Wordless Wednesday

Lots more wordless postings at Wordless Wednesday and Sunndaytodaymama.  Ssshhh!

Today's Flowers. Spring Bulbs

Flowering in my garden today -  my favourite Spring bulbs - the Grape Hyacinth.
Enjoy more flowers from all around the world at Today's Flowers.

Wordless Wednesday

Today's flowers - Springtime

Beautiful orange and purple crocuses growing up among the grass.  Very Springlike. 

See more flowers fromaround the world at Today's Flowers.

...and yet....

Another prickly post.

Further to my nettle post the other day, I now have 2 gallons of nettle wine fermenting away. The recipe came from the blog of the inspiriational Mrs L.
Some picture of the process - started yesterday.

Half a gallon of freshly picked nettle tips.

Simmering away with lots of grated ginger

In the fermenting bin - lemons, tea bags and yeast added,

Frothing up nicely today.

I'll leave it in the bin until Sunday and then transfer to the demi- johns to finish fermenting out. Can't wait to try it, but I'll do my best to be patient.

I was very kindly asked for my nettle soup recipe. It is one of those things that doesn't really have a set format. Usually I collect some nettle tips - just over half one of those bag for life carriers, or about 2 litres. I sweat 2 onions and a couple of garlic cloves until they are nice and soft - add a large diced potato and cook a little bit more - then add the nettles and some good stock ( about one and a half litres - ish) salt and pepper and simmer until the potato is soft. Blitz it well with a hand blender or liquidiser. I add a glug of cream at the end and reheat. If you happen to have a couple of leeks about you, then feel free to add them in place of one of the onions. Some chopped chives sprinkled on top look nice too.
I love this soup. No-one ever believes it is made from nettles. I served this as the first course for Easter Sunday lunch and it went down a treat - seconds all round! Do try it.

Springing along.

Well - a fairly murky photograph of our evolving Spring Table. Maybe I should have taken the picture in dayight - lol - still, I feel if wouldn't really be my blog without the bad photography. The paintings at the back are actually very springlike wet on wet watercolours done by James and myself in bright yellow and blue - what a nice relaxing way to paint - especially for someone as artistically challenged as your blogger here. The hand-decorated pot contains sunflower seedlings and was a Mother's Day present from my elder daughter, and I am trying to force a branch of flowering cherry in green vase (which i've just realised is not actually visible). There is a handknitted piglet - or as James calls it - the peeeeg, a little nutbrown hare, and what was supposed to be a pom-pom Easter Bunny, but somehow turned out more like - as my Dad quipped - the Easter Cairn Terrier! Well - why not start our own tradition?:) A basket of blown eggs that we have not got round to decorating yet, a couple of fluffy chicks, two hen shaped candles and the Gerda Muller Spring book completes the tableau so far. It is my intention to make some flower fairy type figures, and I do have the beads and felt, but somehow I feel this project slipping away.....
The weather has been so good we have not really spent much time in the house over the last week - especially with John being on holiday, so most of the happenings will be posted on the gardening blog in the next day or so.
Edited next day to add another picture of the spring table - this time in spring sunshine (still a bad photo lol). Elder son has a history tutor who comes on a Monday - as he was leaving he cried - "Oh its a shrine to Easter!" Hmmm..