We be jammin'

Okay first off I just want to say I have had the crappiest past couple of days and feel exhausted. I don't want everyone thinking I can keep up that happy, emotionally stable sense of being I had last post, all the time. No one can and although it was a fab night, it has been rather hellish since. I have been terrified to go outside, very anxious all the time and quite severely depressed.

However writing and taking photographs are my ways of coping in a healthy way and thus here I am today again. Well actually this is a mixture of 3 days of blogging in my head.

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All the Stawberries are ripening at an incredible rate over the past week and with out a freezer the best we can do is make a lot of compotes. Jars and jars of the stuff - it's a little bit sickening, the amount I've been eating but I am not complaining - it tastes amazing!!!

So here were are with a new for us way to make strawberry jam, this time with jam making sugar and just doing exactly what it said on the back of the packet. We usually have normal castor sugar and the pectin would come from lemons, but a change is as good as a rest - or so they say.

I really do quite love this series of photos and they make my mouth water but oh my goodness can I anymore today??  hahaha.

I'm not going in insult your intelligence with the 'removal of foam' or sterilising jars and turning them upside down to set.. you know that all already don't you. Just want to encourage you to make some of your own and please, do get a jar funnel (we have yet too) it will make filling those jars so much easier.

Just remembered they don't have labels yet - eekk.  Does that means I'm not the perfect domestic goddness after all?

The raspberries are now all ripening at the same time - eek! Again I am not complaining but gluts can be overwhelming, don't you think?

Distraction and Strawberry Jam

Depression ~ summarizing the concept in a single word may give you the misguided illusion that you can have a hint of a notion of it's enormity, of it's power. A single, overused word to describe this pain, uncertainity, isolation, fear and longing!

I have the black cloud over my head but also experience a sense of suffocation, of throttling by strong hands around my throat, around my heart. My hands. I want the pain to end, I want to breathe but I am caught between the two worlds. I cry for peace; the light of hope is being snuffed out. I am too small to fight this.

What can an ant do against the might of a tank???
Distract itself until the fear goes away....

So.

Last night Andrew made the first batch of sweet, delicious Strawberry jam from our own lottie. Joy heaped upon joy; the sight of those perfect, rich red babies, their smell and all that sugar (naughty). It all bubbled away in the pot whilst I sat post-shower-calm in front of this laptop. Later, much later, I got to try some still warm out of the jar - oh it was good. We discussed it's merits in between - uummmm sounds.

It was a fabulous colour

The smell was divine

Andrew had left it very whole fruity so you got bite and body to the perserve.

It was warm, which was lovely in itself.

Not too sweet but as Goldilocks would say: 'just right'.

The consistanty is a little runny, but all the more sensous for it as it drips off the spoon.

There's lots of it!!

And there's more to come :)

The war continues!

I have just been to the GP and got stronger more muscly (well they are steroids) meds to fight this blasted hayfever. I shall win this war with the triadic power of antihistamines, nasal spray puffs and pure grit (a pincher movement of devilish reckoning)!! Resolutely I sit here with the window open (my eyes are so itchy and my nose is constantly running) just to show Mother Nature I ain't letting her get the best of me! Ggrrrr.

In a couple of days I shall be back at my lottie, just you wait and see. Until then Andrew is bringing home delicious strawberries by the small bucket load and jam making is on the agenda for this evening - photos and review to follow.

It should start raining soon (oh, please) which will be great for the plants (and don't let on, but great for me too as it keeps the pollen down), the ground here is drying out so quickly these days.

Hugs to you all, especially fellow hayfever suffers - we shall overcome!!

Fairies and garlic

Darn it, I think I must have eaten an big red, juicy apple given to me by a witch somewhere. I am so sleepy; I think I could represent the UK in a sleeping competition and totally kick everyone esle's butt.

It's been all go, at least in our heads this past week. We have a fabulous family fun day at the start of August to organise and once you get to thinking about it, well your head just runs away with the fairies and darn it, it's hard to get it off them again. Do not be fooled by fairies, they have their evil ways! Boy, what am I on about ~ so tired = blabbering away.....

So I have been a goddess once again the kitchen. Made more strawberry jam, this time I had a sterilised jar and a label, so this one is being kept for the big day. Looks good, no?! Of course now we're thinking about what else we can preserve, pickle and generally bottle up for sale. So many ideas, but really I think it will take off next year and we'll be far more organised. I want to start a club so it can be coordinated and we get loads of yummy food stuffs for the next fun day. Any money we make goes into the Association coffers so it's important to us that it goes well, money makes the world go round, eh?

Andrew has also been his usual god-like self in the kitchen making yummy dinners for us from our own produce. This is the excited part, no? Look at all that food, first carrots too. And after a quick stir fry and some chicken and noddles - yum, so fresh and tasty.

He is feeling the pressure of the fun day (he's on the sub committee for sales and children's education) but he finds his own way of dealing with the stress....unusual maybe, but it works for him.

The garlic is slowly and tentatively being lifted. Such a thrill to see them, they've been in the ground since November. Unfortunately Bobby said his were far from pleasing, our ones in their pots have turned out well and John's are fab! We were showing off last night. The key is to treat them mean, don't water them lovingly as it all goes into top growth and of course we want big juicy bulbs that will make our stinky breath be smelt for miles across the land, hehe.

Here I am lifting a great one, Andrew with a good haul from 2 pots and John with one of his whoppers.

Andrew is off for the holidays (the 12th July, is a National holiday here in Northern Ireland), his office closes early today and he decided to take extra days off, so we have a whole week together. Time to get this house and it's gardens into shape and go on picnics, maybe a camping trip, who knows...Or course the weather will turn nasty, just you wait and see.

looks like a bald hedgehog to me.

Big hugs to all (the sleepy Carrie talks again), night night. Ooops it's only 1.45pm, well I'm having another dose......NO must stay awake!!! yawn....