Friday Chat Day

Hello friends

Welcome to another Friday Chat Day, they certainly come around quickly.

I have bits and bobs to share with you this week but first,

excellent news - my Mum is home from hospital and improving daily.

Many thanks for all your kind words.

Second, this month's Charity Kit was another sellout.

I've been thinking about September's kit - too early for a Christmas card??

Now let's get to the chatter, starting with...

Recipe:

Rustic Chelsea Buns this week.

I admit these do take a bit of faffing, it is dough and waiting for

it to rise etc so not a speedy recipe but one for a lazy Sunday morning perhaps?

I call them 'rustic' because they are always chunkier than the shop bought buns.

Dough: 450g strong white flour, 2 x 7g sachets yeast,

50g sugar, 150ml warm milk, 1 egg beaten,

50g melted butter, 1tsp salt

Filling: 25g melted butter, 150g dried fruit,

2tsp mixed spice, 25g sugar

Glaze: 2tbsp sugar, 1tbsp water (mix until sugar dissolves)

Start with the dough – in a large bowl mix together flour, yeast, sugar, salt. Make a dip in middle and add milk, egg and butter.

Mix and then use your hands to make a dough.

Knead on a floured surface until smooth, place in greased

bowl, cover with cling film and allow to rise for 1 hour.

Grease a baking tin. Knock the air out of the dough and roll

out to 20x30cm. Spread over the butter, dried fruit and mixed spice.

Roll from longest edge (like Swiss Roll) and slice into 9 portions.

Arrange in tin, cover with clean, damp tea towel and leave for 30 mins. Pre-heat oven to 200.  Once risen again, bake for 10 mins.

Reduce heat to 180 and bake for a further 10 mins.

Remove from oven, brush over glaze. Leave in tin to cool.

And here is the printable recipe.

I'm also getting around to reinstating all the recipe links

that the new Blogger removed.  Grhhh!

For the moment I've managed to access 

the old template so things are behaving.

Garden:

Transformations are still happening in my tiddly garden.

I've got a couple of before and after pictures to share.

Elliott and I were walking Bella and espied this garden seat that someone

was throwing away, he was delighted to carry it home for me and even more

thrilled when I told him what I had planned for it...

Two cans of garden paint spray later...

I'm calling it subtle pink but I've been told it is VERY PINK!

I love it.

And here is my tree, I've never owned a tree before and I'm ridiculously attached to it.

It is 2 year old cooking apple tree - Arthur Turner variety, so of course 

I'm calling it 'Arthur'!  

It is self-fertile so I may get fruit one day - all this new stuff I'm learning about.

Some small leaves went a little yellow this week,

panic stations!!  

Turns out I may have watered him a little too much so he's on a dry diet 

at the moment.

And here's part of the garden 14 months ago.

Taken yesterday...

All the new plants from the Secret Gardening Club are now in,

not sure if I'm going to like every one, next year should prove interesting.

Aside from Arthur my tree I've realised my love is definitely Clematis,

I've spent time learning about their groups, pruning and varieties.

Delighted to know you can grow them in among other plants so 

another project on the horizon.

And instead of Bella this week, I give you Lily who is my seedling monitor.

She's a funny little thing, smallest cat we've ever owned but the loudest.

Also a massive hunter - no chance of us ever having mice with her around.

Crochet:

Two projects finished.

This striped blanket using the Hydrangea pattern from Attic 24 and

Deramores Studio DK is being shipped off to Bristol.

It's an order placed for a Christmas gift.

Also going to Bristol is this smaller blanket made entirely from leftover yarn.

A gift for a very pampered pussy cat.

My instructions were 'any pattern you like' so I went with a real mix 

of stitches and I loved doing it.  

The granny squares in the middle were guesswork, if I do it again I may

do the maths correctly - I'll have to use my toes as well as my fingers! 

(Pink chair is coming in handy for displaying blankets).

I've updated my Yarn page at the top of my blog for more links and details.

At the moment I still have just one blanket for sale, hope to have more soon -

gardening is curtailing crochet a little! 

Telly:

Last week pesky Blogger deleted one of my recommendations so 

I'm posting it again.  

Our Yorkshire Farm on Channel 5.

Amanda and Clive Owen, Hill Shepherds who live on one of the most remote 

farms in Britain and an insight into their lives raising 9 children,

1,000 sheep, 40 cows, 6 dogs and 4 ponies.

It is totally feel-good, I admit I have split moments where I think

how wonderful to live their lives but goodness what hard work.

2,000 acres in severe weather conditions...

I struggle to nip out an get the milk in on a cold morning! 

And because I've been seeking out all things gardening...

Gardening Together with Diarmuid Gavin on BBC iPlayer.

Diarmuid encourages us to get gardening and offers advice and tips.

It is worth watching the first episode just to be in awe of his house/garden transformation.

And that's been my week so far.  

Let me know how your week has been going.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend, I have no major plans and that

feels just right.

Take care friends, continue to be safe and careful.