Discovering Smilebox

Early in October I began to scrap book a memory book for my sister Kathryn's 40th Birthday.
It was a very steep learning curve but so much fun.
Yesterday I discovered smilebox, what a treat! It's about to take my creations to a whole other level.
Watch this space for more postings from smilebox, meanwhile check out the first one that I made as a souvenir of my Lancaster County trip in October, with my great pal Diane.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Where did the time go?

I cannot believe that it has been over 2 months since last I blogged!!

What have I been doing you might well ask?

Well..................

In September I flew to the States to visit friends in Dallas, TX for a few days before travelling with them to Philadelphia for the Quimper Club International's annual meeting. The photo is of several fellow Quimper nuts outside the Betsy Ross House (she of the first flag) in Philly.

We all had a great time, the organisers did a fabulous job of arranging tours & museum visits and I saw more original artwork there than I have ever seen in my life before.

Afterwards my friend Diane & I had a mini adventure in Lancaster County, PA visiting with an Amish family and generally having a great time.

Harvest time

I can't believe how quickly August has flown by.

We have been enjoying the fruits of my labour (o.k. S the G did some too!!) all month long, here are a few pix to show off our produce!

The potatoes have been a resounding success, we're eating fresh tomatoes & salad everyday and the courgette casserole is on the menu every week.

The beans just keep on coming so there's been plenty of activity in the blanching & freezing departments too.

Potager update

We are well and truly enjoying a bumper crop of vegetables much to my surprise!!

The new (to us) yellow beans are wonderful, so soft & creamy.

As is usually the case I have far too many to eat all at once, so I have been busy blanching & freezing them and also handing them out to all & sundry.

The tomatoes are doing well after a slow start although I'm hoping there will still be some green ones left so I can try a recipe from the Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe cook book soon.

The same cook book has a great recipe for "summer squash casserole" which I have made twice with some extra large (ok, I forgot to pick them in time) round zucchini. My other half who always maintains that he hates courgettes loves the casserole and wants it on the menu as often as possible. Go figure!

a bientot

Poule d'eau

About 3 years ago we were lucky enough to have a pair of poule d'eau or as we know them moorhens take up residence on the pond in the back garden, next to the potager.

Each year they have produced offspring which are always cute to watch as they learn to swim and grow at an alarmimg rate.

This year however there were no baby moorhens in June although the adult birds were still coming to the back door every morning to be fed.

Imagine my delight therefore on Saturday evening, as I watered the vegetables, to discover the very proud male moorhen strutting around the potager squawking away to announce the arrival of his chicks.

Mama was sitting proudly on the far bank as tiny little balls of black fluff scurried hither and yon, testing the water, before rushing back to safety and burrowing beneath her wing.

Taking a photograph to share has not been easy, they're still camera shy, even papa went under the surface as I snapped but I did manage to capture one fluff ball for you to see.

Potager produce

All things in the potager are flourishing and we are enjoying freshly picked vegetables and salad everyday.

Yesterdays supper included chou fleur & courgettes and tonight I'll serve the first tiny new potatoes which I dug up less than 15 minutes ago.

Bon appetit