Finding buried Treasury

At last we have peace and quiet back here. The roof was finally finished Friday lunchtime, it all looks very smart and Gary even found time to paint the new soffits on the back gable end with a black wood stain. This meant that the back garden was clear to be able to fit the final raised beds in the veg garden. We spent Friday afternoon and all day Saturday tidying up the mountain of wood and broken tiles that the workmen had left us with. The old wood isn't a problem to get rid of as we will cut it up to burn in our wood stove this winter, we find you can never have enough wood especially when we rely on it for our heating. We also scavenged all the bricks which come in handy for all sorts of things in the garden and have saved all the old guttering with a view to reusing it when we get around to building another log store.

The flower borders are looking fuller even though they are in their infancy. I have used annuals to fill in the bare pockets and they are blooming their socks off at present, the cornflowers with their dolly mixture of colours are doing their job very effectively just now.

The candy colours of Cornflowers

I spent Sunday morning planting up all the pot bound veggies, they all seem happy in their new homes and the cucumbers have even started to make their way up the bamboo wigwam I constructed for them. Gary loves cucumber to the point where he will even have slices on his breakfast toast, an acquired taste I have yet to acquire!

Whilst turning the soil over in one of the new beds something shiny caught my eye. Bending down to pull it out of the earth I discovered a length of gold chain with a coin pendant hanging off it. After the brief flight of fancy that I had discovered some Roman or Viking lost hoard, (well we do live near York with all it's history), I noticed the coin had our Queen's head on it and the chain was broken. Dismissing it I put it to one side in the wheelbarrow while I finished digging over the bed. Back in the kitchen as I was washing the grime off the coin the housing it was in snapped in half. What was left was a small gold coin, dated 1999, I thought no more of it and put it to one side on my desk in the Studio. Later that evening I took another look at it, it did look familiar, then it dawned on me, it was a half sovereign. After doing a little research on the internet I have found my little gold coin is actually worth over £100, so I really have found a little piece of treasure!

My little piece of Treasure

Have had very little time in the kitchen other than make homemade pizzas for Saturday's supper. Have recently found that the bread dough is much improved, (no pun intended), by making it the day before it is required and letting it slow prove in the fridge. This really does give extra flavour to the baked dough. 

One of Gary's linoprints has made it's way off the printing press and into our shops this week...

Friendly Friesian Cow with a pink nose

This happy cow fits in nicely in our Farmyard section. She was fun to print as Gary only wanted a little pink to appear on her nose and the first plate we printed just had one little pink splodge on it.

I have always had an affection for these black and white cows as they remind me of joyful camping holidays as a child. One of our favourite camping places up in the Lake District was on a farm near to Wray Castle which sits on the opposite side of Lake Windermere to Ambleside. It was rough and ready camping with no frills, the only amenities was a loo in a simple wooden hut at the top of the field. The farmer would even leave his cows in the field with us, so it wasn't unusual to have an inquisitive cow peer into the tent as it meandered past. I remember - with the rosiest of coloured spectacles - that every morning my brother and I would be sent down to the farm milking parlour to get some milk for breakfast. We would watch in wonder as the cows sauntered into the stalls and their milk would whoosh around in the large glass containers before the farmer would draw off a pint or two of frothing milk into white, waxed cartons. This was the only time I ever liked the flavour of milk, fresh from those black and white cows.

Chocolate Break - Folksy Front Page - 7th July

Really pleased to see our 'Chocolate Break' themed Pinterest board was chosen for the Folksy Front Page today, now that's a great start to the week!

This week Gary is determined to produce at least two prints, he's thinking feline, purrfect!

I will be working on the final plate of my latest flower linocut print, hopefully it will be completed by the end of the week. It's at this stage of the process that the tension rises, it is all down to how good the registration is when placing the pre-printed paper onto the press as to how many good finished prints can be included in the edition, any shaking hands can lead to disaster...



'The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.'
Ogden Nash.