Apples.Kindnesses.

Almost September. Already the leaves are dropping from our apple tree. So are the apples. I think the wind has been too much for them.Waste not etc, I gathered a basket of windfalls and chopped them up trying hard to disregard the odd buggy bits. I now have four boxes of stewed apples for the freezer.

My camera has finally died, so I'm using stock photos until I can replace it.

On to lovely kindnesses.
Over the last few weeks I have received in the mail, out of the blue as it were, some pretty cards and notes from kind blog friends, just asking how I am doing and sending words of encouragement. A postcard from Lourdes arrived yesterday. The sender knows how I long to return there.
Thank you to my friends from far away, it means more than you can imagine..

I was also sent the gift of a super book, 
'Miss, what does incomprehensible mean?' by Fran Hill.

When I saw the book mentioned on Lesley's blog 
'Nearly Martha again', I knew it was one that I would enjoy reading. I was very touched to find it sent in the mail by Lesley a few days later.
If you have a teaching background you will enjoy it, but even without that it is still a very well written book. In diary form, it's a day by day account of her experiences in teaching. It's funny but has also a serious side, dwelling on the backgrounds of some of the children, and relating to her own childhood.
Thank you Lesley.

Whilst we see here in Cornwall, sadly,  some of the most rude and unpleasant tourists that we have ever known, I am so heartened to find glimpses of kindness and goodness.
Thank you so much.

In praise of Godetia.

Tissue paper -like petals seem to float from this pot, moving gently every time I pass.

Godetia is one of the loveliest old fashioned garden flowers.

When I sowed the seeds there were some Clarkia amongst them, but none of them came up, sadly.

The plants are native to California, I believe, and were discovered and classified by a  Swiss naturalist, C.H Godet, in the 19th century.

I wonder how it feels to make such a discovery.

 My large pot is full of the plants and I have watched the different colours emerging over the days.

When the sun shines through the silky petals it looks magical.

Garden produce.

Windfall apples are dropping.

Some are usable, some are too far gone.

Soon I will be preparing  apple slices and stewed apples for the freezer.

Today I made a 'French Apple Cake' which is deliciously light.It is good warm (with cream!)or cold.

Then this morning I finished making the Crab Apple jelly that I started yesterday.

Some of you may remember that this is an annual event from way back when we had a large tree.

Now I just have a newish tree which nevertheless gave me two and a half pounds of apples.

That has made five little jars of jelly which we shall enjoy so much through the Winter.

The next project is looming. The Marmande tomatoes are beginning to ripen.

One of them weighed over a pound!

They make wonderful tomato sauce for the freezer, skinned and chopped, with shallots, a little garlic and basil,

tomato paste and a little water.

We have only just finished the last block from the freezer, delicious with pasta.

Quite a productive week.

I love having our own produce to store. Was I a squirrel in a former life?

Best birthday present!

My lovely daughter knows how much I would love a cat, but equally how impossible it is in the light of my husband's blindness etc.

So here is Poppy.

She miaows, she purrs and she rolls around.

Almost as good as a 'real' one!

I have been inundated with so many bunches of lovely flowers, and so many cards.

In the middle of taking a photo of them all, my camera died, and I think it may be terminal as the lens will not go back. Looking on Youtube it seems that there are ways of fixing it but with potential damage to the camera.

I'll have to think about it..

Update on the camera,

Having read all sorts of scholarly websites on repairing a camera, I went with the advice to....'if all else fails give it a thump with your hand.'

It worked!