The fairly wet and warm Spring and early Summer has meant that even those folk with stone fruit trees that are not irrigated have a good crop of fruit this year.
The lads have returned from the allotment twice now with some apricots from Ken's trees...the first lot were a little ripe and needed sorting so I dealt with them right away by freezing a couple of bags of the best of the not too ripe and undamaged fruit in halves...these will be great for desserts if I can hide them from Chris and Sarah who both love nothing better than a few raw apricot halves straight from the freezer...
The rest I made into jam, one of our favourites, and a great standby to have in the pantry...
The lads have returned from the allotment twice now with some apricots from Ken's trees...the first lot were a little ripe and needed sorting so I dealt with them right away by freezing a couple of bags of the best of the not too ripe and undamaged fruit in halves...these will be great for desserts if I can hide them from Chris and Sarah who both love nothing better than a few raw apricot halves straight from the freezer...
The rest I made into jam, one of our favourites, and a great standby to have in the pantry...
I ended up with about a dozen jars of thick golden yumminess...Summer and apricots go hand in hand.
Apricot and plum crumble in preparation for supper tonight...
Today they arrived back with some more apricots, these were not too ripe and less possum/bird sampled than the previous lot, so they took a lot less preparation. There were also some barely ripening plums, which I sliced up with the ripest of the apricots for pudding tonight...
I tried a new recipe for lunch, from a Donna Hay book I picked up in the library yesterday. It using up some leftover steamed rice from the fridge, chili, sliced snow peas and runner beans, (my addition as we did not have many snow peas left), lots of chopped chives and eggs...it was quite delicious really, a sort of thick omelet, served with some dumpling sauce...far nicer than the sum of its parts...another synergistic dish! (I love those, especially when it means refrigerated leftovers get a new lease on life...).
I am busy working on the next couple of projects for the design teams...one is almost completed and is looking good I think...I am trying hard not to start the second one, which really appeals to me, before finishing off the first...must be disciplined about these things...one can have too much fun after all. The two completed memory albums are all packaged up but are not delivered yet...we were going to drive them up last evening but decided to wait until the weekend...
The garden is still looking nice, with plenty of colour, although it is hotter now and rain is not falling with the regularity of earlier in the season...I must rally the troops and get some weeding done and the lawn edges tidied, things can get away so quickly...the fuchsias and lemon verbena also need a prune and the lavender need collecting before it dries off much further and I lose it all to the wind.
I tried a new recipe for lunch, from a Donna Hay book I picked up in the library yesterday. It using up some leftover steamed rice from the fridge, chili, sliced snow peas and runner beans, (my addition as we did not have many snow peas left), lots of chopped chives and eggs...it was quite delicious really, a sort of thick omelet, served with some dumpling sauce...far nicer than the sum of its parts...another synergistic dish! (I love those, especially when it means refrigerated leftovers get a new lease on life...).
I am busy working on the next couple of projects for the design teams...one is almost completed and is looking good I think...I am trying hard not to start the second one, which really appeals to me, before finishing off the first...must be disciplined about these things...one can have too much fun after all. The two completed memory albums are all packaged up but are not delivered yet...we were going to drive them up last evening but decided to wait until the weekend...
The garden is still looking nice, with plenty of colour, although it is hotter now and rain is not falling with the regularity of earlier in the season...I must rally the troops and get some weeding done and the lawn edges tidied, things can get away so quickly...the fuchsias and lemon verbena also need a prune and the lavender need collecting before it dries off much further and I lose it all to the wind.
The self-seeded poppies have been a delight this year...still a few blooms if you get outside early enough...once the bumbles start bumbling about and the heat builds up the petals quickly fall...
Wyatt, the billionaire birthday boy, spent his birthday money on a cat, a walkin' talkin' cat at that! Mel sent me this photo of him in obvious delight with his new "pet". They had tried to adopt a kitten last year, got it home with great excitement only for Mel to find she was so highly allergic, the animal had to be returned immediately...before he bought the toy, Wyatt asked his mum if it would be ok to have it in the house, if it would make her sneeze!
Well, I think that is todays news, better trot, I have a cup of coffee cooling by my chair and a good book...might just have a little read...
Bye now,
Dixx
Bye now,
Dixx
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