Winemakers required!

Woohoo!

I'm just listening to the radio and apparently this year is going to be the best for English wines.

And and and, there is a shortage of skilled winemakers (really not sure if that is the correct terminology) and so there is a need for new people to train. I'm thinking that sounds like a really great career change! Not entirely sure if I would be any good at it as you would probably have to drink less so you can taste more!

As far as English wines are concerned I can highly recommend Yearlstone Vineyard in Devon, been there for the past 2 years and am a big fan of their wines.

But back to this lovely weather we are blessed with right now. We went over to a local nature reserve for a walk at the weekend.

The handsome boy waiting for the ball!

You may just be able to see the glider being towed up up and away, we watched it come back down again, so graceful.

Looking in the opposite direction there were hundreds of webs glistening in the grasses.

Gorgeous autumn colours in the leaves and just look at the lovely Bedfordshire mud! Although strictly speaking I think we were just in Cambridgeshire or possibly even Huntingdonshire - there are a lot of county borders round here!

The seat with a view.

Going to go and investigate the wine making now!

Take care all, til tomorrow

Sarah x

Gransden Agricultural Show

This weekend I was at the Gransden Agricultural show. I remembered to take the camera, just forgot to put the battery in it! Fortunately Hubby came and visited as it was only down the road from us and he took some pictures on his phone instead!

There were birds of prey from a rescue centre

Old tractors

New and rather large tractors!

Inquisitive cows

Different coloured sheep

Poodle sheep!

Fabulous floral arrangements

Ooooooge pumpkins!

And a worn out doggins.

I am feeling all festive today so I'm embarking on a Christmas Card making day.

Take care all, Sarah x

Opportunist harvesting

Just been out for a walk with George, well not quite just, been delayed by visiting parents inbetween! Anyway, I went out this morning, what a beautiful day it is here. Whilst the dust clouds are over Australia, we are getting their sun. Together with the newly ploughed fields which feel so open there is certainly an Australian sky today - very very big!

Look what I found! A bag of treasure!

Well, sloe berries actually. But they are my kind of treasure when you are not expecting it! There I was over the fields, dressed in a rather odd fashion. When I saw the sun I got all excited and put on my old 3/4 length jogging bottom trousers. Now these really have seen better days and I should not leave the confines of my own home whilst wearing them. The knees are all baggy and have that shiney faded look that you get on old clothes! Also, they don't have pockets which means that I have to tie my door key to the stingy tie thing at the waist, post the dog poo bags in my bra strap and tuck my hankie in my waistband! Plus I am carrying the flingy stick and then the dog lead which usually ends up slung around me in an off the shoulder kind of look!

I do nothing to dispell the 'odd woman' theory either!

Anyway, I was rather pleased to discover a heavily laden sloe berry bush along one of the hedgerows, I had not spied it before, the only ones I had seen and am planning to visit next week are much futher away. So as I was quite unprepared for a spot of harvesting the berries were collected in the afore mentioned poo bags!

I shall be preparing the berries later and they will join the jars of Bramble Vodka (blackberry) I have steeping in the kichen from the last poo bag harvest at the weekend!

I was most put out to find other people gathering blackberries at the weekend, they had bowls and colanders with them all prepared. The thing is that I go walking out there everyday in all weathers and thought it distinctly unfair that other people (not hardy dog walkers) were gathering the fruits that I had my eyes on! So I had to get on and pick what I could before they stripped the bushes, all I had with me was the poo bags so thats what I used!

Isn't it a scrumptious colour?

I'm off to raid the larder now for lunch, take care all

Sarah xx

Righto, so now its Autumn.

Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox where the days are as long as the nights for a short while before they start drawing in for the winter. I don't know about you but I am not yet ready for it to be dark in the early evening and in the mornings so thought I'd have a little look through the flowers I've managed to snap during the year.

Bright happy sunflowers from Scald End Farm

These still count! Detail from one of the quilts at the NEC.

Cream teas, mmmmmm.................

These blossoms have all turned to berries now

And the fields that were bathed in yellow are now dirt brown and ready for the next crop, have to wait and see what appears.

Flowers on my table cloth as I dipped my toes in the biscuit producing line of work! Still baking but concentrating on the crafts with the biccies as an extra now.

Seems like an age since these were out in bloom - good tip I read about the other day - photograph your garden when bulbs are in bloom so you know where you planted them once they have died down, therefore you don't need to label them all!

The Buttercup field where the dog ends up sporting yellow legs and we have yellow shoes!

Work in progress - still in progress, although not much progress!

Flowers from lovely Hubby!

Well that's me brightened up, hope it has sent some cheer into your days too.

Take care

Sarah x

The magic purse

Right, hmmmm, I think I'll be needing to have a word with myself about this 'losing' days in blogland. Again I have missed my goal at a daily report (whether you like it or not I do intend to write daily!).

