of similar weather lore. Instead of sailors we have shepherds, though - Red sky at night, shepherd's delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning. We make a cat a pair of breeches instead of trousers for sailors! It's great that information like this is available on the internet and will hopefully reach people, especially young people, who may otherwise not come across it. Thanks again.

Too late now for the little duck. He died within the last hour or so. I can only think it was some kind of stroke or similar. I'm sad.

One of my little silver Call drakes has suddenly lost the use of both of his legs and is unable to walk or even stand. Does anyone have any idea what may be wrong and what his chances of recovery may be? He's safe and sound in a cat basket in the shed at the moment and is drinking water. He is very quiet - he is usually quite vocal! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated - thanks.

That all sounds wonderful Lois! If we win the lottery one thing I would like to do is come over to America and visit all the women's gardens I have heard about on the internet and the forum boards. I get a picture in my mind's eye, but I am sure they would be different in reality, just like when you imagine what people look like! I'm a great squash fan and we eat quite a lot over the winter months. Not many people grow them here, and they should be more widely known. I grow pumpkins too, and have some bright orange onion shaped ones growing on the compost heap - they are almost ready to harvest now. They make brilliant soup, and I freeze quite a lot so it is easy to prepare in a hurry. I often add some curry spices (not to much ) to pumpkin or squash soups as I think the flavours really compliment each other.

This is the title of the Irish story I couldn't remember in my earlier post; it's by Mary Ryan and I really enjoyed this. It reminded me a bit of Mary Wesley's work. another one I recently enjoyed was called "Island Wife" by Jessica Stirling - set on the Scottish island of Mull in 1878. That was good too.

Thanks,Joan; I'll have a trawl in the library when we go on Friday next. I like reading what other women read and see if I like them too! I like a bit of light reading for the summer and save the more intellectual stuff for the longer winter evenings!

Hi Lois - funny you should mention that. Hubby has said a categorical NO to a hotplate or camping stove in case I burn the shed down and set fire to Dorset. Sad thing is he's probably right! However, the shed is only a stone's throw from the back door, so tea will still be hot when I get to where I'm going!!

Isn't it good and sensible when people share their surplus around to those who can use it? Most people in our village are very good. Our immediate neighbours however have five apple and one plum tree; they don't use the fruit, just let it fall on the ground and rot, then he runs it over with the lawn mower. It's a shicking waste really, but good for the wasps and butterflies. I got some a couple of years ago, but she doesn't talk to me now since her dogs killed two of my chickens. I'm still trying to work out how it was my fault!!!

This weekend we held a craft show over two days in our village hall. There were no prizes, or selling, just a show of the creative talent that lurks in our corner of Dorset! I put in my charm quilt, my Attic Windows patchwork hanging, a basket, a apinting, a drawing, a selection of knitted dishcloths, a knitted lace scarf, my tapestry cushion of a medieval hare (my favourite!) and several samples and cross-stitch pictures. Other exhibits were paintings and drawings, quilts, patchwork, stained glass, crochet, leatherwork, knitted toys, Christmas decorations, woodwork. It looked lovely all set up together and we served Dorset cream teas ( cup of tea and home-made scones with jam and cream yummy!) for the customers. Everyone really enjoyed the show of talent and was quite impressed. I got a couplke of commissions from it - one for quilting and one for knitting, so that was good. Some time between now and Christmas we are going to have a Christmas craft fair, so I will rent a table on that and make myself a bit if dosh I think!

..is now finished; I put it in the craft show we just had this weekend. Everyone was very interested in the fact that all the quares came formAmerica via the Internet! It looks very pretty and is about to adorn our bed. I machined the squares together, bought a small piece of dark purple as a border, then a border of pink stripe from a sheet I had that had worn through. It is hand-tied at the corners of the squares. The backing is a very pretty blue floral fabric which was an unwanted duvet from a friend. I will try and get a picture of it if I can, but not sure if it will work as we have no e-mail at the moment. Will have a go though. Anyone else worked on theirs ?