Dunster castle

We are making the most of the summer and long days. We are fortunate to live in the area with several National Trust properties and as National Trust members we have a free entry to all their properties in the country.
Yesterday we visited the Dunster Castle. The original castle dates to Norman times and parts of it have survived until now. Most of the other bulding was remodelled around 1870.

Many historical house have very similar interior, but I have taken just a few pictures of parts or items which interested me most.

Leather panels made out of calf skins.

A few picture from Dunster village.

plum season is here

Over the past several years we have planted five plum trees in our garden, all different varieties and all fruiting at different times. We love plums, but for some reason English plums are not seen in our shops very often.
We had a very good crop last year, so we did not expect too much this year, as plums tend to have a rest every other year. But may be because of the combination of hard winter and very warm summer, we are having a bumper year. So much better!

Plums from the first tree have been picked and processed, another one will be ready soon and there is more to come later in the summer.

This is the first batch of "povidle", a central European plum preserve, which is thicker and has more concentrated flavour then ordinary jam.




These two dishes are also always very welcome in our family, the plum and almond flan and plum dumplings.

interesting places on my doorstep

A routine hospital appointment early in the day gave us an excuse to have a day out and explore a little.
Driving around our county always reminds me how diverse this area is: hills, valleys, woods and forests, moors, wetlands and the coast; picturesque villages and old market towns

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We decided to visit the Somerset Museum of Rural Life. This is a small museum on the edge of Glastonbury. The exhibition is a reconstruction of a life of one particular farm worker, who is known to had lived in one of the local villages, which makes it more personal.

One of the other places I like is the Somerset Guild of Craftsmen. It is one of the oldest Craft Guilds in the country, with a permanent exhibition in the Courthouse Gallery in Somerton, where there is 60 - 80 craftsment exhibiting at any one time. This is a feast for eyes, and it is very hard to walk away without a purchase.

And then there is the Willows & Wetlands Centre, with the Basket Museum and a shop, one of my favourite places!

Never yet have I managed to come home from there without at least one new item. I love baskets and I use them all around the house.

It would not be a day out without a stop for a lunch in a country pub!

forgotten project

The latest issue of the beautiful Inspirations magazine arrived today. It is always eagerly awaited by all who subscribe to it, and I am no different.
One on the projects in the new issue is a Strawberry pincushion.
When I saw it, I remembered that I have done similar thing myself in a workshop with Beppy Berlin some time ago and it has not yet made it to my blog.



My two strawberries are filled with lavender.

members day

Our Embroiderers Guild group meets once a month in this lovely village hall.
On Saturday it was the Members Day, when we don't have any workshops, but everyone brings in anything they have made in the past year, or anything they are currently working on, and we have a display.
Considering that we are only a very small branch of the Guild, and that some ladies were away on holiday, our small show was quite impressive, with a lots of different items. It showed how much talent there is in our small group.


These are some of the pictures taken on the day.

Some of the ladies were showing whitework samples they made in the last month workshop.The tutor was Clare Hanham-Clensy. Whitework is something I would like to have a go at, but unfortunately I was on holiday. She has an exhibition in Bradford-on-Avon (not so many miles from us) in September, I will try to see her work there.