Dorset Apple Cake

     So here it is ! Hot and steaming fresh from the oven ...and very crumbly ...and now already , only half left , as we both tucked into a piece there and then and two more still hot portions were wrapped in foil and a tea towel and delivered , pretty much , straight away to my daughter in Helston  .
 The recipe for this Dorset Apple Cake , was a total success and I will give you the link to the wonderful Goodfood  website here ... http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/dorset-apple-cake .
    Especially good with a little Cornish Clotted Cream I say !  

Apples !

 
 It's been a good year for apples ! A bumper harvest ! A combination of the weather and me pruning them correctly .

        So I,m  having fun experimenting with all the lovely recipes that are on-line .

 There's a Dorset Apple Cake in the oven right now ... mmmm....smells so good !

Troll and Pumpkin update

                                   I,ve been playing in the garden again today .

                            I gave the topiary Troll a trim and a new  " hair-do " .

 Next I decide to harvest my Jumbo Pink Banana Squash ..I,m afraid I forgot to sow my traditional big Pumpkin seeds ....but this Pink Banana Squash more than makes up for it.

Here it is growing on the vine , to begin with it clambered up on this pig-wire spiral fence I set up , but as the Squash grew It eventually became necessary  to give it the stool to sit on ..this worked really well , keeping the skin of the squash in good condition .
 

                   
                      Here I am with my beautiful Jumbo Pink Banana Squash .

 I wanted to try growing  the  Jumbo Pink Banana Squash ,as it is very similar to the Gete Okosomin Squash that I am hoping to get seeds of soon .....maybe next year  or the year after .   I think that these can actually  get much bigger than this ...but I,m very happy with this and we will probably  either make soup or roast this up in chunks along with our roast potatoes  for Sunday lunch . I,ll be saving the seeds too .

 The butternuts were a bit of a disappointment  this year ....many folk are saying the same thing about them ...usually I get up to 13/15 butternuts ....this year only 3..and I,m not sure if they are going to make it ..hmmm...maybe one . Which is such a shame , we love butternuts in our family !

                                                   Still ripening on the vine .

        Next seasons Pumpkin Patch ...hopefully  for one  very special Squash  !

Monkshood Aconite

Back in April my friend brought me a really lovely surprise , a whole bucket full of  Aconitum napellus , more familiarly known as the Monkshood aconite or Wolf's Bane .

                                              ......and here it is flowering now !

Bringing in my Cornish Window box for Winter

 This year I planted up my kitchen window box with  succulents and pelargoniums .
I called it my Cornish window box  , but actually most of the things in there are actually South African plants and the Agave is from South America .
 Well I think it did really well and now all I have to do is get it into the greenhouse and hopefully I will be putting it out again next Spring .

 It's looking good and flowering away on this South facing window ledge .
That's some of my collection of Heart Stones on the window ledge behind .

Pretty Aeonium and sweet mesembryanthemum (or "Sally me 'ansom s  " as they are called in Cornwall ) looking pretty right now , but yesterday we had some scary thunder and lightening and torrential rain ......actually while I was having my flu jab at Mullion Health Centre .... we had a power cut !
   Anyway  , I was thinking I'd better get a move on and get some of my more precious plants into shelter .

         It was heavier than I expected and  awkward even in the wheel barrow .......

.....but I got it though the veg garden and up the slope to the greenhouse , a quick cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit to give me strength  and then ......

...... shoved it into the greenhouse ....yes .... no .....there's not a lot of room in there now !
 I can just about squeeze in there now to open and close the windows .
                                           Aah ! That's that job done !

Harvest Festival

 I slipped into the near by sweet little Church of St Grada  , on the Lizard in Cornwall , not  for any service ,   but to quietly  give my own thanks to God for the sun and the moon , the rain and the good earth , that all helped to produce my veggies , fruits and flowers in my own garden this season .
 It was nice to see the Church so beautifully decorated for Harvest  Festival .
                I especially loved this basket of beautiful vegetables .

We plough the  fields and scatter , the good seed on the land , But it is fed and watered by God's almighty hand; He sends the snow in Winter , The warmth to swell the grain, The breezes and the sunshine , and soft refreshing rain .

All good gifts around us  , are sent from Heaven above ,
 Then thank the Lord !
O thank the Lord !
For all his love .

I loved the Harvest Festivals of my old school days . We would gather in fresh  fruits and vegetables and make up pretty boxes which would be delivered to local homes for the elderly  and other good causes . We also would bake our own bread for Holy Communion and there would be one really beautiful loaf made in the shape of a sheaf of wheat ,which would have pride of place at the foot of the Altar  .
 I,m the generation that played guitars , clapped and bashed  tambourines  ....." Bake us the bread , Mary, Mary ! " and   "Give us Joy in our Hearts " " Go tell everyone  !"  and for the little ones  " He's got the Whole World in His hands " , but there would also be some of the good old traditional hymns sung  too ..usually accompanied by the school Orchestra  ....dearie me .....memories come  flooding back !

                        Quietly I slip back out into the glorious Autumn sunshine .
                                       

         At home I have the last of a bumper crop of tomatoes ripening on the kitchen window . These are the Marmande tomatoes that my blogging friend sent me seeds of back in the Spring . They were very successful in the Vegtrug and I will be saving the seeds  from one of these to grow again next season .
  Gardeners Delight also gave us a bumper crop . I just have one Cherokee Purple left growing in the greenhouse with one tomato on it ..I sowed these too late really after my husband brought seeds  back  from America .....but I am determined to get at least one tomato from it !

                                       Hope you,ve had a bountiful harvest !