Last month we started building a Roman style temple overlooking the northern pond. Set up on the hill and hidden amongst the trees, it will surely add a touch of romance and whimsy to this spot of the garden, as well as providing a suitably sheltered (and private) place to sit and take afternoon tea. The base is nearly finished. Alex laid the decking in a ‘parquet’ format, which I then stained to look like different exotic woods were used instead of the more budget friendly option of pine. The pattern was a very straightforward hexagon but he laid some of the boards upside down with the grooves showing to add interest to the design. The next thing to build will be the front step and then Alex will start working on the dome roof, which will be a lot more complex. It will be a little while before we start on this phase of the temple because, as always, we have 101 other projects on the go at the same time! But watch this space!
The 10th of Feb was our 2 year (cotton) wedding anniversary so out came our wedding photos. I made most of the food myself. And the decorations. Plus my dress and the cake! Yes I was crazy, and no I wouldn’t recommend it. We were also in the middle of house renovations which were running months behind, so it was a bit mad for the couple of weeks leading up. Sadly it all ended up being a bit rushed, with not everything going quite to plan, but everyone had a wonderful time and looking back that's all that really matters.
Making the most of my few hours of downtime, I have made another couple of mirrors. Some have already sold at my sister's store Bombo, which is encouraging so I'm starting on two more.
I rescued a large mirror from the glass bin when I was dropping off the recycling. It was already naturally antiqued! And perfectly reusable. I have actually found some quite interesting and useful items at the dump and even dumped on the side of the road, including an iron table base not far from our house. It makes me mad the way some people dump their rubbish in public spaces, especially when most items these days can be dropped off for free at the recycling centres. However this person is almost forgiven because it will be given a nice new life as a table in our garden. All it needs now is a top (added to the project list).
Dad’s tomato plants have produced well this year. We’ve been eating tomatoes like crazy. We had a backlog so I made “passata”, which is just cooked tomato “passed” through a sieve. I think because Dad grew so many different varieties, and made such good compost, the tomatoes were bursting with flavour. Some good olive oil is all that is needed to turn them into a tasty pasta sauce… and maybe some homegrown basil.
Mum has also made incredibly delicious tomato soup a few times. Store bought just doesn't compare to home grown. We’ve made a bit of jam too.- blackcurrant, gooseberry, cape gooseberry, morello cherry, rhubarb, redcurrant, plum – from our own fruit. There has been some tasty fruit from our orchard however it’s still young, so hopefully next year we’ll see a good harvest. The older apples in l’orto (the vegetable garden) have been a bit of a failure this year. Partly because they are so hard to net to keep the birds off and partly because we didn't thin the fruit enough. We have decided to prune them hard this winter and sacrifice next year’s crop to get more manageable trees for the future.
Meanwhile... back in the kitchen, I made 9 cakes and 12 cupcakes for 2 market days and a birthday this weekend. It was a lot of work icing that many cakes all at once and admittedly I went a little cross eyed towards the end.
I made a wedding cake earlier this month too. It had 2 tiers of lemon and poppy seed with lemon curd filling and 2 tiers of vanilla-almond with peach filling. It was for a beachside wedding and I have to say that the delicate colours looked quite lovely with the summer setting!
Plus a few more cakes from this month...
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