Jammin'

There is nothing to say about this picture, but to pass on this recipe for the most stupendous strawberry jam ever known to mankind (in my opinion):

Ingredients:
675g Strawberries
500-600g granulated sugar (to taste)
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

3-4 medium sized jars
2 saucers

Method:

First and most importantly, the strawberries must be DRY DRY DRY - soggy strawberries will affect the quality of your jam. Boiling will get rid of any nasties, but if you must wash them first, then ensure that you dry them properly before you start.

Second and nearly as important, the fruit must be fresh fresh fresh, and erring on the side of under-ripe not over-ripe. Over-ripe fruit may taste sweeter, but it's not as good for jam-making because pectin levels are higher in less ripe fruit, and we need pectin for a good set.

Start the night before you intend to make the jam, by preparing the strawberries: hull them all and cut if they are large, leave some (small ones) whole. This is up to you. I did a mixture, leaving the smaller fruit whole and cutting larger fruit into halves or quarters.

Put the strawberries in your jam pan, toss them in the balsamic vinegar, add all of the sugar - no need to stir, cover, and leave overnight. The purpose of this is to a) toughen up the strawberries so they retain their shape better and b) dissolve the sugar before you boil it which will improve the quality of your jam.

The next day, the sugar in your pot will have mostly melted aided by the juice of the strawberries. Put your saucers in the freezer ready for testing later, and heat the jam gently until it reaches boiling point. Stir often. Boil vigorously, still stirring frequently, for 5-8 minutes. Start testing for a set at about 6 mins.

To test for a set, remove the jam from heat and put a teaspoon of it onto your "frozen" saucer. When the jam has cooled, push it with your finger. If there is a wrinkle effect, the jam is ready. If not, keep boiling and testing each couple of minutes until a set is reached.

When you have wrinkles, let the jam cool a little, remove any scum, and decant into your sterilized jars.

Then eat and take yourself to heaven...

This Is....

My favourite Op Shop (charity) find:


A Karen Millen skirt which cost a death defying ..... £5.00!

I love Karen Millen clothes but I have never found anything I can either fit into, or that I could afford, or that wasn't damaged (by someone else trying to fit into the impossibly proportioned things!) .. However, I found this skirt recently in a charity shop and liked it before I saw the label because it reminded me of the pin-up style girls in old Elvis films, with wiggle skirts and pencil dresses to kill. This one looks like a "Blue Hawaii" or similar. I used to love watching the Elvis films when I was a little girl (daughter of a die hard Elvis fan) and so decided to revisit this pastime recently. How very very disappointing! Even the lovely dresses couldn't tempt me to keep watching.

Thank you to Angela at Three Buttons for letting me join in, and also to Lino Forest for this week's theme.

Chickens of Joy and Happiness

I didn't report the sad demise of my last hen a few weeks ago.

Since they went, the garden has seemed rather sad and empty. I missed my girls so much! I'm sure it's the reason my gardening hasn't been quite how it should be, or what it has been.

I have no idea why having chickens in the garden makes me feel so very happy...

Today, my garden is complete again!

These two beautiful girls, arrived from Cotswold Chickens this morning, but they're still a bit shy and who can blame a hen for being shy when she has no name? The lovely lady here, is an Amber Lee, and the one shaking her tail feather in the distance is a Sussex Star ..

Help for names anyone?

This Space

This weekend, I would mostly like to make something ravishing, from some of these "old clothes" i've been given by various friends, and relatives, to re-purpose.

There are lots of these ...


A bit of this - quite Cath Kidston ...


A very voluminous white lacy skirt - not my style at all, but looks nice like this...


2 skirts and a shirt - all very large ..

I was particularly inspired by the inside of this waistband which in it's entirety says "Buy land .. They don't make it anymore" .. i hate to keep banging on about it, but these things are close to my heart...


Some treasure - liberty print blouses ... !

And finally, the real gem..... A bargain e-bay find. Looks nice, don't you think?

Exciting Times

You know sometimes when you get home from work feeling a bit "bleurgh" for no apparent reason, then when you walk through the front door, you find that the postman has been, and left you a nice pick-me-up.

It's like paper tonic - you can feel your spirits lifting as you pick up the envelope from the mat recognising the handwriting. Well I got one today!


A card from my bestest friend of nearly 20 years, who we shall be visiting next month. As you can see, where she is it's hot hot hot and, judging by her parting words .. "i'm off to buy an extra large pair of sunglasses" (well she is in Italy) .... it's also VERY SUNNY!!!! Which is a relief I can tell you, as when we went there last year, it was "Thunder in the Mountains" and not much else, which would have been ok, if we had packed more suitable clothing.

