My 2nd Blogaversary

Yes, two years ago today I started this blog. It began as a record of textile makes a friend and I were preparing for craft fairs. As it happens, that particular venture didn't come to fruition, but I found I was enjoying taking photographs and writing a bit about this and that. So although the blog changed in content over time, I'm still enjoying putting my posts together and keeping in touch with other bloggers, and those of you who so kindly and regularly leave a comment.

With better techno skills I might have made a better job of organising this post into a nice chronological story, but I'm afraid despite spending hours trying upload from various sources the photographs are all higgledy-piggledy. But I hope you get the drift. Here then are some high-spots in the last two years of Textile Treasury. First up, some photos, including the one above, taken in June 2012 when our son Kit and his family came home from New Zealand for a long holiday. We all squeezed into our cottage, and the weather was dreadful most of the time, but we had some fun. You can find the relevant posts in the archive.

Krissie's 40th birthday party held at our local because there were so many of us! Dylan and Fraser.

                                               Beccie, Krissie and Kit THe Birthday.

January February 2013 - Jim and I flew out of a snow-bound Britain to sun-soaked New Zealand. This was our trip to Hobbiton, a scorcher of a day with some wonderful photographs to remember it by.

JIm and I on a day out with Kit and Krissie to a wonderful winery. Great scenery and lovely meal.

The day we all went ot the Sky Tower in Auckland. Standing on the glass floor was a challenge!

While we were there I made some small repairs to the Bible Quilt I had made for Dylan about five years earlier. Well loved and well worn!

Back home again, finishing off the quilt I made for Krissie.

One of the cushions I made with the vintage Sufolk Puffs purchased from A Mermaid's Tale.

A seaside cushion made, and sold. The craft fairs didn't work out but somehow things manage to get themselves sold!

Another cushion, made with vintage and re-purposed fabrics. I'm rather pleased with this one.

And who can forget the ongoing story of the Wild Garlic! I picked it, I wrote about it, I cooked with it, I froze it, and by gum we certainly ate a lot of it! Again, stories in the archive if you like.

 The Ouse Washes Molly Dancers - Musical Branch! This was taken up at Ely Cathedral just before the massed sides Processional through the City .

Stopping to dance in Ely. It was a very hot day and there was much more to come!

Very late one night at the Burwell Bash, just managing to keep up with the session. This is my annual music fix. More stories and incriminating pictures archived!

 On our way out to dinner for Jane's birthday, during the Burwell Bash 2013

Oh! Back to Ely, this is the Ouse Washes up at the Ely Festival site. In the middle of a field in temperatures of around 34 centigrade!

 A well deserved breather at Ely.

Ouse Washes at Welbourne Festival. Much cooler and wetter than Ely!

This was Folk at The Forge, hosted by the Harmonious Blacksmith Nigel - a great time was had by all!

My first forays into lino- printing, following a workshop by Amanda Colville. You can read about it - yes, you guessed it, in the ARCHIVE!

OH! Slipped back twelve months to a collection of items I made for the craft fair.

Here is the original "One Bird upon a Hill beneath a Star. I've now made and sold three of these, but this is my favourite still.

A spate of furniture painting! I painted them OUTSIDE, by the way, just photographed them here as it began to rain. Eventually I will finish the other chairs!

There was much bread making over the past two years, plain strong bread flour, spelt and rye, sour-dough, wholemeal, you name it, I baked it!

This spice corner of my kitchen references the Great Clear Out and Re-Organisation which took place in 2012. This extended to freezer sorting and recording, and menu planning posts and frugal food posts ....... habits which astoundingly have lasted into 2014!

Wild Garlic Pesto!

Wild Garlic Oil. I still have wild garlic butter in the freezer! It won't be too long before I start picking fresh supplies!

Lots of music making, dancing, festival going, family gathering, garden-photographing, textile viewing, caravanning, quilt making, bangle making, felt loving, friends gathering, food enjoying, and of course - BLOGGING! Sorry the photos aren't in order, and are woefully short of the whole story, but I hope you've enjoyed the memories. Two years isn't all that long in blogging circles, but it's been long enough to find some really good blogs which I enjoy regularly keeping in touch with, and some super bloggers, some of whom I have made friends with. Sorry, blogging does not confer upon you the inability to end a sentence with a preposition!

So however this blog evolves, I do hope those of you who have stuck it out so far will stick around for what's to come - I couldn't do it without you!

House and Garden Potterings

Well goodness me, the sun is shining again this morning, but still there's that very keen wind, so we're not out of the woods yet. Fortunately I AM out of the woods, having spent this weekend largely pottering around the house and garden. Last week we did quite a lot in the garden - yes, even I did some herby stuff - so it all looks rather neat and blooming at the moment. Here's a quick tour for you.
(Hmm, they didn't load in the right order so we are dodging about a bit!)

       Small rose bush, pot of ramsons and a trough of replanted garlic - fingers crossed, Thelma!

    This is the lower end of the lawn, left hand side of garden. You can just see the 'Fishing Lodge'    peeking from behind the fence.

      OK we have jumped to the right hand side now, looking towards Jim's freshly set veggie patch.

   And back at the top left side, with a view of the Curséd Beech! I am very unkind, and frequently go out just to ill-wish this straggly upstart of a beech-nut!

I do love this view of the left hand herbs! I photograph it a lot, which, if you have been reading my blog for some time, you will know! The lovage is at a manageable size at the moment, but it does get a bit big and blowsy. Not that there's anything wrong with that! The grape hyacinth have gone mad this year, and self seeded all over the place.