The other night, the one after which I have not blogged, I was asked to go out to a pub quiz. I was a last minute stand in to make up numbers, no-one in their right mind would ask me if they wanted any real chance of winning! So I went along, even answered one of the questions correctly, and had a brilliant evening out with friends. However, the next morning whilst putting my purse back and sorting out my monies, I discovered that I had seemingly paid for my pub quiz entry, bought a round (although that probably should have been two!) and ended up with only 50p less that what I had started with plus a bottle of red wine!

So I spent a few hours worrying that I had either pocketed someone elses change from the bar, blatenly stolen cash from a friend or else I had a magic wallet!

Unfortunately I don't have a magic wallet, I did pay for my drinks, I didn't steal but I did take an order from a friend who paid upfront, and would you believe it, because I didn't - we came second in the quiz, hence the bottle of red!

A rather successful night all round me thinks! Take care all for now, til the next time!
Sarah x

To Misters Swayze and Floyd

Bit of a shocker when I hopped online today and discovered that not only has Patrick Swayze died but Keith Floyd too.

I am not ready for people I have heard of and can remember clearly in films or TV to leave us yet. Due to my poor memory I am usually quite oblivious to most of the celebrity news and have no recollection of films I have watched until I am watching them again, and then they have only a slight familiarity. Not so with Mr Swayze and Dirty Dancing, now that is a film that I have watched many times and can even recite some of the lines. And I can clearly remember sitting at home with Mum and Dad watching Keith Floyd whip up a feast with a glass of good wine in his hand at every opportunity!

So I think I may nip off to the kitchen now and in tribute to Mr Floyd I shall cook my tea with a glass of red in my hand, and as Hubby is not here this evening he is excused from doing 'the lift' ala Dirty Dancing!

Take care all, til tomorrow
Sarah x

Wow, it has been ages since I lasted posted anything. So where have I been and what have I been doing? Well I didn't get blown away at Welwyn Garden City market fortunately! The wind died down nicely for us on Saturday (not the one just gone but the one before).

Last week I was at Milton Keynes shopping centre with Land Cuckoo to see how a different setting would work for me.

Look - it's indoors! With my new sign up too.

And even better - you may just notice the shop name at the top right, sorry left of the picture (had to look at my hands there to check which was which!) it is none other than John Lewis! Fab - great shopping for me too!

Didn't get to taking any other pictures at the event as I was so busy with my own things but did see these as I was setting up on the Wednesday evening and thought they were absolultely fabulous, great fun pieces of furniture.

They are made by My Junk 4U. I quite fancy having my dining room chairs all different colours and patchworked seats but not sure if Hubby would be up for that!

Ate quite a few of these from Sweet Delight at 3pm when the sugar hit was required!!

It was a good show and I'm quite looking forward to doing something like that again especially as you set up the day before and then you get to stay, as does your stock, for 4 whole days in the same place! No worrying about the weather, infact it would probably be better if it did rain to drive the customers inside, and no packing and loading up until the end of the 4 days!

Now I am just in the process of unpacking it all here at home and finding out how much I have left and of what so I know where to start with the sewing tomorrow!

I have just found that one of my product pictures is being used on the website of a show that I am going to later in the year. I'm really quite pleased with that as there will be lots of exhibitors there, so really great that they used one of my pieces in the header. It is on the Romor Exhibitions website for the Wrest Park event in November (I'm sure I shall be telling you about that nearer the time). My lavender parcel is the last one on the right (didn't need to check with the hands that time!).

Got to put more stuff away now, take care all, til tomorrow

Sarah xx

Bed time

Still here!

Still working!

Still not got enough stock!

Well I may have, but you just don't know do you? How much to make and of what? I have long since stopped trying to guess what people will want to take home with them!

How about a Vintage Cat Bed?

Vintage in the wine sense not age!

Got Missy to model them for me

Well first she had to make the bed!

Thats better.

Modelling is so tiring!

Off to make more of these now

Take care all, I'll be in Welwyn Garden City tomorrow on the market, please keep all things crossed that the wind dies down or me and my stock could be blown into Welwyn, Hatfield, St Albans, Hertford and possibly even Potters Bar!

Sarah x

Flying Post

Another flying post but not in the same style as the previous one! This time I mean flying past, by me, being rather busy!

The reason? I am off to Milton Keynes next week to attend a Craft Fayre in the Centre MK and I am frantically making up my stock. This has not been helped by the fact that I keep having good markets and events in the meantime which means I am forever playing catch up on the stock levels!

Although I am by no means complaining - that would be wrong! It is just that I have not much spare time to sit and blog so please excuse me if I have not checked in with any of you recently, but I am not really checking in on myself either!

Plus I am actually very very excited, if a little scared, about 4 days in the shopping centre! Wont it be nice to be indoors, and once I am there I don't have to pack it all away and load up the truck until the end of the show, woohoo!

Off back to the sewing machine for now, take care all and catch you soon!
Sarah x