Ray Mears, eat your heart out

Christmas being Christmas means you get surprises. I for one had something unusual from Bri. Although, if you know me, perhaps not. It was the Worlds smallest whittling kit, but I have BIG plans for it. I have watched what you can do when abandoned in a wood in the snow and the bears are coming. You make a hatchet from the nearest branch, plus writing paper to send a note home, a bowl for the berries and of course, for fun, a fancy spoon with carving on the handle. So I am ready for the doing of. Armed with my new knife to go along with the knowledge, I thought I may have a go at a canoe. If I can carve a pumpkin, I can carve anything, give me a tree trunk and let me at it.
Molly had a lovely surprise too. It was a laser light thingy and she has been chasing the spot it makes and having a fine old time.
Bri's surprise was the book he thought he was getting turned into one he had never heard of on the way through the post, magic eh? I bet a lot of people got those kind of surprises this year, it was the snow to blame of course, not the post office...

I'm Dreamin' of a White.....

...out, well I don't mind one bit I've always wanted to step into the most Christmassy Christmas card and now I can. The reality has been a little chillier than expected but what the heck we are one day into winter now what else can we expect? One day is that all? We have embraced the weather, we are feeding the robins which come every couple of hours they know a sucker when they get one. The blackbird is on the berries back and front of the house in turn and Molly is demented with her own Christmas turkeys just lining up! We have decorated the cake with a snowman, complete with snowballs of course. But the exciting thing this week is we have finally, after all the Christmas movies we have watched, made a batch of genu-w-ine Egg Nogg and I can say it is really potent and scrumptious at the same time, bring me another cup Bri. I am watching the snow come down and listening to Andy Williams Christmas CD playing Let it Snow and thinking, for me, it doesn't get better than this as long as we can stay in by the fire toastie warm but of course we will have to go out and deliver presents, get those sprouts ready to put on Thursday for lunch on Christmas Day!!! But for a while it is Snow Day and Silver Bells is now playing and I'm ready to make Merry. Have a Good one everyone.

Highs and Lows

It's that time of year again to review what went right and what didn't down at the lottie. The obvious high is that we won Best Half Plot (Joint with Chris 2a) which was totally unexpected but we were glad that we did. The tomatoes in the poly tunnel did well, we made some fantastic tasting tomato soup from them (Sungold) however, it was a bit of a pain to have to water them on a semi daily basis during the warm weather (Yes, we did have some warm days this year!) Next year we plan to grow fewer (two per grow bag) and use our mini greenhouses instead. The broccoli was disappointing it wasn't the tight round green heads that we wanted but a straggly variety that was no use to man nor beast. The red cabbage, however, given to us by Reg, grew to huge proportions and was delicious braised. Raspberries, gooseberries and strawberries were prolific and made great jams and crumbles. Like everyone else, we grew too many courgettes so next year we promise to only have two plants which should be just about right. The potatoes (Desiree) behaved themselves admirably by growing in neat rows and not falling over. They have been really good to eat too and we will definitely grow them again next year. The swedes and the parsnips are still in the ground , swedes don't look too good but I think the parsnips will be o.k when we get to pull them after the snow has gone. Lettuce, beans, sweetcorn, apples, spinach, beetroot, onions and rhubarb were all good so overall we didn't have too bad a year. Plans are afoot for a new design next year so watch this space to see what happens.

Molly's Tale...

We can almost set our watches by our Molly, who does everything by the clock. At 5a.m. she wakes us just before the alarm goes off, 9.25 a.m is her breakfast time after her morning walk and ablutions. Then 12.30 lunch and 5 p.m. curfew, probably it will be 4.30 now the nights are drawing in. She doesn't do cold and dark and she is never late. Except, that is, when she is up to no good and we then always go and check on her. Sure enough this morning was one of those occasions. Bri found her nose to nose with a tiny little wood mouse so he fetched me and the camera. Bri doesn't do mice and spiders. We never imagined they would still be there when we got back, but neither had moved. What a surprise the mouse hadn't been bumped off, just stared at! We managed to pick Moll up and bring her home without any fuss and the teeny tiny mouse scurried away under the leaves. How lucky he was he'll never know. Unless of course Molly knows him well and they always have a chat in the morning, this we will never know. At least we got a photo of him in case he turns up again and we so like to recognise all her little friends. Hope this is one she won't be bringing home, dead or alive...

