Wow where did the Summer go!
It was a busy time which started off with me catering my friends wedding weekend. This was by far the biggest party I have prepared food for. It started with canapes, then a cold buffet for 60 and an afternoon tea the following day.
Whilst it was really stressful mainly because I wanted it to be perfect for my friend I loved the organisation, preparation and presentation.
I have not been away on holiday but we have managed a trip to the beach which I plan to do more often especially as Mia has taken up surfing so will give me more of an excuse to go. With the end of the summer more beaches are open to dogs so it will be lovely to take them for a run. We went to Black Rock Beach which is on the North Coast of Devon and is open to dogs all year round.
In the garden things are turning from the vibrant colours of summer to the sultry colours of autumn with lots of oranges, reds and yellows. The sweet peas over my arch produced flowers for nearly the entire summer season but have now been consigned to the compost heap.
It’s time to harvest and I have to say my garden was not a great producer this year. The courgette which I normally am over run with did extremely badly with just one courgette that was edible being produced the rest rotted before getting to any decent size. The peas just never really grew. I did manage to grow my tomatoes and have had a reasonable harvest from.
I have just planted coriander and garlic bulbs in my vegetable bed as I was told September is a good time to plant them. I use a lot of garlic in my cooking so it will be amazing to grow my own.
I went to a friend’s orchard last week to pick apples and made a Dutch Apple Cake, apple crumble Bronuts and a few mini apple crumbles. Most of which went into the freezer to be enjoyed later.
I looked for a recipe for the Bronuts but could not find one so made up my own.
I made a crumble topping using butter, flour and sugar and placed it in my donut moulds and then added the apple sauce on top. I then made a basic vanilla brownie mix and added that on top. The result was really good and tasted just like eating apple crumble.
The biggest news to come out of this summer is that thanks to a lovely summers night party celebrating another friends wedding, the talk turned to music festivals and how it would be lovely to resurrect the one held in our town. The result being we said yes let’s do it.
I am therefore at the moment in the process of registering a Community Interest Company to organise a music festival in July 2024. Myself and another friend are directors but there is a core group of people who are on board to make this happen. We hope to run the festival to raise a profit to be able to put on more community music, arts and crafts events and projects. Watch this space as I am now stepping way out of my comfort zone 😂
Stepping Into Sixty and Out Of The Comfort Zone 