TARRAGON & THYME

My first cherry tomato harvest this year.  They smell fabulous and taste wonderful.  Only small offerings but it is boding well for next year as it is all a learning curve.  I have not grown cherry tomatoes before OH has so highly chuffed.  A load more to come as well. And Strawberries out of two of my hanging baskets.  Am really chuffed. I also have lots of mixed salad leaves, large tomatoes red and yellow, courgettes and some chillies to come as well as herbs like basil, chives, parsley, oregano, thyme as well. There are also pea sprouts for salads as well.  The bay leaves are more or less dried.  So little steps as I have said before Catch you later. Pattypan x

I am not a lady that lunches for today at least.  I am confined to barracks sorting out the garden a bit  more and also housework "Yuk"  I would rather be lunching than do housework but there we are. It is what it is. Need to knuckle down a bit and get some more stuff done.  By 8:30am today I had received a delivery of a three tier Ercol tea trolley and I am chuffed to little bits with it.  Its another piece to the complicated jigsaw that has fallen into place.  It is made of elm but the colour seems to blend in beautifully with my pine furniture.  It will be very useful in any event.  My aunt never had the tea trolley but she had the kitchen furniture which I have posted about recently. These are the photos on the advert for sale off Ebay: It will be ideal for Sunday afternoon tea in both summer and winter especially with some of the new to me china displayed on it.  Just needs a bit of cleaning down and also a good bit ...

I seem to have picked up some new followers and this is just to say hello and welcome to you all.  Because my feeds fluctuate between Bloglovin and Blogger I am not always sure when I have newbies. Hope you find something to interest you. Waving like furiously to welcome you all. Kind regards. Tricia (aka Pattypan) x

It is too darn hot.   Today I have met my friend and had a lovely time with her with both of us leading the other astray.  We went for a bimble today - she needed some new shoes and I needed some new undies.  We were both partially successful but always enjoy each other's company in any event. As I had not eaten I nipped to Costas after leaving her and then went into town for another bimble.  This resulted in me going into M & S and exploring the sale rale.  I found several things including two pairs of trousers, a pale green and a navy spotted pair (both are more like jeans) reduced to £16.00 per pair, and three tops £5 each.  So I did not do too badly. I also had a wander around a couple of shops that I do not normally frequent namely New Look and H & M.  there were several things I spotted that I would quite like in H & M but despite the label saying that they did in my size I was not able to locate.  May go in and have...

This is the way that I make pickled onions.  I don't tend to measure things just prepare things in bulk and then if I need a little more vinegar then I will add some  - this is one of the reasons I tend to batch the vinegar up before actually starting the preserving side of things. Too much  - it always keeps and you can always if you have no further use for it use it on your fish and chips or chips.   Adds a certain piquancy to home made chips.  I always decant any vinegar left over from the pickled onions or shallots into bottles after straining it and use it for this very reason or alternatively use it in home made chutney.  There is always a way to use it up. I have found in common practice, sometimes you need more vinegar, sometimes less.  It depends on how big your onions are, and how many you can get into a jar. It does however rely on your source.  Sometimes the onions are miniscule, others inbetween which are the ideal size, but some...

Not me  - the Bay tree in the herb garden.  It has really sprouted out these past few months so much so it was making it difficult to walk down the path.  So yesterday, I started to give it a trim.  It is not tidy yet but at least I can get down the garden path.  This is what I cut off and which I have to process.   I need the leaves for drying for use in Bay salt (used as part of the salt in curing pork), dried bay leaves for cooking, Bouquet Garni but also for some dried Christmas decorations for the Dressers in the dining room.   This is only part of what needs to be removed, but I do not want to waste any of the leaves.  I think this will be a job for later on this evening.  Time consuming but very necessary on the culinary front and also on the C decoration front.  Its the little things at the end of the day that make all the difference. Catch you later. Pattypan x

Over the past 18 months or so I have invested in some pieces of embroidery which have been superbly and expertly worked. A lot of them are well over 30 years old if not more. A lot did not have frames, some have.  Those that are framed, the frames are not particularly good and well to say the least rotten so they will need replacing.  Therefore it makes sense for all the pieces I have thus far obtained to be framed similarly.  Some of the pictures are quite large as well.  No doubt I will have to pay out to have one or two of the really larger ones sorted although I am hoping to avoid this if at all possible. I have mentioned before that I have been buying from Charity Shops and the like cheap pine frames which often have orrible pictures in but surprisingly they have a very good frame.  So as far as I am concerned it will be a fair swap but it will be time consuming.  I have opted to do things this way on as it will be a lot cheaper in the long run....