In A Right Pickle....

I seem to have spent an awful lot of my time this week chopping up vegetables and clearing up the resulting mess.  The house reeks, so do I, but it was all worth it.  Today's result was three jars of picalilli - my first time making it.  We won't know what it tastes like for a few weeks, but it looks all right!

Yesterday's result was five jars of apple & tomato chutney - since making this, I can no longer eat Branston as homemade is so much better.  It should be left for a month to mature but often I can't wait that long!

And in the garden, it's all looking lovely...

...when the weather is fine I find it hard to stay away.

There is so much to look at - I've jammed in so many plants in such a tiny space.

Some are well ahead, others are on their way - the Cosmos I grew from seed are still growing. This year I made bamboo support grids for them as they always seem to collapse if it rains.

There should be a lot of produce this year as well - fingers crossed!

Life Goes On...

Despite the mangled hand (still looking ghastly but not nearly so painful), there are still things to be done.  At the weekend I tried bottling some plums as I was given a very large bagful.  Today I tried making pickled pears - we have a tree in our garden which is full of pears but none of us are very keen on eating them raw, so I am always looking for ways to make them a bit more palatable. This recipe is from the River Cottage Preserves cookbook - my one gripe is that the quantity of vinegar/sugar mix are stated to be enough for two jars, but was really enough for only one - I had to quickly boil up another lot which may not be quite as spicy.  I'm also a bit concerned that the fruit float and are not covered by the vinegar, but perhaps they will sink with time as the plums did.  I also made four pounds of plum jam, but no-one wants to look at that - we have about 50 jars of jam, marmalade & chutney all perched on the top of the kitchen cabinets like crows in The Birds!

Before the hand incident, I finished re-knitting the lilac collar.  This time I DID cast on loosely but with the cotton yarn it still didn't have quite as much give to it as it should to make the points really long.  It is still quite pretty and is a fast knit.

I may try knitting it again at a later date in a wool based yarn to see of that makes a difference when it is blocked.

Thankfully, although I can't knit for the time being, I can still hold a pencil and a brush, so the artwork is able to continue - phew!  And the dog has been forgiven - I can crochet at least so am making him a new blanket.