No need to water...

So as predicted the tail end of Hurricane Bertha visited our shores and the rain came down in stair rods. Knowing that Sunday was going to see the worst of the rain, we thought we'd better try and sort out the problem of the volume of water that makes it's way down our soak away from the house and tends to flood the end of the garden. So on Saturday Gary built a stand for the large water barrel we'd bought off Ebay. He positioned it next to the gutter down pipe, connected it and then we waited. With the first spots of rain we rushed out to see if it was working, we could hear the water running into the barrel, success, and a job ticked off the 'to do' list. Sunday morning the heavens really opened and within half an hour the water barrel was overflowing! So it's back to the drawing board, but not until this rain stops...

At least the wet weather means I don't have to water all the seeds I've planted up. The shallots were lifted on Saturday and their space has been taken with a bed of Autumn/Winter salad leaves, these include lambs lettuce, land cress, mizuna and mustard leaves as well as some winter hardy lettuces.

The courgette plants are working hard and it would seem I only have to turn my back for a second and there's another couple of them ready for harvesting. This has meant that this week I could make the first courgette and cheese bread of the year. It is a simple white bread recipe with the addition of a couple of grated courgettes and a cup of cheddar cheese mixed in. The glorious mixture makes a moist dough bursting with a deep, savoury flavour. It makes great toast too, especially with a few slices of homegrown beefsteak tomatoes on top.

Delicious courgette loaves with a sprinkle of cheese for decoration

The thunder storms we've been having recently are not appreciated at all by our cats. At the first clap of thunder they are off to their hiding places to sit the storm out. We lost our little tabby somewhere in the house on Wednesday. We both searched for her, checked in all her usual bolt holes but no cat. It was Gary who eventually spied her sleeping off the storm, curled up on the wicker picnic basket which sits on top of the dining room dresser.

Spot the cat....

Work in the Studio has been all photography and computer work this week. We needed new shots of some of our work for the latest online shop we've recently started selling with. Finished them all on Friday so it's now back to creating more artworks. One of my landscapes is taking forever to complete.We decided to try out some new inks, which are vegetable oil based and they are taking days to dry sufficiently to be able to overprint the next colour plate. Goodness knows how long it will take before we can upload the finished prints into our shops for sale!

The green ink plate ready for printing

Gary has had a request for a dog breed print so he is busy cutting lino for it. New cute pooch should be in our shops in the next few days.

Enjoy your week, be it sunshine or showers...

'Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats'.

Voltaire.