Pear recipe

The pears are ripe. They don't keep for long so it's a case of cramming as many as possible into recipes that will freeze. This is an adaptation of Bakewell tart.

Shortcrust pastry case. Spread 3 tablespoons of marmalade over the base.

Mix together

2 oz sugar

2 oz butter

1 egg

2 oz self-raising flour

and half a teaspoon of almond essence and pour on top of the marmalade.

Fit in pieces of pear and bake for 30 minutes, 350 deg F, gas mark 4 until the filling has risen and is golden in colour.

Sprinkle on some flaked almonds five minutes before the end of the baking time.

Good with custard!

Enjoy

What a beautiful start to the weekend.  Enjoy!

Willow's Ball

Time to go home, I've lost my slippers, not to mention my partner Scaramuccio. I've been dancing for hours. Thank you, Willow!

Fettling up

We went to the Yorkshire Dales for a week, where the weather was glorious! The rose that twines through my front railings had burst into a second flowering. Many years ago I took a sprig of it from the front wall of a derelict water mill further down the dale. I don't know the variety, and in truth, it doesn't look anything special, but for sentimental reasons I am so pleased to have it.

The front garden is just a narrow strip, small enough to knock back into some sort of order whenever we visit. What is called in Yorkshire, 'a bit of fettling up'.

The wooden seat is well placed for catching any sunshine and for watching village life go by.

The back garden is a wild piece of paddock - just the place for a bonfire!

In the early evenings, after the heat of the day, we walked on the moor tops. It was strange to experience such warm, balmy weather but with the heather already having flowered and gone. I know that as a Yorkshire woman I am a bit biased, but surely it can't get much better than walking on the moor in weather such as this!

When we got home, guess what? There was plenty more fettling up to do.

Looking ahead

There are still flowers to pick in the garden but now I am starting to think of next year's display. I've been to the garden centre to buy some bulbs. I don't have a great deal of success with tulips and I think that the squirrels are to blame. But it doesn't stop me from a bit of hopeful planting. I bought this box of thirty 'Queen of the Night' for only £2.99, how's that for a bargain? Surely the squirrels won't eat them all!

The alliums were good this year, nothing seems to like eating them, so I've bought some more to bulk up my display. I'm also collecting dried seeds from my established plants and putting them in envelopes to keep for planting next spring.

The year ahead always promises to be wonderful. Gardeners are born optimists, don't you think?

Back-endish

It's a bit back-endish, as they say up north. High winds and lashings of rain have brought the apples tumbling from the trees. To my surprise, all the pears from my second small tree have hung on in defiance of the weather. I don't know the variety and whether I should pick them now to ripen off the branch, as I do with our other pear tree that has already finished fruiting.

The 'Honorine Joubert' that I bought at last year's plant fair, is flowering nicely,

and the cosmos, 'Purity', still continuing to give a good account of itself. It's one of my favourite annuals.

After wandering round the garden wondering where to plant the rose that I bought at the rare plant sale the other week I decided to put it in a pot. Every blue tinged rose that I've ever bought has given me a few sickly years before pegging out. I'll over winter this one in the greenhouse and see if it will thrive on being cosseted.

At the moment it is sitting outside by one of my very full water tubs!

 
Colour is fading from the garden and the remaining flowers look rather bedraggled. It always surprises me how, when you bring just a few blooms in from outside, they give such a good account of themselves.

I've stripped the leaves from the tomato plants so that the low autumn sun (ha ha!) can ripen what remains.

They have cropped really well this year, as have the apples.

I'm baking trays of apfelkucken to freeze. I think I posted the recipe last autumn. It's a Victoria sponge cake base stuck with apple segments and dusted with sugar and cinnamon and it freezes really well.

My latest gadget is great! We already have at least three nut crackers. Could they crack our walnuts? Could they thump. But I've treated myself to this one that administers an effortlessly crushing grip.

Just as well - I've still got a sackful of nuts from last year's crop and this year's are ripening nicely. (Only don't tell the squirrels.)

Mellow fruitfulness

Summer has crept quietly away, the days are gentle, but morning and evening the air chills. I've been cutting down and clearing and a bonfire has been burning steadily for a day or so.

Small autumn cyclamen are popping up all over the garden.

It's my neighbour's birthday today so I picked her some flowers.

Happy Birthday, Kim!

Some things have relished the dull, wet summer. I have a wonderful crop of apples, all the brassica are excellent, as are the leeks and onions.

Red onions are one of my staples and I try to grow enough to last me all through the year.

The caterpillars had a lovely time with the red cabbage throughout the summer whilst I was inside hiding from the rain. Only the tough outer leaves have been under attack. Once they have been stripped away there is a clean, healthy heart all ready to be  enjoyed.

Braised red cabbage.

2lb red cabbage, finely sliced.

1lb onions, ditto

1lb apples, ditto

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

3 tablespoons of wine vinegar

clove garlic

1/4 of a nutmeg, grated

1/4 level teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and cloves.

Place in layers in a large casserole dish, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper and a sprinkling of chopped garlic, brown sugar, grated nutmeg, ground cinnamon and cloves. Pour over three good tablespoons of wine vinegar, put on a firm lid and cook for 2 - 3 hours in the oven at gas mark 2 (150C). Give it a stir now and then.

Reheats well.