this and that, and teddy bears too

At last, after a month of rain, we might have some dry days.

We cleared all the roses from the middle bed in the front garden.

They were never really happy there, so we are replacing them with a mixture of perennials.

Freshly dug soil, with some addition of new compost - and now all the cats around think this is their new public convenience! A sprinkling of bin powder on the soil usually helps, but this has been washed away by the rain every night since I planted it out........😠

Hopefully, now the dry weather has been promised, we will be able to start tidying the back garden next week.

We took an advantage of being stuck indoors for so long, and sorted out lots of our books. 

Both DH and I are big book hoarders, and every few years we just have to "take the bull by it horns" and do something about it. Some books went to a local charity shop. But we took most of them, four big bagfuls, to the Barrington Court's  "Book Barn". It's a very large second hand book shop, very well run by National Trust volunteers, with comfy chairs, where you can relax while choosing your next read.

The money raised helps towards the upkeep of the Barrington Court; one of the ladies working there told us that last year they raised nearly £30,000.

While there, we took the advantage of a reasonably dry day and had a walk around the gardens.

Despite the rain, or because of it, and because we haven't had a cold snap yet, there are still lots of flowers around.

The pumpkins are ready,

and at last some autumn colour too, 

in the form of a magnificent, very old birch tree.

 

On Thursday I popped down to the Bath and West Showground.

The Craft4Crafters show is a regular, twice a year affair.

No "big names" exhibiting; a bit more textile stuff than usual, which was nice to see; also a chance to stock up with few things.

I was very "self controlled" and made only very small purchases -

I am sure these nice batik fabrics will come useful.

The creative spirit has somehow left me in the last few weeks.

I am still hand quilting St Germain quilt (a long process), and it is nice to have it on my lap, now it is chilly in the evenings.

A small nod to Christmas - I am working on the next cross stitch picture in the Santa Village series of 12 pictures; this is a long ongoing project.

This one is no 7.

May be another 2 years?.....

The 6 done so far.

So, what is is this about teddy bears?

This morning a new issue of Landscape magazine popped through the letter box; always a pleasure to read and I look forward to go through the whole magazine. But one article got my attention immediately, 

the one about The Teddy Hospital in Lyme Regis in Dorset.

Alice's Bear Shop, Teddy Bear and Doll Hospital was opened by Rikey Austin some 20 years ago and they are more busy then ever. 

There are some lovely stories in this article; about how the Hospital has grown, and about "patients" from near and far; a man who could not part with his teddy, so he had flown in with him from Bulgaria, and stayed in Lyme Regis while his bear was being mended!

This is just one of the patients waiting,

Ted Wilson having a rest before his "operation".

Why was I so exited about reading all this? Because this is where my Mary-Jane came from; I bought her during one of our visits to Lyme Regis (not long after out move to Somerset), when Alice's Shop was mainly just that.

So, meet my "gang"; they all have names (of course). 

Some were rescued from charity shops, some bought new, a couple of them I made myself.

This is George, he is rather special - a present from my son.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019

weekend baking in Remoska

In what? you are asking.  Bare with me, but most of our Czech blogging friends will know exactly what I am talking about.

Poppy seed cake - there are many variation on this recipe; this one comes from one of Rachel Allen's books. I like her no nonsense cooking.

She says in her introduction that she developed this recipe when their German au-pair was homesick for her mum's cake 😊.

                         So, what is Remoska? 

Remoska is an electric mini oven. It was invented in Czechoslovakia (as it was) just before WW2, and it was manufactured during the next 40 years. Its size and simplicity made it ideal for small flats, weekend cottages and even caravans. I remember, when I was growing up, many proud owners of Remoska. My mum never managed to get one (there always was a shortage of something during that time).

"It is the lid that does the cooking" - yes, it is all in the lid. 

There are no settings as such, only "on" and "off" switch. So how does it do it? I have no idea, but it works, you can cook in it most things, and it uses less than a quarter of electricity of a standard electric oven.

With the arrival of modern electric gadgets Remoska was forgotten and the factory got run down through lack of investment. But after 1990 the production started up again and thanks to a certain Czech ex-pat, it has been imported to England for many years now.

I bought mine years ago, but to my shame I must admit that through a lack of space in my kitchen, it does get put away occasionally and "out of sight, out of mind" .

Few months back my main oven was out of action for a while, so Remoska came to its own again, and since that time it has found a proud place in my kitchen again.

It is not a slow cooker, as many people automatically think, in fact very often it cooks faster than my main oven.  

I have also found that most thing retain more moisture in Remoska.

As with many things, there are some tips and tricks to learn, but on whole I have never regretted investing money in one.

So, I just popped the cake tin in, put on the lid and pressed the button. There is no preheating as you would normal oven, again saving on energy.

 25 minutes later

The recipe suggests a vanilla butter icing, but I prefer to use simple lemon icing.

 

It never last for long in our house!

I am happy to share any recipes with you privately; as most of them come from cookery books, 

I don't want to break any copyright laws by publishing them on my blog.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019

another block, and there is always room for one more tree

A couple of dry days, a welcome respite from a long wet week (although it felt much longer), but the rain is back again tonight, and the weekend doesn't hold a promise of anything better 😞

The sewing room is a good place to be when it is like this, getting on with current projects and plan new ones (oh yes, and there are many in my head, all I need is to have enough years to make them all!) 

Some prep work for the next block of Quilter's Patch, 

the  "Moon Flower" (lots of pieces again),

and block no 12 is done.

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Occasionally we miss our old garden, mainly all those trees we planted there.

So, call us crazy if you want, but in the interest of our well-being, 

and as a very tiny contribution to the well-being of the planet, 

we decided that our (very) small garden can accommodate one more tree;
this will be no 9 we have planted since we moved here .

And this is the new arrival, a golden birch, to be planted this autumn.

I am looking forward to the next spring already!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2019