Apple picking time

My apple trees have shown an abundance of fruit this year - I'm not sure whether its to do with the lovely hot weather we had in June which made them think we were going to have a summer (what a joke!) or the fact that I pruned them last year after some expert instruction. Whatever the reason - they are showing lovely big juicy apples. Its coming up to my favourite time of year - when the house is going to smell of baking, chutney making - cider and anything else I can think of to pickle or preserve.

One of my favourite books for apples is called The Apple Source Book by Sue Clifford & Angela King, which is a wealth of information for everything to do with apples. I never realised how many varieties they are- sadly I don't know what make my apples are - I have one cooking apple tree which I presume is bramleys and two eating apple trees.

As well as loads of information about apples it also gives recipes and this is their Dorset Apple Cake - scrummy! As requested - here's the recipe - and it is yummy - even hubby says so and he doesn't like cake!

8 oz flour

2 oz butter

2 oz lard

1lb cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped

4 oz sugar ( I used demerara)

1 egg

2 teaspoons baking powder

a little milk

mix all ingredients and bake in a greased and base lined cake tin ( I used a spring loaded and didn't line it and it was fine) about 8 in across and 1 1.2 in deep for 45 minutes in an oven preheated to 180C, 350F gas mark 4

Sorry for all the imperial - I still don't use grams! But can convert if you need me to

Greece and other things....

I'm off on holiday to Greece next week as part of my 25th Wedding Anniversary celebrations - and can't wait to relax in the pool with an ouzo, just to see some sun will be nice as its pouring down here in Hampshire today.



I managed to get a bit of time to do some crafting and was inspired by a piece Francesca sent me when she joined in with my inchy challenge blog swap. I had a look at some challenge sites and noticed that Wednesday Stamper are asking for a stitched piece and this one fits the bill. I've used various stamps, Cherry Pie - Tim Holtz - can't remember where I got the flourish one from.

TMTA are also asking us to use script this week - my background script is a Tim Holtz stamp.

W X Y AND Z!

Oops- I've been neglecting my old blog - we've now finished our A-Z on the inchy challenge blog - here's mine to finish the set:

I will be starting a new challenge in September - something a little bit different.

A busy month ahead of us for August with celebrations for our 25th Wedding Anniversary (which is actually 21st Sept) our daughter going away to Uni, off to Greece for a holiday all of us at the end of August and my son off to College.

My daughter has been doing an equine touch course in the New Forest for the past few days and it was a great opportunity for me to take the dogs down to play in the Forest - its so peaceful down there but such a shock when you get back into civilisation and on the motorway.

Here are some pictures of Tegan now 9 months and Tara - 11 years.

I love the way the camera has managed to catch Tegan's tail going nineteen to the dozen.

I've also got something else in the pipeline which is in its early stages at the moment -

What do you think of my posie or tussie-mussie?