The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring

Revelling in the abundance and easy availability of glorious spring flowers...

The Week at Dixon Hill (1)

From left to right:

Top Row

- Sheep looming through the mist

- Ranunculus on my desk

- A visit to the Rob Ryan paper cuts exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

- Nettle, the Dixon Hill cat, recovering after emergency surgery.  (He ate a piece of grass that was way too long for a little cat!)

Second Row

- Another pig pen ceilidh

- The snow is back

- A surprise card in the post containing words of encouragement, painted and sent by the lovely Danielle (it made my day)

- Daffodil shoots pushing through the earth

Third Row

- The queue for breakfast

- At the Sculpture Park

- Cooking pancakes on Shrove Tuesday

- Scraps of fleece, caught on the barbed wire and covered in snow

Bottom Row

- The fields under snow

- A hen's egg, tucked into a crevice in the wall.  Who put it there?

- A walk on the moor at sunset

- A friendly cow encountered one morning this week

The Amazing Gurgling Pot

It's bottled!  Today I lifted the lid on the wondrous fermenting pot and decanted three full jars of glowing, ruby red sauerkraut.  And it tastes great!  Sweet and sharp.  Far, far nicer than any commercial sauerkraut I've ever had.

But the best bit...the absolute bestest bit of all...was the gurgling.  You HAVE to get one of these pots!  Even if you don't like sauerkraut!!  Because for the first week or so, every few minutes it would emit the most delightful-sounding gurgle you ever heard.  A true gurgly gurgle.  The very essence of gurgliness.

It was sad when the gurgling ceased; but the fermenting continued, and now I have three jars of cultured goodness to bless me with that feeling of smug satisfaction that comes only from preserving and bottling and putting up stores.

Can't wait to start the next batch.  That's a whole new week of gurgling to look forward to. J



The amazing gurgling pots are available from Peppermint Health in the UK; and from Amazon in the US.

Lacemakers' Lore

Hot on the heels of Candlemas, I bring you more candle lore.

It’s Shrove Tuesday - which may mean pancakes to us but, to the lacemakers of old, meant more besides.

During the long, dark days of winter, these ladies would work together in order to share the cost of candles. The older, more experienced women would get to sit in the centre of the room closest to the flickering light. The young girls, whose eyesight was better and whose skill wasn‘t so great, took a place on the edge of the circle.

However, come Shrove Tuesday - whether it fell early or late - the candles were blown out……and weren’t relit until September.

Roll on the longer days of Spring...

Hearts in the Snow

Let me set the scene.

Last Tuesday.  Early morning.  I'm walking up a deserted and rarely-frequented path with my dog.  And we come upon this.

Two perfect hearts.  Etched in the snow atop stones jutting from the wall.

They made me smile.  They made me wonder.  Actually, they made my day.

Now I'm posting them here in the hope they'll make yours.

Happy Valentine's.