Deblyn

for making jam and preserves ofcourse!! I made rhubard and ginger and blackcurrant recently, and have been given a bag of runner beans which I will make into chutney I think. I made 10lbs of orange marmalade, sold some and stored the rest. We get through quite a lot of marmalade. I will do some tomato sauce for the freezer, and have found a nice recipe for courgette (zuchinni) cake, so I can use my surplus for that and put them in the freezer. I have been proimised a load of cooking apples too my a lady who has recently moved into the village but lives on her won, so doesn't need them all. I will barter them for some hand-knitted dishcloths which I know she likes! The blackberries are ripening well; the lady whose garden is beside the village hall invited B to hop over the fence and pick from her garden - big juicy cultivated ones, lovely! I will cook them with apple and probably bottle them for winter puddings. Can't have too many brambles! The elderberries are almost ripe too - more jam chutney etc coming up. I had to put up a notice in the post office asking people for their spare jam jars!!

As part of my spring fling parcel (that was a wonderful experience - thanks again Westie!), she sent me some lovely seeds for the garden. One packet was for a winter squash called Lakota. These have done really well and I have quite a few, with two almost ready for cutting. They are orange and slightly ridged, flecked with green. They are very pretty and if they taste as good as they look I will be well pleased. They even look like the picture on the packet - always a bonus for me!

Last week I got a lovely surprise in the mail - a parcel of three gardening books as a prize for taking part in a survey in my organic gardening magazine; totally unexpected. One book is on container gardening throughout the year, some of it in diary form, written from a novice point of view; eg the author kept a diary of her tomato seedlings etc. It jogs the memory as to how wonderful nature is if you take the time to observe closely. Ofcours, the wonder never really goes. Another book was on biodynamic gardening. I have a couple of books on this alread, but they are quite learned tomes; this is like biodynamics for the beginner, which explains the basic principles and theories clearly and is well - illustrated. Quite inspiring. The third one is a book on harvesting and storing your produce which I was going to buy anyway, so that was nice. It's highly entertaing but informative at the same time. New bookshelf is now required!!! Again.............

Is anyone else interested in Biodynamic gardening? My reading suggests that is is the next logical step forward for my gardening - the ultimate organic gardening techniques. Looking at it another way, though, it could be seen as a step backwards, closer to the very earth and the way you interact with her, using the stars and moon phases to choose which work to do in your garden.

My garden is very dry at the moment, but I am please with the way most of the veg has stood up to not being watered much (not at all really apart from a few brief showers of rain!!). This is because of all the compost and mulch I use, so that really does work. I have been picking the following over the past few weeks: tomatoes (Brandywine and others), courgettes, apples, French beans, runner beans, Florence fennel, onions, shallots, lettuce, cucumber, herbs, autumn raspberries. The squash are looking very promising for the winter - and now I have a new shed to store them in, so that's a help. The sweetcorn should be ready soon (not quite there yet), and there are lots more beans to come. How is everyone else's garden doing?

Is there going to be another choice in the book reading circle again?

Without the computer over the past seven weeks or so I have got through over thirty books; some fiction and some non-fiction. One I would recommend for anyone sho likes nature and gardening is called "Cultivating Delight" by Diane Ackerman; it's a lovely detailed observant book about the comings and goings in the author's garden - squirrels, birds, etc as well as plants. I really enjoyed it and she is a very good writer. One review says it is the kind of book only a poet could write, and only another gardener could appreciate. "Turning the Tables" is a book of recipes and reflections from women, published in 1987; it has a aprt about the women who have given the recipes ,followed by the recipes themselves. I really enjoyed this one, and will keep it with my other cookbooks. One book I would thoroughly recommend as very informative and entertaining is "A Whistling Woman is Up To No Good - finding your wild woman"; this is a great book. However, as I read through it I realised I had done a lot of the things already - enough said!! I read "A Quaker Book of Wisdom" which is a lovely gentle book on Quaker ethics and how they live their lives, with chapters on truth, simplicity, conscience, non-violence, family, silence etc. Although not a Christian myself, I enjoyed the fact that the tenets are good to live by whether or not you believe in God. If more people lived like the Quakers the world could be a much better place IMHO. The last one for now is a fantastic book about painting - "The Zen of Creative Painting" by Jeanne Carbonetti. It's subtitle is "An Elegant Design for Revealing your Muse". I loved this book and am going to buy it for myself along with its partner on watercolour painting. It is very inspiring and easy to read, makes you really think, and has wonderful paintings in it. I am about to re-start painting this autumn, not having done much, and this book goes a long way to inspiring!! I have also read some light fiction, getting through about 2 paperbacks a day; some days have been too hot to danything but read - very unusual for England!! One I read was a cracking story about a girl frowing up in Ireland and falling in love with her cousin. It's got the lot - romance, love, atmosphere, family sagas, history, ghosts, the lot! I can't remember the name of it, but will try and find it later and let you know. I would recommend it if you like a really good read with an unexpected outcome. The book I am reading at the moment is called "Garden Spot - Lancaster County, the Old Order Amish and the Selling of Rural America". I've just started this one, so may report back later! I also have a shifting poulation of patchwork and quilting books, sewing, and gardening. I hope I can keep up the momentum now I'm back on line, though!! What has everyone else been reading?