Here's a view from her garden if you look down the hill ....


and the view when you look up the hill ...


Its lucky she doesn't have any neighbours because if you look behind you might just see two lunatics prancing around the portico playing very loud music and pretending to be pop stars....


It's a true (and very sad) fact that before she left this country 4 years ago, we did give a "farewell concert" to her sofa (the only other thing in the room at the time).


That's a drunken haze you can see there!

Meanwhile, on this side of the Mediterranean, I have mostly finished my beautiful butterfly ... Still need some soldering practice!


and dissected several pairs of jeans for serious re-purposing ... Watch this space!!

Belated Fathers Day (or other presents)

I made this small towel for Jimmy to give to Mr Mk for Father's day. It's for him to take to the gym. It’s so distinctive that it’s unlikely to get mixed up with anybody else’s towel, so hopefully he wont lose it. It’s a great way to use up spare strips of fabric and could be used equally as well to customise a bigger towel. I think, with the appropriate fabrics, it would make a lovely present for babies and children too.

I used an Egyptian cotton hand towel measuring 50cm x 90cm and added a trim to both ends. Both fabric trims are finished off with some co-ordinating piping.

For this project you will need:
1 towel (washed to limit shrinkage!)
Fabric which will fit the width of your towel at whichever depth you like (my top strip measures 50cm x 15cm finished size and the bottom strip is 50cm x 5cm finished.)

Ready made piping or piping cord with bias binding. Enough to make 2, 3 or 4 strips the width of your towel plus 2cm each.

1. Start by measuring the width of the towel you are customising, and then cut a peice of fabric the same width plus 2cm and the depth you would like plus 2cm. This will allow a 1cm seam allowance on all sides.

2. Press down to the inside, your 1cm seam allowance on all sides. This piece of fabric, should now measure the exact width of your towel and required finished depth.

3. Make your piping by flattening out your bias binding which should be 2cm longer than the finished length so that you have a centimetre each end to tuck in, ensuring a neat (and long lasting) finish. Lay your piping cord down the middle, and fold over the edges of the tape so that both raw edges meet, enclosing the piping cord.

Then sew together with a zipper foot, as close to the cord as possible.



There are 2 ways to do the following step:

5a. (without a top piping) Place your fabric strip right side down where you want your top seam to be, You will have ironed a crease to indicate the 1cm line, but I used a quilting bar to ensure my straight line.

5b. (with a top piping). Insert piping underneath the fabric strip remembering that the raw edge of the piping and the raw edge of the fabric should be together, and sew in place with the 1cm allowance.

6. Flip the fabric over and press in place ensuring that the seam you have just sewn is flat and that the fabric strip fits your towel exactly. Now insert your piping along the lower edge and pin in place ensuring that the ends are tucked in.

7. Sew a line of topstitch starting and finishing at the top right had corner, so that by the time you have finished, the entire panel is topstitched in place. Remember to make sure your piping is tucked in at the edges before you top stitch.



Et Voila!

Challenging Times

Apart from other things, I spent some of the weekend celebrating the Summer Solstice which took place on Friday 20 June at 23.59.

The pictures on this post were taken by me at Stonehenge during the solstice celebrations of 2004. Not the overcrowded open access horror that you see on the news, or any freak show created by the media, but a private and spiritual ceremony which is a privilege granted by English Heritage to a number of groups every year for a few days around the main festival so that they may celebrate in peace and with reverence amongst the great stones.

Watching the sunrise quietly through the trilithons, is a spine tingling experience, and walking the circle in time with your heartbeat, and in the footsteps of our ancient ancestors, is more awe inspiring than I can describe to you here. On that day, although it rained, we were blessed with a clear horizon, and as the clouds gathered after sunrise, not one but two rainbows.

This year, I could find no better expression of the solstice than these flowers from my garden. At the peak of their vibrance and beauty, just about to go over, their most important work is done and now they are ready to drop their petals, and form their seeds by harvest time.

In human terms, this is a very high energy time of year. We can feel quite exhausted and overwhelmed with the thought that there is still so much to do and yet so little time in which to do it. Just like flowers in the garden we are at our seasonal peak. And though we are seldom ready for it, the solstice comes as a bit of a relief. How often have I thought "Surely it CANT be midsummer already?". We have worked so hard and yet the fruits of our labour aren't quite apparent. Certainly in my life, it seems as if there is still something big in the pipeline.



