Category: Uncategorized
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The King’s Hot Chocolate
Last weekend we were set for snow – heavy snow – and the husband was positively giddy at the prospect of crunching through newly fallen powder and being kept from the office on Monday morning. His disappointment then, when the forecasted blizzard turned into a half-hearted flurry and then to sleet, was tangible. As the…
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Blackberry & Sage Margarita
Thus far the Autumn has been unusually warm and so it was with real delight that I stepped out yesterday morning to see frost silvering the garden and to feel a definite chill in the air. It’s finally time to light the Aga, bring the log baskets in from the shed and to cosy up…
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Elderflower & Cucumber Margarita
There are few scents that evoke the British summertime as beautifully as fresh elder blossoms. As May ripens into June the hedgerows burst into deeper flower and sweeten the air with their perfume. We have our own rather unruly tree that Maurice keeps trying to convince me to remove, but I love it for its…
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Lemon, Elderflower & Chamomile Posset
May is probably my favourite time of year in the UK. After a usually grey early Spring, the sun finally throws out real warmth, and the world responds with an abundance of fresh green growth. Radishes, peas and broad beans spring up in the vegetable patch, the herbaceous borders seem to fill out over night, and every…
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A New Chapter
Anyone who follows the blog regularly will know that it’s been very quiet for a while, and anyone who follows us on Instagram will know why. On February 2nd we welcomed our first child into the world – a little girl, called Iris, who is pretty much perfect in every way. For several weeks following the…
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Smoking Bees Knees
The early May bank holiday is set to be glorious. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining and (by Yorkshire standards at least) it’s hot! I’ve spent the last few days in the garden – potting up tomatoes, herbs and courgettes – and in the evening have been playing around with new seasonal cocktail recipes.…
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Pea & Coconut Soup with Garden Herbs
As we were walking the dogs earlier this week, we noticed that one of the fields near our house- that had seemed completely bare a couple of weeks ago – is now filled with sturdy pea seedlings, curling out of the earth. It’s a familiar sight at this time of year; the area just east…
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Spiced Rhubarb Soda
When we moved into our house five years ago, the only thing in the garden that seemed to have been purposefully planted by the previous owners, was a large crown of Victoria rhubarb. It was so well established that we didn’t want to risk moving it, so dug the flower bed around it, and it…
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Cherry Blossom Martini
If there’s one sight that’s synonymous with Spring throughout the Northern Hemisphere, surely it’s the emergence of fruit blossoms, softly trembling through April’s sun and showers, and none are more celebrated nor prolific than those of the cherry tree. I can still recall the first time I encountered these delicate flowers. At the nursery I attended…
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Coconut & