This and That

 Hello again.  Thank you for your Easter greetings and I hope that you had a good Easter.  

Unfortunately Mr P has not been well lately.  It started with aches and pains on his left side where he had the hip replacement and then he came out in a rash which we thought was an allergy to some anti-inflammatory cream the practice nurse at the medical centre prescribed recently.  The rash continued to get worse and after being able to send photos into the doctor at the GP surgery he was diagnosed with shingles which is a painful and uncomfortable condition.  Antibiotic tablets and other medications have now been prescribed for the next few weeks. As you can imagine it has been even more of a low key Easter than normal despite the lifting of restrictions to allow meeting up to six other people outside. Our daughter M and grandchildren sent us some homemade flapjacks and fudge to cheer us up and, of course, other members of our family have been in touch by phone.

We've also had mixed weather like most others up and down the land.  Thankfully, it's much brighter again and the snow blizzards didn't last long.  I managed to get to the park and up to the Common on several occasions before Mr P's diagnosis of the shingles.  Now we're keeping in the warm and taking life very quietly.  I have plenty of craftwork I can get on with and books to read, but mainly I'm looking after Mr P, hoping he'll feel a lot better very soon.

                                   

 Mr P's vegetable and tomato seedlings.  The cacti in the hanging basket and pots are in bloom again for Easter. The amaryllis is starting to produce leaves so hopefully we shall have another season of flowers in the near future. All the plants are indoors where it's light and warm in the covered yard or on the living room window sills. They're doing well.

                                                                      

 The magnolia in the front garden.

At the entrance to the Common to my delight the narcissi were in bloom as well as the miniature daffodils. Daisies open up in the sunshine.

the library in the park

      The rockery in the walled garden in the park.

 

The volunteers are busy at work in the walled garden and it looks as if new sheds are going to be installed in the kitchen garden.

I've been having trouble with my photo files and I have to label them at the moment when I download them which is a slow process.  Consequently my blog posts will be even less frequent and I shall be reading your blogs with interest, but due to Mr P's illness will not be able to spend much time on the computer or reply to your kind comments that are much appreciated. Thank you for your visit.  Have a good day, weekend and week ahead.

Our week

We live in the north-west of our city close to high areas of moorland, but these days we don't venture there when we know that there'll be deep snow drifts and narrow lanes like switchbacks that look down onto the valleys below.  However, our daughter drove out to meet a friend on Sunday afternoon and sent us some photos of what it's like up there.  Under the restrictions we have to stay local right now and can only meet or be with one other person in an outdoor setting to get some fresh air and exercise.  The time spent has to be under socially distanced conditions.  The two friends took the friend's dog with them for their walk and he loved the wide open spaces, of course.

I've been out for walks a couple of times this week and I'm glad I took the opportunity to do so when I did as today it's really cloudy and not the sort of day for taking photos which I like to do in order to record where I've been during this time when often our routine is similar from day-to-day. Yesterday the sun was shining, the sky was blue and I knew that the local reservoir would be a good place to go especially as it's only a short drive from our house.  I'll show you more of my walk next time.

I've been waiting eagerly for the first lot of crocuses planted in pots to start opening because of the warmth of the covered yard and the sunshine that appears from behind the clouds now and then.

The snowdrops in the garden have survived the snow.  How resilient they are despite being delicate looking flowers.  

These are the ones in the churchyard where I walked on Monday and they particularly seem to thrive in the sheltered areas under the trees.

Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day marks the beginning of Lent in the Christian calendar. As usual I made some pancakes as part of our evening meal.  In Italy different types of special biscuit or sweet pastries are served at this time.

Finally, this is the embroidery that I'm working on at the moment.  It's taking me quite a while to do and I realise that it's nearly a year since the embroidery set was gifted to me, but it keeps me occupied in an afternoon when Mr P and I sit and relax. 

Thank you for coming by.  Have a peaceful weekend whatever you're doing.

Five on Friday

Early this morning I took a walk around the crescent-shaped lane where we live.  It's a dreary day today weatherwise, but I was cheered by the colours in nature, the ceramic and the real carved pumpkins that the neighbours have left out on the doorsteps and in front windows and then a socially-distanced catch up chat with a neighbour who I met along the way.  

front garden where there are roses, hydrangeas, 

vine leaves and a few bunches of grapes

 that'll be left for the birds

a back garden view including the big cherry tree and the hills in the background

Yesterday Mr P made a cottage pie and I made an apple pie for our evening meal.  There's enough apple pie for our lunch today. 😊

Thank you for your visit and I'll catch up with you soon.  Meanwhile, have a good weekend whatever you're doing.

Friday Five: Our Week

In between the showers we've been busy in the garden.  Our daughter brought several hanging baskets, some plants and a macrame pot holder with her.  We fixed up the spider plant in the macrame holder and changed the plants in the hanging baskets.  Some of them now have new strawberry plant cuttings.  We also cut the lavender that has finished flowering and hung it up in the covered yard to dry.

On rainy days Daughter D and I have been sitting with our crafting hobbies.  I've done some more of my embroidery and D made two Big Knit bags from an Ingrid Wagner kit.

On Sunday we enjoyed a retro style lunch, each of us making a course.  I made prawn cocktail.  The salad base was home grown tomatoes, cucumber and salad leaves.  (In fact we've been eating salad for lunch each day and every day we've shared the cooking with a different menu for our main evening meal every time).  Mr P cooked roast lamb with vegetables from the garden.  Daughter D made a blackberry and apple crumble.

Our local library librarian who leads our reading group sent an email to say that it was now possible to order a selection of books to collect, which is what I did and then I received another email to collect them this morning.  The usual procedure is in place - face covering, sanitiser at the door, one person at a time at a special table just beyond the entrance door etc.  My glasses steamed up probably because it was pouring with rain outside and warm in the library so it wasn't the joyous experience I'd been hoping for after so many weeks not  being able to walk in the park to the library and then browse the bookshelves, which is still not possible.  However, the random selection of books provided from the genre of crime fiction I had asked for include a couple I have read, but the majority I haven't.  A  new publication The Book of Sheffield - short stories and articles about Sheffield written by authors who know the city, sponsored by the University and Sheffield Libraries was included in my bag of books as a free gift.   2020 is Sheffield's Year of Reading when the enjoyment and benefits of reading are being promoted.  It's such a shame that libraries have had to be closed for months and now that their services are happening again in a limited way I shall use the order and collect books facility as often as I can.   The librarian has arranged for our reading group to meet up in the open air in the walled garden next to the library on a date in September.  Even if the weather isn't good I'm looking forward to seeing the other members of the group.

Once again thank you for stopping by.  Have a good weekend everyone.

Friday Five: Flowers, Fruit and Veg Collages

We were given another bunch of flowers when local daughter did our shopping.

Our Berkshire daughter who is staying with us brought us lots of goodies for house and garden including a pretty succulent plant in a ceramic pot and her home made blackberry and fig jam.

We've also been blackberrying when we stopped off for a break during a drive out in the countryside yesterday.  We'll be making an apple and blackberry pie using the blackberries and some of the apples that our daughter brought with her from her home.

The poppy that popped up in the vegetable patch has finished flowering now, but once the seed heads dry out I shall be keeping the seeds.

We've been enjoying and sharing the home grown produce. The cherry tomatoes in the above mosaic are called Honeycomb.  The plants were given to us by local daughter and Mr P has grown them on.

We bottled more of the tomatoes the other day to put in the store cupboard using a variety of the large tomatoes; San Marzano, Gardener's Delight, Big Boy.  The tomatoes are pricked and boiling water is added to skin them easily.  Then they're cut up and simmered for 30 minutes before bottling in sterilized glass jars that have also been pre-heated in an oven so that they're hot. This helps with the vacuum sealing when the tomato mixture (with optional fresh basil leaves added) is put into the jars and the lids are tightened.

Thanks for coming by.  Have a lovely weekend!

P.S. I deleted someone's comment by mistake and did not note who it was - sorry.

This and that

Some dry, sunny weather has meant that I've been able to do some walking around our neighbourhood.. I've found the best short cuts to get from one road to the next through the several alley ways in the area. On one occasion I got a bus to the local library.

It's a delight to see the birds out-and-about during the sunnier days either on my walks or from the back windows of our house.  I've seen the usual doves and pigeons, blackbirds, jays, magpies, robins, sparrows and tits.  We had one morning of sleet when they were no doubt huddled in the cover of our neighbour's 'wilderness garden'.

There are daffodils just ready to burst into bloom in the garden and some new irises, 'Harmony', are looking beautiful among the tulips that will be something to look forward to later on. 

In the covered yard the nectarine tree flower buds have appeared and there are other signs of plant life. A primula that didn't flower last year, but only produced monster leaves has produced purple flowers that hopefully will grow up towards the light on tall stems.