And some of the right hand herbs, and you can just see behind the green planter the troughs of garden mint, one of Moroccan mint and one with rocket, sorrel and Welsh onions. A small pot of curly parsley, as I don't use it much, preferring to grow loads of the flat leaf variety on t'other side . And so from the outside, come on into the living room and see what we've been up to.

Hurrah! Having recycled our huge Habitat sofa in the direction of No 1 son Mike, I can now position Jim's recliner in the corner, where it doesn't dominate the small living room. The little chair seen here is from my sewing room (still waiting for its new loose cover I'm afraid) and is just filling in the gap while we await the arrival of my new arm-chair. 

This is the 'snuggler' which is lovely, but it encourages me to sit with my legs tucked under me which is NOT good for my back. So this will just fit ..er...snuggly.... where my little chair is at the moment, and the New Chair will go here. I'm looking for a Butler's Tray to replace the stool here, and get the mess tidied up.

Feeling spring-like yesterday I decided to paint the rest of the dining room chairs - well, not the carver chairs. I got as far as one, so it is going to be a long process! (well I did make more sourdough bread and cook a roast dinner and nip out up to Onion Corner to pick more wild Garlic!)

No, I painted it outside, before you say anything! It looks white here but the colour is actually a very soft green. And here's one I prepared earlier :

Not quite sure, now, about the multi-coloured effect, but I'm probably going to leave it. Repainting would be the equivalent of un-picking stitches, and I avoid that whenever I can!

Speaking of Wild Garlic (oh yes we were!) it seems to be 'trending' at the moment - everywhere I look there are articles about it, and two tv programmes mentioned it over the last week. Fancy that, at last I am trendy. For all the wrong reasons. Ah well.

Hoping this is the start of a good week for everyone, and perhaps some warmer weather too.

PS: Just read the latest edition of Country Living magazine - they too have caught up with me! pg 142: recipe for Wild Garlic Soup with Pesto! 

Friday Jaunts

Friday was the beginning of this wonderful warm sunny spell we are enjoying, and I was itching to get out and about. Now regular readers will know that I am not the world's most active of people, but there are times when even I feel the desire to stride out - even if I don't stride very fast or very far! I am trying to improve my  ....er....track record..........

My Friday jaunt began in the early afternoon when I went for 'afternoon tea' with a new bloggy friend Maggie - visit her blogs A reading corner, and A corner by the fireside. Maggie and I started visiting each others blogs some time ago, playing the guessing game as to where in Norfolk we each lived. Eventually we realised we lived quite near to each other, and made arrangements to meet up. I didn't take my camera as I thought it might be rude! However I'm kicking myself now as Maggie has a lovely garden which you would love; it has several features which I would LOVE to incorporate into our garden but it is never going to happen - the Mister does the gardening (apart from the herbs) and if he doesn't like something I've suggested it doesn't happen! I think it is one of the few areas in our relationship where I have to grit my teeth and walk away! So, no lovely gravel garden, like Maggie's, no raised beds, no fruit trees. But hey, it's not worth arguing about in the final analysis; we are not going to fall out over it! Mind you I did gaze at Maggie's garden and sigh. I went expecting to have a quick cuppa and go - but it was two and a half hours later that Maggie and I said goodbye, having had one of those chats which you have when you 'click' with someone straight away.

On the way home I decided to get out and stretch my legs, and do a bit of foraging; I had come armed with plastic bag and scissors!

I parked the car and began my stroll. This was not, I have to say, a jog or even a brisk walk! Can you guess where I was going?

If you look closely you will spot the wild garlic. I've no idea how it came to be here, in such abundance, within a very specific area.

This is the actual corner of Onion Corner, and marks the boundary of the Ramsons' territory.

I think these might be previously coppiced willows, now left to become overgrown, unused. They spread throughout the whole of the ramsons wood.

Walked past these lovely chaps, how wonderful to live down the road from the field where your horses are contentedly cropping the fresh spring grass, with a couple of easily accessible bridle-paths on your doorstep.

See, Norfolk isn't as flatas folks think!And there are bigger hills than this! Looking in the rough direction of Sandringham.

                               Looking like blossom, these are small pale catkins.

I call this, whimsically, the River Withywindle, just a small stream, really, meandering through the ramsons and the willows. There was a duck gently cruising along when I approached but he had floated out of view by the time I had pointed and clicked!

On my way back I stopped to gather another bagful of wild garlic. I noted yesterday that the editor of The Independent has been reading my blog, as there was a 2-page spread on the topic, with a few recipes. You see, I've gone viral!

Once home the leaves were washed, dried and stored in the fridge, and yesterday I whipped up these goodies in about an hour, including clean-up.

In this batch of wild garlic pesto I used pine-nuts, almonds, and a mixture of sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, instead of the usual pine nuts, or the cashew nuts I used last time. I also replaced the parmesan cheese with some extra strong mature cheddar.

Two for the fridge and  four for the freezer. So far we have eaten it mixed with hummus on soda bread or crisp-bread, in minestrone soup, and as the base of a sauce for our Saturday Night Pasta. Mmmmm!

And taking a leaf (!) out of Independent columnist Mark Hix's article,  I dried the remaining leaves in the cooling oven, crumbled them and ground them with some chunky sea salt. So my ramsons  will be flavouring our food long after their growing season has passed. I know there has been a lot of interest in my wild garlic gatherings, I hope you have managed to find some near you and you have been experimenting too! Enjoy the rest of this lovely weekend.