My own Gobolino (the witches cat)

I can't believe it's eggs for tea Sunday again, which is how I always think of the clocks changing backwards. It is also Halloween tonight and I have finally managed to carve a pumpkin. I have wanted to do this for years but always have done it with my niece and nephew who got to the pumpkin first. Now they are grown it was my turn so I thought I would do something less scary than theirs. I chose a cat and a bat and here it is my first solo carving. I love the colour of pumpkins they are so comforting. Now we have a great-niece I decided to save the seeds and let her sow them next year and grow her own to carve and keep up what has become a family tradition. This is so much fun I can hardly wait!

Return to Sender?

Bri's very favourite person in the whole world is the Postie, doesn't have to be one we know just the postie. Even the kids told him he should be one when he was made redundant, in fact everyone told him. This is because everyday he gets post, expects post, gets excited when it's post time until - a few weeks ago that is. What has changed you may wonder, has he stopped ordering stuff... No, we have a new dyslexic postman. He is driving us crazy! You can spot him holding the letters at arms length and scratching his head, this is not good we think. It isn't good we hadn't had mail in days.We finally got a letter that wouldn't go through the letterbox and when I opened the door (only because I saw him, not because he knocked) he was half way down the path. I asked are you our new regular postie? he shrugged and became confused, he didn't speak English. No hope for us then! The next day, however, he left a red card saying we weren't in for delivery so we trekked up to the sorting office having waited the 24 hours they said on the card, to be told they couldn't find our packet and when they asked our postie thet weres told he couldn't visualise our road. Tough, we want our parcel and we want it now! No chance! They took our phone number and would ring us if they found it. I hate our postie, I wish we had a dog and I'm not keen on the Royal Mail either. I might start a protest. I am watching with Bri at the moment as he is watching the postie going back down the road as he has missed someone and he has now gone past us yet again and we just know we are expecting something. No, wait he is coming back again, yes pushing post through, well half way through ....we have got mail... just not ours!!!

We Don't Get Out Much...

...which became VERY apparent this week when we went to Marks and Spencer for a quick coffee. They have the most up to date caff we have ever been to. So much so that we had to figure out how to order a cup of coffee and a teacake. None of your slosh it on the counter and no butter for the teacake affair. You order and get a thingy which you hand back when your order is ready. You then go to another island and get your coffee which came hot and steaming in large cups and then you go to your table with your thingy and wait. No one could have prepared us for the shock we got. We were just taking a sip of delicious coffee, and this thingy rattled and beeped and vibrated on the table and scared us half to death. It took us a full minute of this racket to realise what had happened, our teacakes were ready, that's all. It wasn't a fire alert or our phones it was a wonderful new fast way of letting us know we could collect our order. Genius! we thought and decided there and then we must get out more, we are being left behind by retail technology. So I thought I would just pop to the ladies powder room before I left and was met by a wall of plastic where I couldn't find which was door and which was wall, new fangled locks and all that. When I did get in I was met with square loos and square everything else, amazing! Came out to wash my hands and blow me the taps were automatic and the scary bit was you put your hands down a hole to dry them, I've seen too many horror movies to do this. I used a tissue which was swallowed up by a greedy bin that pulled it in. I left pronto, too much technology for me, perhaps I'll become a recluse instead.

It's Been a Funny Old Week

This week hasn't been a run of the mill usual one for us, it started with a party and is ending with a party and for anyone who knows us, they will know this has never happened to us before as we are not usually party goers. The first one was a very special occasion as it was Terry's 50th birthday celebration, Bri had written him a song and I had spent all last Winter and this Spring making him a quilt which I called "50 Quilted Leaves", there really are 50 I counted them after to make sure I hadn't missed one. I spent all the Summer worrying if he was going to like it. He did and it is now on the bed. The party was a great success and we really enjoyed ourselves. Sunday brought us another invitation from one of our neighbours who we cat sit for Elle C , Little Momma) this time for a 3 course Sunday lunch in October. Monday' we had a surprise from our friend Sarah who brought us damsons to make into jam which we've done. It is all dark shiny red waiting for scones or crusty bread. Tuesday our surprise was our little pear tree was ready for picking and although we feared that we wouldn't have many this year as it looked a poor crop, we still managed to pick a giant basket full, all sound which we share with our neighbours every year. Wednesday the postman started bringing our Autumn collection of books and movies. Thursday, a neighbour brought us round a box of chocolates to thank us for sharing our veggies from the plot with her, she especially loves the raspberries and a second box of chocolates on the evening from our cousin who had come to share information about our family tree. Friday, Bri won a cd in a competition from a magazine he subscribes to and today, being Saturday,we are about to get our glad rags on and go partying again to another cousin's 60th birthday bash. Blimey! time flies when you're having fun. Wonder what next week will bring?

