Wakey, Wakey,Rise & Shine!

The summer may have passed but the autumn brings its own beauty. We have had a wonderfully dry week with temperatures hovering around & above 8 degrees, and for the most part clear blue skies. Every day we have woken to the early morning sun, peeping over the horizon & bathing our house in a warm orange glow. Looking out of the front windows across the voe has been almost blinding. All the photos were taken at the same time, 08:35am, with the first being directly facing the sun (naughty I know, it made my eyes water!) and the other two were taken from a slight side angle.

 

We are so lucky because the moon reflects on the voe the same way, that however, is much harder to photograph because we have 3 street lights outside the house that don't spoil the view but do affect the camera shots.

Drops Everything ...

I have been dying to post a picture of the finished Sophie's Garden Mandala but have not had good enough indoor light to do so but this morning the sun lit up the living room and so I snapped a couple of photos for you.

I wanted the back to be in a single colour so have ordered up 8 more 50g balls of Drops Paris in Strong Blue & a pack of Attic24 buttons to complete it.

Also on the go this week is a Christmas wreath. Rather than make this last year and try to bring it to Shetland undamaged, I decided to bring the materials up instead. The pattern called for Wash & Filz-It but I have used Drops Eskimo instead, it has the same yardage and is 100% wool suitable for felting, it's also quite a bit cheaper.

 

The pieces are ready for felting, which can be done in a 40 degree machine wash, but I'm going to give it a go by hand as I want to use dish washing liquid. They will then be attached to a 30cm wicker wreath. The pattern has a crocheted bow on it but I felt that looked a little 'old-fashioned' so I will use ribbon or chiffon on mine, I'm not decided yet. I bought the pattern on Ebay and it is still available.

I want to stress that I do not receive incentives from Drops to promote their yarns, I just like to give credit where it is due and Drops do produce quality, competitively priced yarns. In the same vein I order most of my yarn from Wool Warehouse (www.woolwarehouse.co.uk), they deliver very quickly (I have no idea how they get it to Unst so fast), don't charge extra P&P for off mainland and give free delivery on overs over £25.

I have lots of other things in the pipeline and just can't wait to show them all to you soon.

An Unexpectedly Busy Day

When my alarm woke me up at 5:55am my day was supposed to be filled by driving the entire length of Shetland to Sumburgh Airport and then taking the flight out to Aberdeen for a hospital appointment, I managed to make it to the Belmont ferry terminal, in south Unst. Apparently there was some kind of disruption which meant a Saturday service was in place and the 07:30 ferry I was meant to catch would be an 08:25 at the earliest, not nearly enough time to make my check-in so deeply disgruntled I turned the car around & drove home.

 

As Rich had taken the day off, he did the school run and ran some errands whilst I had an hour to descend back to earth from the stratosphere I was still orbiting in! There is nothing better to salve the soul than immersing yourself in a good book and the one I had on the go was Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion, a modern day Romeo & Juliet love story between a zombie and a girl. We have the DVD of the film but as always the book turned out to be far superior. Two coffees, a chocolate biscuit and a couple of hours later I felt human again - excuse the pun!!

 

 

After lunch I decided that I really should do something productive, so, as I had been to Lerwick on Wednesday and had a fridge full of ingredients I thought I would spend the afternoon making and baking.

 

*****

 

First came homemade Christmas mincemeat. Richard likes shop bought mince pies best but as they range between £2.50 and £4 for 6 in the local shops he will have to have mine! I used a variation of a Delia Smith recipe with just what I had in the store cupboard, although I did buy a lemon and a baking apple in the town.

 

1 baking apple peeled, cored & chopped fine

3 1/2 oz vegetarian suet (I sieved off the flour before weighing)

4 oz currants

9 oz combination of mixed dried fruit & sultanas

1 oz mixed peel

2 oz glace cherries (quartered)

6 oz light muscavado sugar

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

4 tbsp orange juice (from a carton)

 

If you want alcoholic mincemeat you could replace the orange juice with whisky, brandy, rum - whatever you prefer.

 

 

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and leave for 12 hours or overnight before packing into sterilised jars. This should make about 2-3lb.

 

 

The smell in the kitchen was divine, a citrusy, spicy Christmas smell that had me feeling more than a little bit nostalgic.

 

*****

 

Next came the ice-cream. This recipe came with my first Magi-mix ice-cream maker and it has remained a firm favourite with all of us even though the maker long since sprung a leak and has been replaced with an Andrew James one which I find much superior. Today the ice-cream maker had remained in it's box and I have reverted to the old fashioned method of production, simply because of the quantities I was making.

 

1200ml double cream (2 x 600ml)

2 x 397g tins of condensed milk

4 tsps. vanilla extract.

 

I tipped all the ingredients into a large bowl and whisked it with an electric hand whisk until it became light & fluffy. I then transferred it into 3 polythene containers (about the size of Carte D'or tubs) and popped it in the freezer. I usually take it out and whip it half way through freezing but to be honest I don't think this is necessary for this particular recipe. (It is a must with custard based ones).

 

 

Wonderful on it's own but we intend to save some to put on warm mince pies

 

*****

 

My third job was just a 'quicky', chopping leeks and popping them in individual bags for the freezer.

 

 

I'll use these for a hearty, warming Leek, Chicken, Bacon, Butter Bean & Pasta soup and when I do I'll post the recipe. It's one of my own and every time I make it I throw something else in but it's always delicious.

 

*****

 

And finally Dark Chocolate and Sweet Potato Cake. On the whole I use the recipe from my Good Housekeeping cook book, only replacing the chopped milk chocolate with dark chocolate chips and omitting the almonds. It's purely a matter of personal taste.

 

 

This is a moist, rich, spiced chocolate cake and you shouldn't be put off by the sweet potato. One for the freezer and one for our tummies!

 

It always make me glow when a day starts as a disaster and ends as a success.

 

Wild & Windy

The weather has been wild & windy on Unst these last two days, the ferries have been cancelled and even venturing out to take the peerie man to nursery has been a challenge, so how better to wile away my odd free hours than in front of a gloriously hot peat fire, working on my mandala cushion, watching the waves tearing across the voe.

 

 

 The mandala is now complete and my next job is to square it off & turn it into Sophie's Garden. I was tempted to block it, as it is a little wavy, but have decided to see what it is like after the squaring instead. I hadn't intended the colour scheme to turn out as it has, it was an organic process which at times has left me wanting to pull it out and start over but I must admit that it is growing on me. I am normally drawn to muted tones but for some mad reason have decided that my life needs more colour, even if it doesn't sit that comfortably with me at the moment.

 

 

The wind speed and direction has caused the sea in the voe to be more that a little bit choppy, but it's so exciting watching the waves rolling in, crashing into the bedrock and sending spray tens of feet into the air. It's a battle to keep upright in the wind and the short walk to the car makes your hair thick with salt and your lips briny. The wonderful white nights of the summer have also passed and the darkness rolls in at around 4pm.

 

I really did try to photograph the spray, several times, but each time I went out it was so windy I struggled to hold the camera still and couldn't catch anything of any magnificence. True to form, every time I came back in, there one was!