Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!

Wordless Wednesday

Looking across the English Channel to England

from the Northernmost point of Normandy

Blowing my own horn (just a little bit!)

Yours truly has been invited to join the Design Team at It's Crafting Time.
This thriving UK company is based in Shepreth, Cambridgeshire where:
"We aim to provide you with quality craft materials for your craft project and always carry a range of interesting products that make us that little bit different. Our main business is paper craft, but as we love to create we find ourselves branching out to related crafts such as jewellery making,scrapbooking, painting, etc."
They also have an online store and a blog.
For more info click here to go to my crafty blog: just scrapping

Normandie Rain forest.

Wordless Wednesday 

some shots of the local rain forest............

I hope you enjoyed your walk with me today through the rainy Normandy countryside.

Wordless Wednesday - Fort Worth, TX.

wordless wednesday

Peach and Basil Muffins

Faced with a bowl of fresh but very ripe peaches I grabbed some cook books off the shelf looking for a quick dessert recipe.
Instead, I came across a muffin recipe that I hadn't tried before : Peach & Basil.

With  a thriving basil plant sitting on my kitchen sill I decided to search no more and whipped up a batch of tasty muffins instead.

Here's the recipe taken from Homemade Muffins by Carol Tennant.

Makes 12
2 ripe peaches peeled & pitted
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
3 tbsp packed brown sugar
grated peel & juice of a small lemon
2 cups/300g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp (half) baking powder
4 tbsp unsalted butter (2oz/57g)
Generous 1/3rd cup/80g granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2/3rd cup/150ml milk
Chop the peaches into small dice, place in a bowl with the chopped basil. brown sugar and lemon juice. Leave to stand for a bout 30 mins if possible, 20 mins will do if time is tight!
Preheat oven to 400F/200C, grease a 12 cup muffin pan, or use muffin cases as I did
In a large bowl mix the flour & baking powder and rub in the butter until the breadcrumb stage. Stir in the granulated sugar & lemon peel.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg with the milk, add this to the dry mixture alternating with the peaches and their juices.
Spoon into the muffin pan and bake until risen & golden, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Serve warm or cold with your beverage of choice.

Hydrangeas in bloom

This sweet little hydrangea was blindingly white when I bought it at Easter, it hasn't grown one centimetre in size since then but it has changed colour.
Over the weeks it has gradually changed colour and now it is a gorgeous shade of green, au natural, no artificial colouring involved!
I was so intrigued by this that I looked for an answer on google and found an very interesting little article on a website called Gardening Know How.
Click here if you would like to know more.

Out in the garden my white hydrangea bush is thriving, due to all the rain we've been having no doubt.
Before the flowers open completely they have a green tinge.

It is quite possible, as I'm sure all of you gardeners out there will know, that you can change a pink hydrangea to blue by adding aluminium sulfate to the soil.

Joining charming hostess 

Liz @ Rose Vignettes for Fresh Cut Friday 

photo du jour - wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

photo(s) du jour - potager update

It's been a while since I blogged about my vegetable garden, truth be told I'm a little ashamed of the state that it is in right now.
It's so empty, due to low temps there are no tomatoes or runner beans this year.
Mr Ben must have thought it was all looking too bleak so decided to fill up a corner for me.

It's hard to keep on top of all the weeds with all the rain we've been having.
They are growing, well, like weeds!

I went out this morning to try and clear some ground for a new row of green beans but only managed to clear a footpath before it started "spitting".

I got a shock when I went to check on our first crop of yellow raspberries, which we were looking forward to eating, the birds had got there first.
Nary a one was left, I guess I'll have to wait until next year to find out whether they taste good.

So, far the birds are staying clear of my blueberries.
Even so there may only be enough for one batch of muffins this year.

Quite a few of the lettuces have already gone to seed, I pulled some up but left the rocket to sway gently in the wind, it looks so pretty still.

This is what the potager should be looking like this month, looking back at photos from last summer makes me realise how much we're missing this year.

What do you get

if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin

 by its diameter?

Pumpkin pi.

photo du jour - rain almost stopped play

 during the summer months foires, or fairs, of every type are held in villages across normandie.

this gourmet fair in Isigny was just one of many that went ahead despite the rain.

photo du jour -patriotic tags

in order to fully indulge my ever increasing obsession with all things scrap booking related I've created a new blog to satisfy my addiction!
the header for just scrapping is of the 3 tags that I made to celebrate the Queen's 60th Jubilee last month for the Trendy Tag Swap, hosted by Rosie, on the UKScrappers website.
They were such fun to make, so colourful and patriotic and could easily be adapted to celebrate the 4th of July, just replace the Union Jack with the Star Spangled Banner!
Joining the Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays where I'm sure there will be many red, white & blue posts celebrating Independence Day.