Wild, Weird and Wonderful

We revisited our favourite village of Elford again last Sunday. The weather was wild and stormy and just the right setting

for a Scarecrow Festival. It was a terrific way to spend an afternoon. Terry, Yvonne, Bri and I went round the village searching out the scarecrows one by one, they were wonderful. There was even a scarecrow wedding in the village church complete with guests. I sat next to one of them and then thought better of it in case someone might poke me to see if I'm real or one of them, as I said it was really wild and windy. The scarecrows outside the Crown pub having half a pint were my favourite. Terry liked the Wizard of Oz scene, Yvonne and Bri loved the one made with flowerpots. We had hot dogs along the route and went through two old fashioned kissing gates passing a French man on a bike complete with onions and E.T riding in the basket on the front of Elliot's bike on a roof, Dennis the Menace and Fag Ash Lil. They were all just great and so much effort made by the people of Elford yet again to give their community a sense of togetherness. The village certainly knows how to have a good time and the atmosphere at any of their events is just fun all the way. I have never spent such a weird afternoon but I hope to again soon!

The Good Life...

..if you don't count Saturday standing out on the allotment in torrential rain picking raspberries for tea. We feel very Tom and Barbarish these past few weeks. We have been almost self sufficient in fruit and veg (we don't intend keeping any pigs). ..we have had peas, beans, beetroot, radish, lettuce, courgettes,cucumbers, tomatoes, red cabbage, gooseberries by the thousand, strawberries, blackcurrants and now, our Autumn bliss raspberries. So, it will be back to making jam in the next few days as our nephew has a partiality for raspberry jam. We are also going to be digging up our Red Desiree potatoes and the corn is coming along nicely, must be our scarecrow, Zak watching over them. Then later we shall have our very own plums, apples, swedes, parsnips, onions and leeks and perpetual spinach which we have just planted out. We have also risked a second crop of peas which are almost mature and Reg from further down the Hill says that they will more than likely mature before the first frosts and they will be o.k. As he has won firsts for so many of his beautiful veg, we believe him. Yes it is the good life if you don't count the pesky slugs.

Pond - ering

After walking to our plot yesterday afternoon and seeing squashed dead frogs on the driveway, I decided to do my bit and have a good look round for something I can use for a little tiny wildlife pond on our plot. John of number one plot, said a little washing up bowl or the like would do plus a few plants to keep the water clean and clear which I could have from him and, as we all know, frogs too. I fancy the odd newt though or something like. I have seen the said newt at the back of our plot under our greenhouse when I moved an old damp brick, he may just need a home. I haven't found the perfect pond yet but I know Hall's Garden centre have a real good variety of tiny ones. I love the one in the picture don't know where to get it from yet. I have a new quest!

a nice little haul

We had a lovely surprise when we started harvesting today we came home with a basket full of tomatoes, cucumber, beans ,red cabbage, a few raspberries that we hadn’t eaten on the way round and of course, yes you’ve guessed, courgettes. Alison on the front of our plot asked us to pick what was ready on her patch while she is away and so we had a second crop of beans, great they are a different variety to ours, thanks Alison. Julie was hidden in her fruit cage picking red gooseberries which we sampled and they were sweet and a lovely flavour and they didn’t make you run about sucking in your cheeks either! We also ran into JB, plot number one and his granddaughters and all had a chat about the show this Sunday which was nice. He was also trying to off load frogs today, he has a glut...so if anybody should need any you know where to go!! Well, now we are home and I need to do something with the red cabbage, which weighed in stripped down at 5lbs. I shall braise it with apples, onions and sultanas ready to go with those autumn casseroles, with the next one I shall probably do pickled red cabbage and there will be one for my friend Cara who loves them. Tonight I think we shall make a tomato, courgette, onion and basil sauce to go with pasta for tea and tomorrow we shall have beans with - well everything there seems to be more than I thought...

