Very Much Wenlock

Following out sojourn to Worcester to pick up a typewriter, we drove home via Hereford and Shropshire, calling into the very beautiful Much Wenlock. We didn't really do very much there besides walk around and take photos as it was terribly quiet and closed up being late afternoon on a Sunday, but we absolutely loved it and decided we must go back there and stay someday.

Love you leafy

Now kids, I have to admit, it's not the best photograph i've ever taken, but I love the way the weeping willow is all enveloping us. It was taken in the churchyard at Much Wenlock but I am posting it today because it's 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days until the wedding.

Plumbo jumbo

On our Sunday travels through Shropshire we found these fabulous plums for sale by the side of the road and bought the lot! - Now apart from them being the sweetest and tastiest plums I have munched on since the heady days of Knock, they were also perfect for my plum chutney...see recipe beneath.

Ingredients

1kg plums

4 red onion chopped

2 tbsp olive oil,

200 ml white wine vinegar,

6 tbsp water,

1 tsp cinnamon,

200 g demerara sugar,

*optional~I also added a big squirt of sweet chilli sauce to just give it a piquant kick~

Method

1. Cut the plums in half down the crease, twist the halves in opposite directions and pull apart. Prise out the stones and discard. Roughly chop the flesh.

2. Place the chopped shallots in a heavy-based, non-reactive saucepan with the olive oil and heat until sizzling. Sauté gently for 5 minutes until softened.

3. Add the chopped plums, vinegar, water, cinnamon and sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and slightly thickened.

4. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 100-120°C /gas 1-2. Place 2 clean 0.5l jars in the oven to warm. When the plum chutney is ready, spoon it into the warm jar. Seal with a lid and leave to cool completely.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak

FOUR MONTHS TO GO!

Lashings of Ginger beer

I have a guilty secret.

This summer I have been re-reading my collection of Famous Five books. I have however, enjoyed it soo much, that I thought it was time to come clean and reveal my illicit pleasure.

This weekend I read 'Five on a Secret Trail' - a source of great joy and excitement as along with 'Five get into a Fix', I have never ever read them before.

In fact, last week I indulged my passion for the Five and bought the last remaining 4 books missing from my collection (how pleased Dad would be to know I have finally completed it! - all those weekend markets, charity shops and jumbles we rummaged through putting them together). What joy and rapture upon their arrival.

Ah, I love the smell of a secondhand book and I bless amazon marketplace and all who sail in her.

PM-T

Jon got to spend his afternoon grimacing at David Cameron's arse

Retro is the word

Today we visited Picture house antiques in Todmorden and fell in love.....

It is a a veritable Aladdin's cave of retro wonder and we wanted to buy ALL of it....in fact, we did buy a trunk and a towel rail(!) and I found it incredibly hard to leave behind a Colclough tea service and a large wicker dressing up box...I might have to go back for them later in the month. If they are still there...they shall be mine...oh yes, they shall be mine!

The Manchester three

Thursday brought with it a visitation of three from Manchester. Claire, Wendy and little baby Dylan came to see us for lunch and we had a huge lovely catch up during which I clicked and snapped and managed to get a good handful of photos of Jon, the girls and Dylan.

Wend is disarmingly down to earth as a Mum, just as she is in life...no yummy mummy-ness or obsessing about him, just v.relaxed and at ease, she was totally un-icky and cloying yet doting and full of love. Just an incredibly natural Mum, I only hope that if and when we ever go down this road that I make as good a job of it as she does.

I really enjoyed seeing them again and hearing about Claire's forthcoming wedding in just less than a year. I hope she has as much fun as I have planning the day. We also talked about families and my lack of therein, and if anyone is a classic example of an urban family it's Claire and Wendy. I think, like us and G, us and Shaz. blood is not thicker than water. Love is.

When the Mam comes around

On Wednesday we had the first of our visitors, hold the yummy, mummy-to-be, Suz. Beaming and blooming in an extremely cute pair of maternity dungarees. She was great company and we both enjoyed having her here immensely after a gap of a year. Several months of sobriety seem to have had a really positive effect on her whole outlook and she laughed and smiled more than i've ever known her to, which was genuinely lovely to see. She seems very very happy and we wish her, Jeff and Garry much luck with what is to come.

Day of the carrot

White rabbits White rabbits White rabbits....we are entering a new month!

We are also, indulging in eating our very own crop of carrots! - our gloriously rotund Parmex found their zenith on the bathroom window. Eaten alongside our old favourites - the Blue Lake green beans and some nutty little new potatoes, we had roasted belly pork, filled with sage and apple stuffing...It was a very wonderful thing, though the star of the show was undoubtedly the carrots. Sweet little sugar balls of deliciousness and something I will always remember.