Hedgerow Foraging at it's best

Last year I was determined to collect sloes from the hedgerows and make some sloe gin.  So I joined forces with good pal Ian and together we got a good haul - Ian has his uses coz he's got a walking stick which we used to get to the bigger sloes at the top of the hedges.

Anyway, the sloes were picked and the gin was bought and Ian took them both off to his laboratory (garage) and after a year of shaking the jar and then leaving it alone (the hard bit), finally the brew was bottled!    Off we went to the Lake District for a little holiday and we took said bottle with us.. by heck it is grand!

So, you can imagine that as the hedgerows are particularly fruitful this year it would be rude not to pick more sloes! Off we went again, stick in hand and got a marvellous harvest which are now in the demi-john in the lab.  It's just a waiting game again.

Chickens enjoy some corn...

Each week our chickens get a treat... this week it was a corn on the cob..

Ian was very inventive and put a tent peg in the cob so we could hang it from the mesh of their pen to save it from getting covered in grit and muck.

Any way, they love their corn!

The Good Life ... it's happening!

A bit of a retro-blog because lots has been happening in the garden and by the time I get home I'm too pooped to blog!

Anyway, we've been and got the chickens!! Last Sunday actually so they've been in residence for a whole week now.

Well, before we got the chickens we had to build a nice safe enclosure for them to free range - I say 'we' but really it was Ian and Andrew who did lots of hard work. This is only stage one and a temporary measure because they've got a grand design for the real enclosure.

So, last Sunday we went to Outgate Poultry and bought four chickens; a blue, a speckledy, a sussex and a black. We brought them home and got them in the coup, we were all giddy but the chickens were really shy. They took a couple of days to find the confidence to come out. the blue one was the first to come down the ramp and into the run.

We haven't officially given them any names yet but I call the blue one Bluebell and I think it suits her.

They've had a lovely week settling in to their new home, they've entertained us with their antics... a couple of escapes, standing on the roof of the coup.

But today was the best antics of all... Bluebell laid her first egg!! Who's a clever girl?

Later on when we went round to the garden we noticed that there were actually five chickens and not four. A little bantam black chicken had appeared from no-where. It had a very lovely day being part of the flock, eating and scratching about. Anyway when Ian went to close the coup for the night it had disappeared! Let's see what happens tomorrow in the crazy garden!

Update.... the bantam (seen here on the left scurrying away from the camera) had returned this morning after obviously roosting somewhere else last night, so let's see if she gets accepted as part of the flock and decides to stay, or whether she is just here for the free lunch!

Oh, in between chickeny things we've also been planting things (shallots, beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, a whole range of squashes, cucumber, sweetcorn, courgettes, onions, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, leeks, parsnips... the list goes on and on).

First trip out in new caravan....

.... not as planned but hey!

Planned to go to Hinderwell with our good friends Mark and Michelle for the Easter long weekend.

Isabelle was just getting the caravan packed up when Mark phoned to say that the site was flooded and we had been cancelled - nightmare! We knew we would never get another booking so late in the day with it being Easter so we were all feeling a bit down to say the least.

We all started ringing round every site we could see that looked half decent to no avail, everywhere booked up. We were gutted. Then, Michelle rang to say that a site in Thornton le Dale had a pitch for one van for the whole week and should they take it - we agreed that they should take it and we'd stay at home. We'd just settled down for the rest of the evening when the phone went - it was a chap ringing back to say they'd had a cancellation at their site if we wanted it! So we jumped at the chance..... it was all the way to the other side of Howden!!!! (about half an hour away). Didn't matter that it wasn't a long journey, it would be just a good chance to test out the new caravan and find out how to work every thing.

So, we packed up and went to Brenda House caravan site for three nights. The great thing was that we got to explore some places which are on our doorstep that ordinarily being busy people we wouldn't have done. We had some lovely walks with the dog right from the site and we also went to Wheldrake to visit the nature reserve but it was flooded. The caravan is fantastic and we had a very relaxing and peaceful break. Just missed Mark and Michelle, but we're really looking forward to May now.

Malteser Tray Bake

Here is a recipe for delicious, scrummy Malteser tray bake. We used to go fishing in Northern Ireland and they sold this in the shop in the village, it was like waiting for an annual fix going there!!

I searched the web and found this recipe.

100g butter
200g milk chocolate
3 tbs golden syrup
225g crushed digestive biscuits
225g maltesers

• Melt butter, chocolate & syrup
• Add crushed biscuits and mix
• Add maltesers and mix quickly
• pour into a lined swiss roll tin
• chill in the fridge until it is set
• drizzle with melted chocolate if you want to be posh - or just cut up into squares and scoff!!

tis yummdiddlyumptious - enjoy!

Frustrated by the weather!

Well, it's ages and ages since I posted on this blog. This year we are going to be doing lots of stuff outdoors as usual but not all walking up hills..... because we're going to be gardening and growing our own veggies!

We have decided to help out our good friend Ian with his very large allotment plot and share the efforts of our labour. We are doing lots of talking about it and planning at the moment as the weather seems to be against us. So far though we have purchased some second hand water storage tanks and put them into position, bought and almost assembled a chicken house and run and we've started some potatoes off. Ian got some beans growing nicely in the potting shed but the mice helped themselves to them, so he's put out traps and started some more beans!

I can't wait to get digging and tending the chickens. We've decided which type of chickens we want and how many, so just need to get on with it all now.

It's going to be just like 'The Good Life'!