P.S Molly is also having courgettes for tea as I notice Felix has put some in their with their salmon packets

Eggstra special

My ultimate fantasy in food is a perfectly cooked soft boiled egg. Simple as it is I just love them. It has taken me a very long time to do the egg justice, but after seeing the Julie and Julia movie I got out the Art of Mastering French Cooking by Julia Childs and first thing I learned was how to boil the most perfect egg. I thought after all my experience in the kitchen I should know this but did it her way just to see. It was perfection. We had bought some very large eggs from Amerton Farm,( near Salt) fresh as a daisy, we know this because we were looking at the hens that laid them across the courtyard. The timing is crucial apparently, no egg timers - just know the size of the egg and lower it into salted boiling water (the salt in the water was a tip my grandmother taught me, it stops them cracking) then time them. Six mins for very large, five and a half for standard and five for ordinary smallish ones. Then run them under cold water to set the whites. Well mine came out just like you see in the ads and the yolk was a wonderful deep golden yellow mmmmm' lovely stuff. I'm going to try some more of her ways of doing things. I was impressed and I may move on to the French stuff too. I won't be doing 365 recipes in one year though, like the girl in the movie, she must have been crazy. I'm not crazy?

Lost...Where?

Now everyone that knows us will understand when I say we got lost yet again, but NOT when I say on the way to Nuneaton. A small trip we planned would take twenty minutes took us two hours. We enjoyed seeing the red tractor in the cornfield the first couple of times but then we panicked - yes - lost in the countryside. No signs, no one to ask, here we were again! We carried on as you do and eventually found a Post office cum village store. Hope restored. "Where are we?" the reply "Not sure all the roads around here are very long but if you keep on the one straight out of the village and don't give up you'll be somewhere". O.k! I half expected her to have a meat cleaver behind her back and direct us to the mincing machine but we made it out o.k. Down the very, very long road to somewhere and found we were going to the Astley Farm Book Barn just where we wanted to be. WOW! We're getting much better at this lost and found stuff. However, next day we did get lost inside Dobbies.

The Darling Buds of Summer

My teeny weeny little garden has produced flowers with all its might this year. Each geranium has nine glorious heads on them, the yellow begonias are non stop, my bucopa has spread everywhere, my wild purple geraniums have bloomed like never before, the coniasta is covered with tiny buds waiting to burst open into tiny pink flowers, our viola have the prettiest faces ever. My window boxes are spilling over, the honeysuckle is filling the air with perfume and I have just added, for a bit of whimsy, a black eyed susan to match our yellow door and to creep up the wall as my seven foot square garden seems to be running out of space. It may be pocket sized, but I do love it so.

Goosegogs Galore!

My arms are cut to ribbons today, but I don't care because I harvested 21 pound of gooseberries from my two tiny bushes yesterday and put them in my new found fruit collecting basket. It was well worth battling with the thorns. All of them are sound, big fat goosesgogs. My problem now is, what am I going to do with them all? We have shared with our neighbours half of them which still leaves 10 and a half pounds to make giant crumbles? enormous cobblers? invite everybody I know round for a gooseberry fool, plus strangers. or simply jam some, freeze some and cook some. What's a harvester/gatherer to do? What a lovely problem to have.

A Quacking Afternoon

Since Sunday it has been all excitement over in Kenilworth. The duck brood behind the flower pot started hatching and within hours eight little ducklings had emerged ready to take their first dip. They waddled off much to Lesley and Angela's horror down to the brook and didn't come back. But, the next morning another duck arrived with nine ducklings headed straight to the other ducks nest and took it over. Since then she has stayed and we were invited over yesterday afternoon to see them. What a really, really wonderful sight to see them dipping in and out of all of John's pools and each one having a different personality. The brave one that run off, the one that hurled itself off the bank straight into the water, the shy one who waited until Mom went into the water and called it. It was a truly delightful summer afternoon in that garden watching their antics. Then, just before we left, Mom brought the whole brood up to the top of the garden to see what we were doing. Nobody over in Kenilworth has had any sleep this week though they have all been on duck watch.

Speechless - well almost!

