A jammy kind of day

Spent most of yesterday making jam and relish. I made five bottles of apricot jam

and eight bottles of green tomato relish.

Mum gave me a heap of cherry tomatoes so I picked out the ripe ones and used all the others to make this relish. I hope it tastes OK. I haven't tried this recipe before.  I also made a banana cake for the freezer and topped up the jam drop supply and have now hidden those in the spare room too.

Bill the Builder is home on holidays and is goofing off tidying up the shed so he says. We are picking up a new car that looks like a Mongolian Racing Duck in the next few days and I am really hoping for a road trip down south to see Lynda. I'm not used to having Bill the Builder home and it's a real challenge quite nice, although there are lots of cups of tea and snacky cake. We'll both be fats as fools somewhat heavier if this keeps up!

How gorgeous are these roses from SIL's garden? They are actually a lot darker red than they look here and the perfume is just exquisite. What a beautiful day it is here today.

Here's looking at you, mister!

Pick a spot….any spot

Generally, I am fairly neat and tidy. I usually put things away when I’m finished and I mostly work in a logical, orderly manner. And then the other times, I just lose the plot completely and the place looks like a bomb went off! Wherever you look, mess and chaos!  Just seems to go from 'not too bad’ to ‘whoa! What happened here?'

Hmmmm…maybe should have ditched the wine glass before I took the photo!

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to take too long to get everything back in order. Very easy to mess up but very easy to put to rights again.

Remains of the jam drops I made, after leaving them to cool while Bill the Builder was home. I also made a lovely orange cake (hidden in the spare bedroom), a loaf of bread, a zuchinni slice, some pea and ham soup (found a meaty hock languishing in the bottom of the freezer) and put the fruit on to soak for the Christmas cake.

How good do I look in this apron from the M & M shop in New York?? Oh. OK. Not good at all. Rats!

 How beautiful is this rose? This poor bush doesn’t get much attention and doesn’t give many flowers (probably for obvious reasons!) but  when it blooms, they are just lovely.

Good bargains at the junk shop! Shiny purple diary for next year and three bottles for Christmas jam. Bargain! Apricot jam on the boil as we speak.

Today, Barney No Friends has to go to the doctor (again) but this time, only for his annual shots. How would you fancy having to load this into a cage?? Not one of my favourite past times, let me tell you. He weighs a tonne and also has an aversion to being stuffed into a cage and having the lid slammed shut, but then, don’t we all?

Pickle School

I have a new hobby! I went to pickle and jam school a couple of weeks ago and now have a new obsession! 'Cause I need a new obsession! I had the best time and we made green pawpaw chutney, mandarin jam, tomato relish and preserved lemons. It's all been eaten except for the preserved lemons which has to sit and think about itself for another fortnight.  But I haven't been idle. I've since made........

Orange and Apricot Marmalade, and

Lemon Butter, and

Raspberry Jam, and

the best tomato sauce in the whole world (or any other big place!). But what would it all be, without.....

a nice warm loaf of homemade wholemeal bread?? The flavours of them all are so far removed from store bought stuff and all taste divine. I've got a few more recipes I want to try and I haven't quite worked out how to tell when the jam is ready. The jam and marmalade above are way overcooked and you need a crow bar to get them out of the jar. My mother says she spread the orange and apricot on pikelets. Now, there's a woman you wouldn't mess with! I was flat out spreading it on cold toast.

Other culinary delights from the kitchen today include a carrot and orange cake, curried vegetable and lentil soup and savoury glazed meatloaf (that just went ding!). I haven't made a meatloaf before and am not sure how well it will go down with Bill the Builder. He has a horror of 'strange' food and I sense meatloaf will classify. He demanded that I quit putting weird sh*t in his food after he discovered a bean in his salad, but that's another story.

I haven't been idle in the sewing room either. Weeellll.....I have a little bit but I've finished the top of Teddy Tea Party. What a slog that was but I'm really pleased with it, especially the mitred corners, thanks to Lynda's tutorials.

That little black body belongs to the gorgeous Belvedere, my sweet boy who I love dearly, but who I shall dong on the head with a heavy spanner if he swings off the end of this again. This quilt will be for Charlotte, my eldest niece. They are all coming down from Townsville for Christmas this year so I need to get it finished before then. It could happen.

I've also done my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler homework from last week. I have tried and tried to upload the photo and it just will not do it. Have no idea why because I took all these photos at the one time and have saved them all in the same place.

I'm off to cheese school next Saturday and am really looking forward to that as well. What a top weekend it has been!