Home Made

 

We had a busy morning bottling our plum wine.  It was very satisfying to see all the filled bottles lined up, sealed with corks and carefully labelled, all twenty four of them.  Actually the labels got a little mixed up so we now have an Early Plum, a Late Plum and a Very Early Plum.  Well, they’re all plum anyway.

For the first time this year we had lunch outside on the terrace.  Home-made ciabatta, cheese, home-made pesto with a three bean salad, home-made yoghurt with fresh blueberries, and ….. a chilled glass of home-made plum wine!  It was certainly a very enjoyable lunch and I’m not sure if it was the sunshine or the wine but I felt very warm and rosy afterwards!

 

 

Cruel Jack Frost

I cannot recall an April with so many frosts; this month's sustained icy mornings have taken a real toll on the garden.   Although Paul has been religiously covering up the tender plants with fleece every evening it has been impossible to protect everything against Jack Frost's icy fingers.  

The flame tree's flowers went over very quickly this year.  

 

My tree peony has lost many buds and is very late to bloom.  

The new growth on most of the roses has been affected.

The hydrangea has been very badly hit.  We will have to cut it right back in a week or so.

At least everything looks healthy in the greenhouse!  Hopefully this arctic spell will be over soon and things can recover and get planted out.

Rick is untroubled with these garden woes and continues to do yoga with Mr Bunny

Busy Sewing

 

fabric tie-back

It has been snowing here today but I didn’t really notice because I was busy making tie-backs for the new curtains.  I am quite pleased with the result although Paul and I did have some debate as to whether the window needs a pelmet or not.  In the end we decided it would make the window look too closed in so that option is on hold for the time being.

 

curtain with rope tassel

I made the tie-backs from the co-ordinating fabric that I bought to cover the headboard.  I can now choose between them and the tassel rope ones.  The new bed is due to arrive on Tuesday and then it’s just a matter of waiting for the replacement wardrobe doors to be delivered.

 

headboard

At this rate the room might just be ready by the time Kat returns home from Cyprus next month!

 

 

Portrait

 

Yesterday morning the postman delivered a mysterious package all the way from Australia.  I was totally thrilled and surprised when I opened it up to find a beautiful drawing of Rick; I had not realised my daughter had such artistic skill.  She has captured him perfectly.

 

Rick and Bunny

The drawing is all the more poignant due to the fact that Sarah’s dog, Buddy, died back in December.  She doesn’t feel ready yet to attempt Buddy’s portrait but when she does it will be a wonderful tribute to a special dog, he stole the hearts of everyone he met.

 

Buddy and Sarah

Wine Tasting

 

It is too cold at the moment to play in the garden, it is absolutely arctic outside.  Instead we are focusing on indoor tasks, like checking the progress of our apple and plum wines that we made in August last year.

The apple wine was very pleasing, a nice pale yellow colour and a hint of Chardonnay with its buttery, apple flavour.  We had a glass with our lunch, only a small one though because with an alcohol content of about 15% it is quite strong.  Paul thought it was slightly too dry so we added a small amount of syrup and will leave it to mature for a few more weeks before bottling.

apple wine

We then tried the plum wine.  The combined flavours of vinegar and corked wine were immediately apparent! Oh dear, this was very disappointing.  A whole demi john of wine was tipped down the sink.

Fortunately the four other demi johns of plum wine were delicious so they were racked off (transferred into a clean container leaving the sediment behind) and, again, we added a very small amount of syrup to sweeten them up slightly.  It is a simple process to sweeten the wine but you have to be extremely careful not to overdo it.

 

Hopefully we shall be able to bottle and cork the wine in a few weeks time.

Cheers!

 

 

Love it or hate it?

 

I love white (or shades of white) walls.  I’m a bit wary when it comes to colour and patterns and I don’t really like wallpaper.  The long hallway as you enter the bungalow is white and decorated quite simply with a big round mirror and three abstract framed prints.  This leads into a large inner hallway where I have a console table and my prized Tang horse.

 

long corridor leading to inner hallway

In a moment of madness I ordered a forest mural for one of the walls.  I wanted to add some interest and a flavour of the Far East as a suitable backdrop to the horse.  

 

 

 

I love the result, a bit of a surprise as you turn the corner.  Paul says he will probably get used to it in time.