Monday 23 November 2009

Wintry



Yes, it is definitely wintry here.  Although Autumn started early, it slowed down and seemed to be lasting for ages but the wet, windy, wild weather over the weekend has brought down many more of the leaves and everything is left looking greyer and bleaker.  We were lucky in the south to escape the terrible flooding and devastation in other parts of the country so although the ground is sodden I will not be grumbling about the amount of rain we received here.

It is indoor weather, nothing to entice me out to the allotment or garden so a good opportunity to catch up on some inside jobs,

like jam making!




November might not be associated with jam making but this year I cooked and strained both my red currants and crab apples and then froze the juice.  This week I defrosted the juices, mixed them together and made redcurrant and crab apple jelly.

If jam making was a little late in the year then I made up for it by getting ahead with writing my Christmas cards although I won't send them until December. I buy most of my cards from Oxfam but I have started getting a few cards made from my photographs this year. This is the picture I chose for my Christmas cards.




I also want to make some blank notecards. I took the photograph below in Lerwick, Shetland this summer and have turned it into a sepia print.  I  don't usually edit or change my photographs very much as I like to think they are an accurate record of what I saw at the time so this is a bit different for me. I think the effect suits the old traditional stone buildings but I'm not sure if I like changing the image this much and am still undecided whether to have it made into cards or not.



I seem to be suffering from indecision at the moment, at the weekend I couldn't even decide what cake to bake.  I ended up making one round of plain and one round of chocolate.




Then I cut each one in half and sandwiched with jam for the plain one and buttercream for the chocolate one and ended up with two half-cakes.





Of course ther was still a decision to be made, which one to eat......first?

4 comments:

Pomona said...

I think that the cake is a wonderful idea - just eat some of each!

We have just made some apple jelly from stored Bramleys - it has turned out really well, and set very easily.

Pomona x

The Curious Cat said...

Love the photos on your blog - and that cake has something for everyone there hasn't it?! :) xxx

Pipany said...

Hello Willow. i have just found you via Pomona's blog. off for a lovely read through now. Love the cake idea by the way x

Heather L. said...

Your Christmas photos are lovely!!! We had our Lerwick friends over for dinner just 2 weeks ago -- they were over for a visit. I send out numerous birthday cards, etc throughout the year and they are all made from my photos (saves so much money and is creative at the same time -- and I think they are pretty :) ). I was planning to make one into our Christmas card, but we have decided to take a year off from sending them as life is busy for us just now. I still printed about 15 for "emergency" cards.

I have also frozen fruit ready to make into jam -- mostly peaches. I need to get to them sometime.

Love your cake!!! We're in Oklahoma just now for Thanksgiving so we've been eating lots of pie. Yum! Have a good weekend!