I was good yesterday and rested. I decided to go to the Library in the morning, and got these books. I had put in a request for the Elly Griffiths last time but forgotten about that. It was cool enough to sit out in the garden and read.
Some ideas for Tam in the Toddler meals book, and I got the Eppynt book out again, as I want to dip into it further.
I'm enjoying this.
These are my personal books. The churches book is very good and has lots of markers in it for churches I plan to go to. In my Mortimer/marcher lords research I went off on a tangent when I was focusing on the Templar church at Garway, and am going to have a jaunt soon to take in Skenfrith/White Castle/Grosmont castles/churches, as well as Orcop, Llanrothel and Michaelchurch. The latter two churches I have not visited yet and it's years since Keith and I stopped at Orcop. I will visit Garway again as they are all in the same area. I spent several hours doing research yesterday.
I have joined the Mortimer History Society and need to order a couple of their MHS Journals. I've put in an order anyway for the two most recent ones. I also went to Abebooks to find the cheapest edition of "Decorated in Glory: Church Building in Herefordshire in the 14th C" by Nigel Saul. Had to be done - this book will be a really interesting addition to my Library. I will try and be good and get rid of some other books apart from the ones on Lace Making and Tablet Weaving which are going to the Charity Shop this week. I need to harden my heart and get rid of lots more.
This is the raspberry harvest - I picked solidly for 20 minutes. It reminded me of my soft fruit patch at Ynyswen which grew prolifically. I will confess to not staking and wiring my raspberries, but even so was amazed to go up there for the first time in a week and find that the canes were bowed half way to the ground with the weight of the fruit. I came indoors with my nose running, despite my prescription anti-histamines as the waist high grass surrounding them was the sort I am most allergic to the pollen of. . . I will try and remedy that next year with cardboard and grass clippings. I need to go to the garden centre for stakes but hopefully will be able to do that on the way back from going to Llandeilo with Tam and Rosie tomorrow. She has the dentist so I have to keep Rosie entertained. There's a garden centre near Llandovery.
One of those lucky days - not much of a challenge!
My new neighbour came round and we had a good natter. My brain seems to be functioning again and I surprised myself at how erudite I was!! He bought me some salad from his garden, and I had some for a late lunch. The brightly coloured Nasturtium flowers formed part of the meal - not eaten them before, and they were a nice addition. Looked lovely on the plate. I have the courgette he bought to use for a meal this week, and the huge Blackcurrants went into the first baking I've done for a couple of weeks - Apple, Almond and Blackcurrant muffins.
Here's the recipe:
This mixture made ten muffins and I had to add a little milk as the almonds made the batter drier than usual. The sharpness of the blackcurrants is lovely. I had one last night to test them (!) and took 3 down to my neighbour as a thankyou, and had one for breakfast. They are scrummy.
Just as I was coming back into the yard from putting the plate of cakes down at his cottage, I heard hooves so turned round and a farmer on a lovely chestnut roan Section C mare came up the track and stopped to talk. We had a really lovely chat. He was breaking the little mare in and giving her a chance to see some traffic. He was from the next village over, and was going back up over Moelfre, the REALLY steep hill behind us. The mare was in a muck sweat already so she will have been glad to get home.
So all in all a really nice day. Now I need to make the bed up fresh and hang out the bedding I've just washed. Then round with the vacuum as it's cat hair central here with them moulting at the moment.