If you go down to the lottie today be sure of a big surprise just like we had .... with a little help from our friends down at the lottie we are now so proud to be joining such good company as Haydn, Julie, Fran, Eileen, Chris and Reg and to say we have won shared first place for Best Half Plot. We haven't done it alone. We have had some of Julie and Chris's beans, Reg gave us some fine baby red cabbage seedlings, Tony and Alan always make the path between us look better, Mike and Jason gave us advice when we were getting started with our tomatoes, Lionel helped by telling us when to put out our peas when we were nervous because of the weather, my brother Terry helped us lay a path which was given to us by our friends Pam and Paul and our friend Sarah gave us some cucumber plants. Barry's advice will be sadly missed by us. We have never had a garden, so have never grown food before coming to the Hill. Boy! Are we glad that we came here, the kindness, help and cheerfulness is never ending. It certainly makes you try all the harder each year when all those around you are working away. Although we are ecstatic about being "best" we won't run around the plot with our tee shirts over our heads - promise!

Lucky Finds

This week I found myself at a counter buying a pair of 1920's style cushions "Soleil" and "Hotel De La Plage", which is really unusual for me as I always shop to a list but I fell in love with these two cushions and greed took over! I needed them, I wanted them, I had to have them for my bench. They were a find in the Cancer Research shop so I didn't really feel guilty. I was only just passing on my way to the St Giles book shop where I found a book for my cousins, who have been lucky again this year to find the return of members of the family of ducks they raised last year. Alas, they aren't any brighter though for she laid her first eggs in the flower border - they went! Now, a second clutch very close to the house behind Lesley's flower pots. Maybe she'll be luckier there. The book I found for them was Jemima Puddleduck who was also daft as a brush. Another find down the lottie was what seems like a ton of strawberries all sound, large,red, ripe, plump and juicy. Now that is a find!!
P.S. I do love my cushions, they make me feel happy and as if I am on holiday.
P.P.S As I was sitting on the bench with my new cushions I overheard a father saying " It's really hot today" and his little boy answered, "not as hot as the Equator" and then proceeded to tell his dad why, in minute detail. When I looked up the child was all of six - amazing what they find out these days.

It's Been A Funny Old Week.. First Up..

The Great Escape...

We have had a real mixture of stuff going on this week. It started quiet and usual enough with just looking after Ziggy, Henry and Ferret for two of our neighbours, but we had the added fortune of also looking after two expensive African tortoise - they only eat dark green leaves, which had all gone, zero, zilch in the fridge. Fortunately with the weekend rain we had plenty of spinach down at the plot – o.k, so I overplanted – see I knew it would come in handy I told Bri. When we got back, Bri told me they had gone AWOL. Yes, two small tortoises in a glass tank had gone missing. We spent an hour looking for them.They don't come when you call 'em. One we found almost straight away heading towards the stairs the other took almost an hour to find and after we had searched under the floorboards which were up, we eventually found him wedged behind the tank up against the skirting board on his side. Still alive but very hungry .We were amazed at how they had escaped, but Tom, (Henry Ferret’s and tortoises Dad) has the heating lamp in the way so that the door doesn’t close by two inches. So, the bigger one, must have made the opening bigger and planned the Great Escape. Well, all’s well that ends well they say but we are going to keep an even closer eye on those two!

It’s Magic!...

Sunday brought us a wonderful visit from our Great Niece, just two years old, little Issie , everything in her eyes at the moment is magic. She found an old stick and a thimble put them together and made a magic wand. She went upstairs and found a little book that when opened plays music, “Magic!” she cried in delight. A ball which lights up and changes colours. “Wow!” more magic. A pop- up book of the Three Bears, Ooooh, magic! It really makes you look at things with new eyes, the way Issie is discovering things, for the first time. Knowing she was coming again later in the week, we scoured the shops for a pair of fairy wings and a real magic wand which she loves, but she still hasn’t forgotten the stick and thimble and she hasn’t let go of the new found torch either.

Not so Magic!...

Was the next item this week. We all returned from lunch and our visit to the swings later in the week and our niece, Jay, exclaimed, ‘should there be a puddle on the floor there?’Our cupboard seemed to have sprung a leak. Great stuff, however, not to panic until we opened the cupboard and it sounded as if the wind was blowing. It turned out to be fine spraying water. The copper pipe to the water main had a very small hole in it. We are so blessed to know Steve, our plumber of thirty something years who was with us within in an hour and had fixed it by the time Issie had painted a page in her new magic colouring book, the just add water kind, We had plenty of that!!

Have Another Piece of Cake, Vicar....

