~ Around the Garden Thursday ~

I'm joining up with Farmama's 'Around the Farm', (or garden), again this week. Some things are growing wildly, others are quite slow....

Our lovely apple tree outside the doors of my shed has 

four apples this year...last year it had only one 

the borage is going mad ~

Courgettes slowed down when May and June turned cold

Raspberries are ripening ~ tra~la~la

Lady's Mantle is going mad too ~

Runner beans blossoming.....

...and climbing

Peas are blossoming....

....and climbing ~ ~ ~

Parsley has just been planted outside

In the greenhouse we have ~

a cherry tomato plant

and a beef tomato plant ~

these and the cucumbers are really slow this year

I couldn't take out that fern...it's so pretty

this lettuce is so delicious

Basil is finally growing....only two plants made it this year 

~ this is the bigger one. We had some in our salad tonight

....oh my it's good.

This Elder is eleven years old now. She seeded herself in a pot of mint I had

before we came to live here. I brought her here with us and planted her by the 

hedge. I did not know then that Ash trees (you can see them behind her) 

 are very hungry and take lots of nutrients from the ground around. I think 

maybe that is why she does not produce so many blossoms. I love having her

in our garden. It does not matter that she can't supply me with the flowers

 and berries I need through the year....

I had tried three times to grow lavender here, but it just did not like the

soil. Our friend who we house~sit for has wonderfully large and healthy

plants, so she gave me some of her - very sandy - soil to try once more.

This plant is thriving in its pot of sand and I love that we have lavender

in our garden ~

Thyme has tiny blossoms

and I'm so happy that Sage is flowering on and on

~ Elderflower ~

Our Boy is happy. It's the time of the Elderflower again and for the past four days our house has had the bewitching, dreamy, lazy~summer~evenings smell of this creamy exquisite flower curling around its rooms.

Every year I make twelve litres of cordial, which he almost single~handedly consumes over the next few months...it has yet to last him a year! 

I love the whole process of it.....wildcrafting from trees abundant with the blooms.....

saying a silent thank you to the Mother Elder

 ~ asking permission from each tree before beginning ~ 

Picking the flowers that shine out from the rest, as they let me know they are the ones I can take, then saying thank you and leaving an offering....I cut little pieces of my hair as that is what feels right for me.

I have been making this for the last nineteen summers and I love how the annual ritual has brought an efficiency to the process. Although I am mindful as I work, I do not need to think about what I am doing...my body has the memory of the practice deep in its bones...the same as when I give a massage.

Today was bottling day and it is ultimately satisfying to have fifteen green, ceramic~topped beauties ~ and one little clear one ~  filled with sweet, tangy deliciousness lined up in the cupboard.

The Elder is one of my favourite herbs and, as Our Boy seems to get one bout of very high fever every winter (except when we home~schooled him for four years!), I always use the dried flowers in an infusion...along with yarrow and boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)....to help control the high temperature.
Early autumn brings the pleasure of making a tincture out of the Elderberries....

I love to make our herbal medicines and Sambucus is one I always keep in supply. It has the desirable action of disabling the flu virus. Apparently it makes the needle-like protrusions that the virus uses to pierce our cells, soft and jelly-like, thus rendering them useless. It has the added bonus of being warming and comforting when we are feeling ill.

On~going in the kitchen is Kombucha and, more recently, Kefir~making. The Kombucha is like a fine pear cider at the moment, and the three of us need a regular turn~over of eight litres. I seem to be bottling every other day.

It took me a little time to get used to the smell and taste of Kefir, but now I am enjoying it....especially for breakfast, poured over blueberries.....and in a few days it will be our very own raspberries....there were nine ripe today....yay.

What do you like to make in your kitchen?

~ Making a Start ~ Blue Moon ~

I've 'invisible' basted the moons on to this velvet piece. They are coming 

out of an eclipse...hope I am too.

I've called it Blue Moon as stitching has been that rare recently.

The two scraps are pieces from the clothes I've been de-constructing.

I think of the darker one as a dark cloud with a silver lining.

I've pinned this onto the back...liking the idea of having a sun flare 

behind the moons. Not entirely sure about it yet though...need to live

with it for a few days.

Our Boy and Tilly joined me in my shed yesterday. Tilly was

sleeping!

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sleeping!

She trusts completely :~)

A few loved pieces in a corner of the worktop.

While at ≈ ♥ ≈ This Place ≈ ♥ ≈

I watered tomato, potato, courgette, runner bean, lettuce and cucumber plants

in this fabulous greenhouse.....

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picked strawberries for breakfast ~

looked out of the windows at that view

and saw

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and

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our very first Shelduck

and in the garden

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Cheating with pinhole ~ digital

My Man sent Morse Code

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Tilly waited patiently for me to play ball.

I love to house and garden~sit here :~)

Cariad Mawr

H x

~ Around the Garden ~

Willow arbour built by me 8 years ago

Garden bench built by my Man 6 years ago

Farmama is inviting her readers to add a link to their 'Around the (Farm) Garden Thursday' posts, so I thought I'd join in with images from our garden this week....

So happy to see the sage in bloom

One little redcurrant ready before the rest :~)

This rosemary is old now, and I really need to take cuttings from her this year and start a new one.

This little bee was very busy for such a loooong time....

It's so very good to have our own greens to eat every day

Love the long days of air drying......

....sometimes two loads in one day ~

Welsh Poppies which self~seeded here a few years ago keep blossoming right through

until the end of the summer

I hope I'll have more garden produce photographed by next week.

Happy gardening everyone :~)