Here in the Blackmore Vale the weather is just about to start on the turn towards autumn - my favourite time of year. The nights are starting to get shorter, with the chickens and ducks away by 9pm when it is dark now. This is the time for harvesting the veg, getting it ready for storage and making jams and chutneys etc. Schoolchildren will be back at school for the autumn term in a couple of weeks. The weather is getting slightly cooler - it's been exceptionally hot here over the past fortnight or so, without much respite at night. We sleep with the window open, but sometimes it's a bit noisy in the pub garden and the it's literally only across the road! Today is considerably cooler, so I hope to get out and blitz the weeds in the veg garden; I really must do some housework too, and B's bedroom is finally decorated; a new desk arrives for her tomorrow, so we need to make space for that. One of today's tasks is to de-junk her bookcase - she takes after me where books are concerned. Between us we could start a county library, I tell you! I want to move some furniture around, but don't tell hubby because he hates it when I do that!! So life here toddles along as normal; it is nice to be back here again though. See you all later, have a lovely day.

For my birthday this year I am getting a garden shed of my very own - well I'm excited!!! I suppose it will be my equivalent of a 'shop' for me! Because the sheds were on offer, we bought it early and it was delivered last week. Sadly, when it was delivered ( in pieces, you have to build it yourself, or find a nice man to do it!) it was mostly wrecked, with lots of damaged bits - the windows, roof, floor was all mashed in down one end, bits hanging off, nails hanging out - you get the picture! So I phoned up the shop and complained to the manager who agreed to refund fifty pounds plus the twenty pounds delivery charge; hubby is luckily very hands, so the shed bits got mended and when I came home from what I was doing on Saturday te shed was up and completed apart from some extra wood he wanted to put on the floor. He finished that yesterday and built my new potting bench too. So it is now a potting shed/shop/hideaway! I will keep my gardening tools in there, my tool box, store and dry my veggies, keep my compost and pots and still have room for a comfy chair and some gardening books! I'm looking forward to moving all my stuff in and sitting in there while it is raining and drinking cups of tea. I want to put a flag up on the outside, some hanging hooks for baskets of flowers and pots, and build a little window box for along the window. I have a horseshoe in the shed to put above the door too. A real woman's shed! I think maybe a bolt on the inside of the door to keep out little intruders too, maybe............................!! Oh the simple joys of life............

I always told my two that when they have homes of their own I am going to come round and jump all over their sofas and scribble all over their walls - they just laughed!!

Is there much, or any, overage of the news from the UK in the US or Canada? What sort of things get reported? Apart from the Royal family...........!!

My daughter was twelve last week; just seems like yesterday I was carrying her around in a sling with me! Doesn't time fly! She is now 12, going on 22!!! I hope the next 12 years are as good as the last 12!

When is your season for planting and harvesting artichokes? We plant ours out in February/March, and harvest them in September/October time. I grew my main crop in a very large container this year as they are so invasive; however a good stand of them has still appeared in one of the beds where we thought we had cleared most of them! I don't mind as I would eat artichoke soup until it came out of my ears...........

No racoons in Dorset! One animal considered a pest in some gardens though is the badger; sweetcorn straight off the plant is one of their favourites! There are badgers who eat veg in some of the gardens in the village, but not mine, sadly; badgers are lovely, we think. They can do a lot of damage both to lawns and veg though. Our corn gets the occasional earwig but nothing too drastic! So compared to racoons we get off very lightly I think.