...or in my case Terry. If I know anything about my brother and Bri, it is they just love cake and this week I seem to have baked up a storm. I have started on last Christmas’s stash of books and I can’t put down Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer by Jane Brocket . it is chapter after chapter about children’s feasts in literature and at the end of each chapter there is a recipe. It is a nostalgic dream. So far I have made and had fully sampled, almond macaroons, coconut buns with coconut butter icing and a real solid fruit cake which have all been approved. I am only a third of the way through and each chapter seems to send me back into the kitchen. If there is one sure thing about this book it can seriously damage a diet.

Salad Days...

On a lighter note my dear friend Sarah on Monday brought me plants with dear little cucumbers and even dearer little gherkins on them and a black chilli too which are good for my diet so we all rushed down the plot and popped them in the poly tunnel for safe growing. Mike Hubball gave me lots of information and tips on growing tomatoes when we met him for which we are very grateful. If they grow half as big as he says they will, we should be eating our own grown tomatoes this year for the first time with our lettuce, radish, cucumbers and beetroot. Before the rains came we planted our leeks wondering if they were going to get enough water. Yes they did!

Dick Barton, Special Agent...

Friday night at the Aldridge Youth Theatre, the Circle Players gave us a slice of nostalgia with their performance of Dick Barton Special Agent. Based on the old radio serial (before television) this was a comedy spoof which involved the audience flag waving, booing the villain and cheering the hero. The cast and the audience did a grand job and we all went home happy, including Sarah, Plum and me

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Saturday at Last...

This means we got to go to the lottie again and catch up with this weeks goings on. Alan ran in the Fun Run, Tony got some good deals when out shopping, Julie was bizzzzy photographing varieties of bees, we all did some weeding after the rains and had a moan about them, Mike helped me yet again with my tomatoes in the polytunnel which have most definitely run amok, typical, last year I couldn't even get them started. But I have a plan... At least we were able to bring back about a thousand radish, a big Lollo Rosso and Cos Lettuce, some strawberries and rhubarb and another bag of spinach for those tearaway tortoise. I am making a 'mmmm rhubarb crumble this afternoon and a rhubarb and ginger jelly... will this toil ever stop I hope not It's magic!...

Mellow Yellow

Today, whilst we were out for a jolly, we came across the cutest little bird house that we couldn't resist buying even though it was on the plain side. I saw the potential, brought it home and painted yellow flowers on it. Bri saw the perfect bee for '21Bee' which we also bought which meant we needed a new sign for the plot. So I painted yellow flowers on one of those as well. So, between us, we got something for the top and the bottom. Couldn't leave out the middle, so we found a little bee for the bee and herb garden sign. We passed on the gnomes even though there wasn't a shortage of them. We got carried away with all the yellow and bought a yellow butterfly for the shed and a sunflower door stop and some yellow mimulus as well for our other hanging basket. With all this yellow we will probably need sunglasses!

Another Fine Mess?

I have decided I should never sit for even a few minutes doing nothing down the plot because I will always come up with yet another strange idea. Yesterday's was 'let's make a leafy canopy over the patio bit to give us shade on blisteringly hot days', I know we only get one or two but you can't risk it! I also have a sudden passion for brown rustic string since the bunting caper. So I got Bri to heave me up on the bench so I could tie string into the opposite bushes to our posts above the bench and then I can train the Mile a Minute vine across to the other side and Voila! a leafy roof, dappled sunlight, pretty.. yeah! Well we shall see what we shall see. The Mile a Minute has already grown a foot since we left yesterday afternoon so I reckon my the end of this week maybe.... In reality I shall probably need a machete as I have read horror stories on wikipedia about this vine overnight such as it starting in York County, Pennsylvania crosssing the state line and going on for another 300 miles. Whoops! Bri says " that sounds like another fine mess you've got me into".

A-Bunting We Will Go

Yesterday, after planting some more peas, watering everything in sight, weeding and generally keeping control of the plot, we thought we would have a bit of fun. I made some bunting for the shed last weekend with some material I had had from the quilt fair that has tea pots and kettles printed on it. We thought it would be a nice touch of nostalgia to go with the 1940s postcards, cherry cake sign and Webb's lettuce signs on the shed door. It now feels like going back in time with growing our own and the atmosphere set for afternoon tea and scones accompanied by the birds singing and the bees buzzing all around us. Pure bliss... Ooo I have just found a really old fashioned recipe for cherry cake and lemonade. Where's the sun we're ready.