mamaUK

early blackberries

 

 

 

 
(The blackberries K picked, we've ended up gathering about a pound of fruit)

Goodness, I didn't think I would be writing about picking blackberries from our garden in July, but that is exactly what we were doing today! They have been ripening over the past couple of weeks and we wanted to bake a blackberry and apple crumble...it's nice in the summertime to serve it with crème fraiche, it's a beautiful combination, the warmth of the crumble against the chill of the topping. We like to buy the organic Yeo Valley half fat crème fraiche. 

mud kitchen

 

 
(Mud kitchen flower soup with alpine strawberries)

It's the first day of K's summer holidays! Today, she went out into the garden to play with her mud kitchen. There are two enamel mugs, an old fashioned kettle, a white enamel pot, a stainless steel pot with lid, a metal dish and a spoon for stirring. Outside the green house, there is an old tin bath filled with compost for the girls to scoop soil from to make their mud pies and mud soups with. They use rain water to stir into the soil, and mix in flowers,leaves and twigs or anything else they might find in the garden.

summertime in the garden

 
There is so much happening in our garden at the moment. Just look at our basil plant! Our first cherry tomatoes are ripening. I'm sure our tomatoes have been slower to ripen this year.

 
Mummy's Pea (Prew's Special) an heirloom variety supposedly discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb. The white flowers are so delicate and pretty, shining white in early evening sunlight.

picking peas

 
Look at the peas we picked from our garden! We've never grown mangetout before, but next year I think we will be growing more. They were so sweet and crisp, we were eating them straight off the plant. K loved shelling them, popping the little peas out of the pod and eating them like sweeties before eating the shell too. While she was busy picking them, she started singing:

'Five little peas
in a peapod pressed.
One grew, two grew,
And so did all the rest.
They grew and they grew
Till they could not stop.
Until one day that pod went...
POP!'

It was so good to be eating peas that evening fresh from the garden, I baked a creamy macaroni cheese to go along side them. All the plates were empty by the end of the meal, which considering Little L's tendency towards fussy eating, was great to see!

corners of our home

 
As the sun was setting in our living room, the light looked so pretty. This chair is the one my mother used to use when she was a child. My children use it in play most days. Behind the chair, you can just see the children's home corner. There is a wicker doll basket, doll quilt,two dolls and their play kitchen. In the background, you can see the wicker book basket which is holding about ten Shirley Hughes story books. Right next to the book basket is a sheepskin rug for the children. This might be moved shortly though, as the children favour the sofa or sitting at the table for reading books. In the fireplace alcove, there is a box filled with play-doh cutters & play-doh.

 
Our beans twisting their way up the poles in the garden.

 
The vintage doll quilt. It is the only doll quilt they have so it is well loved. I often wonder who played with this quilt before it came into our home and the stories that go with it.

 
A pink trike that my neice left in our garden last week when she was playing with little L.

playing in the woods

 

 
(Summertime woodland-RSPB Garston Woods)

We spent an hour in the woods on Sunday morning. The girls found some vines hanging down from the trees which they enjoyed playing with while I sat on the woodland floor admiring the sunlight flitering through the leaves.Little L asked me if she could wear her shorts that morning. I realised this was a mistake when I saw how many stinging nettles and thistles there were lining the sides of the path! So I carried her for most of the walk, her arms wound tightly around me as she held on.