Pumpkin Panic

Well sadly my fabulous plan of growing my own pumpkins for carving this year, after last years disastrous pumpkin shortage, has gone just slightly awry.

This is the picture on the packet:

This is my pumpkin:

So that small boy in the picture would have to be about 4 inches high to get the same perspective with my pumpkin. Or photographed about a mile behind my pumkin.

Picture my "humph" face!


(oh and just to see if my friend Inge reads this, I will be adding my pumpkin photo-shopped with the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen - actual size!)

I'd Rather Be Blue, Thinking of You ...

... I'd Rather Be Blue-oooh

Cannot rave enough about by morning spend at the brilliant Woad inc learning how to process woad into dye and then use that to dye fabric.

Mine ended up a little "tye and dye" school project but wearable I think. I'd buy the efforts of the other ladies on my course, who were clearly craft verterans, unlike myself.

At the end of the day we not only took home our completed scarf and hankechief, but I also bought some seeds for my planned "Dyer's Garden" on my allotment.

New Arrival ...

Fitzchivalry Farseer, or Fitz for short named for the brilliant Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy - Book 1) (I love all her books and recently hear her  read at a book signing.)

He is four kinds of terrier - Lakeland, Patterdale, Yorkie & Staffie:

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Green

Well it's official, we are now Mr & Mrs Happy-Ever-After!

Obviously we were on a tight budget, and also wanted to be as green as possible so we had a DIY Tiffany themed wedding.

My new step-daughter was a very cute and gorgeous bridesmaid - dress from eBay, as was my wedding dress, although I had planned to make my own. (2 points second hand, 0 homemade).

We dressed our little yellow car as a new york taxi and our neighbours kindly loaned us their garden, mini-marquee and fairy lights as well as home brewing beer and wine for the event. (3 points home made, 2 points borrowed)

We catered it ourselves with the help of a trip to Macro ( and a lot of hard work from I & M -thank you) - afternoon tea, smoked salmon, coronation chicken, cucumber and cheese and egg and cress sandwiches, mini cakes and eclairs, savoury canapes, Joe made the scones and I made home made jam, one of my friend C made the most amazing Tiffany blue cupcakes and petite fours and my sister contributed the most stunning wedding cake ever. (Lots of homemade points)

We served Liddls prosecco in champagne saucers for that vintage 50s look and asked for contributions to our garden or wine rack for presents.

I made Joe's solid silver ring myself and engraved it with the word "soul mate" in celtic ogham writing, Joe bought my silver and pearl ring from etsy. (1 home made, 1 craft) I aslo found some vintage Crackerjack prizes in the form of a bride and groom and made them into cufflinks for him.

I designed the save the dates and then found something very similar so bought them from Vistaprint and made home made invites in the form of blue card boxes with Sarah & Joe in Tiffany & Co writing, tied with white ribbon which opened out to show and engagement ring and all the wedding details. (1 point home made)

I found super cheap blue favour boxes on eBay and we filled them with Crackerjacks instead of sugared almonds and tied them with white ribbon to look like Tiffany boxes. Guest were also given button badges to wear, either Fierce Dinosaurs, Lovely Other Dinosaurs (A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton was the first book I bought Joe and one of the readings at our wedding) they could also chose The Yellow Taxi of Love or Holly Golightly.

Joe's first wedding cost him over £30K, we brought ours in at a frugal £880 including rings, food, alchohol, outfits and registry office costs, not bad for 40 guests and more importantly the home made touches made it uniquely personal and memorable!

Tybalt King of Cats - RIP

Today would have been our one year anniversary of owning our Bengal/BSH cross cat Tybalt. He was 1 year and 8 weeks old. In fact we were already planning a small party for him and the kitten next door, when he was hit and killed by a car on Thursday.

It doesn't seem possible that the world is still turning.

So here is a small memorial for my beautiful boy, who's adventurous spirit was too big for his body.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb

Well I made the rhubarb schnapps using Nigella Lawson's recipe:

Nigella Lawson's Rhubarb Schnapps

approx 2 lbs rhubarb (1 1/4 lbs trimmed)
1  1/2 cups sugar
1 liter vodka

Trim and chop rhubarb and divide between 2  1-liter jars. Add 3/4 cups sugar to each. Mix or shake. Cover with vodka.
Close jars.
Keep in cool and dark place for at least 6 weeks. Shake up about once a day or so.
Strain.

I just have to wait about 6 weeks for the results...

For my rhubarb and ginger jam and used this recipe from the rather fabulous Allotment Lady and funnily enough had to make pretty much the same substitutions with the preserved ginger.

Mine didn't turn out quite as well as hers, and in fact I forgot about it and left it to boil a little too long, but what I ended up with was rhubarb and ginger marmalade and it's pretty yummy, if a little sticky!

Get Orf My Laand

Less than a week after emailing to request a place on the waiting for an allotment, Norwich City Council have written to me and offered me one less than a mile from the house - hurrah!

I am so excited, especially as there are apparently people in Norwich who have been waiting 6 years! It seems we don't live in a fashionable area of the city tee hee.

Here is our new kingdom of self-sufficiency - there is some work to do!

PYO

Headed out with a few friends today to a Pick Your Own to get raspberries to make jam for the wedding.
There was a slight hitch to the plan when it turned out that there weren't any raspberries, but I did get a big haul of blackberries, rhubarb and ripe bananas.

and we found the world's largest swing seat too:

so plan B is rhubarb and ginger jam and apple and bramble jelly, with rhubarb schnapps if I have any left over and banana bread with the bananas.

38 Degrees and other campaigns (Power to the People)

Cutting down on waste, freeing up clutter and starting to take control of our finances seems to have simultaneously increased how much I care about issues outside of my little world, and given me the energy to do something about them.

Here are a few of the campaigns I have joined:

38 Degrees

I joined Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall's Chicken Out campaign when it first started but it remains one of the campaigns I care most about.

Anyone who knows me, knows that my other big dream in addition to owning rescued chickens, is to have my own bee hives. I have recently put my money where my mouth is for bumble bees here.

and signed a petition to ask the government to ban pesticides to save honeybees here.

While I was on the Soil Association site I also joined and signed up to be a letter writer. I will report back on the benefits and discounts I receive on top of feeling good about myself!

It feels good to be in a place where I can give back some of the energy and riches I have in my life now.

SarahandJoe x

We Few Form A Multitude

As part of my ongoing commitment to being green and being frugal, I set up a Facebook Group for friends and friends of friends in the Norwich area, to swap or barter plants, seeds equipment or produce and who are also interested in using collective buying power to get a better deal on organic/local/green produce and groceries.

We range from allottmenteers to window boxers, but all have in common a love of growing our own on whatever scale and a desire to live as carefully and frugally as possible.

I got the idea from the superb Soil Association website which you can find here:

http://www.soilassociation.org/Takeaction/Buyorganic/Organicbuyinggroups/tabid/203/Default.aspx

While you are on the site please take the time to sign the Save the Bee petition.

If you live in the Norwich area and want to join our Facebook Group, you can find us here:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=10054&uid=106013998111#/group.php?gid=106013998111

We have a PYO and jam making day coming up, seeds on offer, a seasonal recipe section and groceries order coming soon.

SarahandJoe