A few things have happened this week which have stopped me in my merry little tracks, and made me think very deeply about things - hence no posting since Tuesday. These thoughts, mostly about value, continued 0ver the weekend, with a seasonal challenge: To think about something I would fight for, something which means so much to me, that I would die for it. It seems that right now there are alot of people around me who want to leave this island in search of "more". Some have applied for residency in countries they have never been to, in order to find "a better way of life", others are prepared to find "more" on the strength of one holiday's experience. I know others who have returned, bitterly disappointed that there was no "more". When I look at the things these people have or had here, I wonder why they think they will find "more" when they have more than most already. So in answer to the question of what I would fight for, I replied that I would fight for my home. By "home", i mean my family and my land, this land, my connection and my commitment to it. The things I already have, not the things I could have.



At this time of year, when passions run deep and spirits are high and wild, what would you lay down your life for?

The Butterfly Effect

Tonight I have mostly been cutting glass. Believe it or not, by this time next week these colourful little shards will be beautiful butterfly's ... I hope !

Memory Lane

Just back from a weekend away in London - a pre wedding anniversary treat for Mr MK and I and very nice it was too. Warm, sunny, fun filled - just like our 17 years together, 11 of which have been as Mr and Mrs. We stayed Friday night in order to get an early start Saturday morning.

First stop Berwick Street. I hadn't realised - being totally focussed on fabric each time i've been there - how many record shops are in that street. This was a RESULT! Mr MK is as fanatical about music as I am about fabric! I decided that I would actually like to live in The Cloth House but that not being possible, I settled for a few purchases - the start of a distinctly retro flavoured day, not least because we have so many memories of London but also because retro seems to be scene of the moment.


I found a metre of The black fabric which isn't very visible here in the remnant bucket. It cost £10, a third of the full cost per metre! It's cotton with holes in, I thought it might make a nice gypsy top. Mr Mk bought rare CD's next door at SisterRay. One of them a tribute by The Cramps to the rockabilly bands who inspired them.


Round the corner in Brewer Street, the site of my hen night, 11 years ago. Madame JoJo's cabaret club, where the "waitresses" were leather clad, blue haired, heaviliy peirced transvestites with deliciously glittery red lipstick and pointy bras. The "cabaret" was performed by scantlily clad muscle men and other "ladies". I had no concept at the time that this was a strange thing to do for a hen night, but in a recent conversation was told "if my bridesmaid had suggested that sort of hen night, i'd have thought she was wierd" ... Well we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly despite the price of the wine!

Next stop ...

Which has changed somewhat in the last 20 years. I remember for a while it seemed to lose it's way with a plethora of cheap "alternative" shops selling lurid hairdye, pvc clothes and thigh high boots - an overhang from the punk era - which I loved at the time. It now seems to have regained it's status of high fashion, with a little retro still and a few old survivors..

In this Mod Shop which was one of two that we had a browse in, we found some pin badges from the 80's which have swiftly found their way onto our boy's Harrington jacket - We call call him "Jimmy" after the main character in the film Quadrophenia, his favourite since the summer holiday last year. From Skater boy to Mod, he was heard to say to a girl at school, after having his long hair chopped into an appropriately short style (taking a picture of aforementioned character to the hairdresser with him), "THIS isn't a haircut ..... THIS is a way of life" .. sigh .. I'm glad he's getting it out of his system early. I blame it on the parents though ...


Years ago, when Mr MK looked like this:

And I looked like this:

We would gaze longingly through the dark windows of The Great Frog at the chunky silver adornments of rock stars. It was a famous jeweler in those days, now it's on a side street, all black inside, a little worn round the edges but no less splendid, we always pop in for old time's sake. This time, as it's nearly his birthday, I bought Mr Mk a present ...

It matches the present I bought him at Christmas


Mr MK loves his cut-throat which he uses (very carefully) at weekends. After a few nasty slicing incidents while learning how to work it, he thankfully does not look like Heath Ledger's Joker, but does have a fantastically smooth face.

In keeping with the style of all things Retro, I bought Shoes at Office


Ribbons at Liberty


A bag from the Salvation Army


Accessories from MacCulloch and Wallis (what a place!)

Then over to Camden Town, another stomping ground from our misspent youth, we still love to shop there, though heavens above, what are they trying to do here?

Call me mad, but I can't help thinking that the fire at Camden a few months ago which burned down a large section of the street/market, is part of a conspiracy by property developers to tart the place up.

We firmly resisted the urge to return here ...

Had dinner by the Lock and then limped back to the hotel near London Bridge by 7pm with the most ridiculously sore legs and feet.

Just a couple of hours to recover, before I had to don these for our night of dancing ... Talk about killer heels!

At times like this my favourite mantra comes in handy. From the film Grease which I watched continuously when I was 15, and consequently am still able to recite in its entirety, word for word (including all songs), the immortal line "Beauty is Pain".

Fortunately, notwithstanding said mantra, I had some of these in my shopping bag too ...