Some time ago I found a small linen tablecloth packaged as new at a charity shop together with needle and embroidery threads that had an easy transfer print on it.  During January I've worked on one of the motifs and will then start on the other.  I'm not using the pink thread, but instead I'm using greens, blues and also yellows inspired by the Chinese design on the above bowl and by the colour of Springtime flowers.

Another cake was made, this time an orange cake using a recipe from an old recipe book - orange with a pinch of mixed spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger) and grated orange peel in the batter before cooking and orange juice icing in the filling and on the top. I only used two eggs and less flour and golden sugar so it didn't rise as much as most of the cakes I make, but tasty none the less.

Our Italian garden in April

It's been over five months since the last time we were in our home in Italy as we didn't go in March, (the usual time when we go there so that my husband can prune the vines).  As a brother-in-law looks after the vines he had already done this, so that was one less task to do in garden maintenance.  My sister-in law goes with her husband which is very kind of her. Giving the house an airing and keeping the garden in good order is the priority and an important part of our time spent there. Seasons come and seasons go, but the cutting of the grass, the pruning of the trees, weeding etc. goes on forever. I hope regular readers of this blog won't be bored with the repetition of what we have to do in the garden and newer followers can read more about our times in Italy by clicking on the Italy link on the side bar.

Everything was going so well for the first few days we were there.  The sun began to shine and we were ready to get going with the work in between food shopping, getting the car out and running and some leisure time in the local town. Then we picked up another cold etc. after attending a very enjoyable family party. Things didn't improve and eventually we made an appointment to see the doctor. There had been plans to replace the guttering, arrange for someone to paint the exterior walls (which would have needed scaffolding and dry weather), but in the end organising this big project didn't happen.   Nevertheless, the grass got cut a couple of times using a high setting on the petrol mower, bushes got pruned and a balcony railing got painted with metallic paint (for low maintenance). Here are some before and after photos in and around the garden taken during April.

   

A pear tree to the left and an apricot tree (which had already blossomed).

Pear and plum trees grow at the bottom of the slope. There are white and purple figs, walnut and hazelnut trees.

My husband had planted some new rose bushes by the retaining wall and once the grass was cut you could see that they were doing well. In fact, roses are planted everywhere as they just ramble and mainly look after themselves. He's trying to keep hedges and bushes at a height that can be managed easily, apart from the bay tree arch, which needs a step ladder to trim the top of it.

We've been undecided about the cypress trees.  They've grown much too tall and bushy even though they get thinned out each time and they also block the view across the countryside to the distant mountains.  My husband only managed to cut the crown out of one of them and trim the branches that are growing too near a row of fruit trees.  Then the branches have to be cut up and tidied away, which is time consuming.

As well as the pear blossom, the apple and peach blossom looks pretty and, of course, we hope there'll be no winds and frosts to damage the emerging fruit.  My sister-in-law, as I've mentioned before, gathers our fruit and adds it to her own produce.  If there's a glut of fruit she makes jam or bottles it.

It's a shame in a way that the grass has to be cut as there are lots of wild flowers in amongst the grasses that the bees and butterflies appreciate, but on the other hand it has to be done otherwise the grass would become a jungle and because snakes might lurk there.  Mostly the snakes can be found in the bramble hedges at the back and one side of the property that grow on the surrounding uncultivated land. Instead, the long strands of grass once it dries out is used by the birds to build their nests.  I got a surprise when I saw a small bird fly up next to the first floor kitchen window with these long pieces of grass in its beak and it probably landed on the roof.  In fact, it's always interesting to see the different birds flying around. The swifts had returned and were swooping around so fast I couldn't get photos of them. There were blackbirds, larger birds that were possibly some sort of crow. Birds of prey were flying high up in the sky heading for the trees in highest part of the wooded hillside opposite our house.

I found some wild asparagus growing amongst the rose bushes and hedges in the front garden. Together with some that my sister-in-law had gathered on her land and the fresh eggs she gave me I made an omelette.  You only use the tenderest tips as the stalk can be very woody in texture.

A young cherry tree in the foreground.

Time for some lunch bought at our nephew's deli and some wine (last year's grapes from our land put together with our brother-in-law's own harvest).

the asparagus omelette

I unpicked one of the squares on the blanket that the daughters had crocheted years ago as it had some broken threads in the middle. I used some of the yarn and some of my own to remake a new square. That blanket has become quite a comfort blanket as it's lovely and warm wrapped around my legs on chillier evenings. 

Our time in Italy to be continued....