.........it's been a long time since 22nd June, hasn't it? However, I am now sitting at my own computer, eating crisps and drinking Lambrusco and we have at last managed to get a connection to the net. Hubby wiped the hard drive and put on a new system, but we haven't got on line for a couple of weeks - until tonight! So here I am; I just hope it's not a 5 minute wonder and I disappear into the wild blue yonder again. We are still having e-mail problems, and probably more besides, but for the moment at least I am able to get back here albeit in a roundabout and convoluted way of logging on! By a strange quirk of fate, the two community computers in the pub were taken out by the bad virus that is going around; I believe they have been sorted out today, but there's nothing like sitting at thome and doing it!!! I'm a happy haggis now!!!

.................and now I'm back, I can say hello and welcome from Dorset in England!!

I do a lot of bartering and it is something I really enjoy, bartering whatever I have for whatever comes along and takes my fancy! I run a group called the North Dorset LETS group - it stands for Local Exchange Trading System; we have our own currency called Stags and our own cheque books; it's a sophisticated bartering system which works really well. Personally I prefer the proper bartering eye to eye swapping etc, but this comes a close second. The next meeting of North Dorset LETS is on Satruday 23rd August at my house, if anyone would like to dome along! In the meantime I will go off in a while and look at the site Hillbillee has suggested.

We eat lots of sweetcorn here in England - on the cob, tinned and frozen. I can get organic frozen or tined in the supermarket. so usually have a few tins stashed away in the larder. I grow my own every year but it can be a bit hit and miss depending on the amount of sunshine there is; this year's crop is looking good and almost ready o pick; I put on the pan to boil before I go out and pick it so it is cooked as fresh as possible before the sugar turns to starch. Fresh is my favourite, but I admit to sometimes eating it straight out of the can with a teaspoon! For heating, I just tip it in the pan with a good knob of butter. Hungry now.................!

yes deb, I quite fancy that one; I got some lovely organic bing cherries (fronm the US!) in Sainsbury the other week, but there are none left!!! I will get Mr Lowie to go to the market and see if he can pick up a crate for me and a barrel of two of brandy.............. one for the cherries, one for me...........

I have now read the second two books in the series and thoroughly enjoyed them ; I read them both in a day and a half as they are easy reading. I read books like this to intersperse the ehavier types of book I tend to read. I'm looking forward to the next one being published in October. Have any of them been made into films? I think they would be good films.

right you lot, that's quite enough of that! I'm still over at the pub, but hopefully things will be sorted out at the weekend. I am not drinking beer today as I am here at lunchtime - if i drink at this time of day I just fall asleep for the rest of the afternoon - not a good idea with two children and a store-room to clean out! I do miss my own computer - sitting up till 3am eating strange concoctions out of the fridge and drinking gin while looking in on Mrs S. I have got so much other stuff done since the computer has been oput of action, though!! I might even get some houseworkl done, but that is probably unlikely!!

When the jam has reached setting pint, take it off the heat and leave it to cool for 10 - 15 minutes or so; gently stir it once, then pot as usual. This prevents the fruit going to the top as the fruit is then held up by the liquid jam which thickens as it sets. Hope this helps. (it works for me!!)

I haven't left he country - not yet, anyway!! My own computer is still up the swanee but mr Lowie has finally bitten the bullet and is going to take it in to have a new hard drive on Friday. so in theory I should be back on my own net at the weekend. The best laid plans etc etc etc!! we are all fine; the weather is very hot here - up in the thirties this week (although it is cool in the pub!). Not much to report apart from the usual round of cooking, veg and fruit picking, knitting sewing - what a life, eh? I have done tons of reading and am looking forward to catching up on Within These Pages again. Hope everyone is well - see you all again soon. Here's hoping1

I have finished the my quilt top now (must be all that computer down time!!); I need to go back to the fabric shop (!) and buy the batting for it but that won't be until next week. I took a notion ot sewing last week and got another quilt top done for a wall hanging - it's the Attic Windows which has turned out well. I've now started on an applique wall hanging of four houses through the seasons. I didn't have to buy any fabric for that but all this batting is going to add up soon!!

I didn't visit any gardens myself as I had to be at our house as our garden was open for visitors. It absolutely p*********d down with rain was chilly and we had a thunderstorm! As a result I only got 27 visitors to my garden but the few who came were very imprssed with it an enjoyed the visit. I got extremely wet from standing outside in the rain explaining the gardeen to them all! They all loved the garden and were fascinated by the companion planting, the hops but most of all by the purple-poddid peas!! It's good fun and we still made a decent amount for the Garden Club funds so that was OK. Thanks for everyone's interest - please fell free to visit if you would like! (but don't make me stand in the rain again.......)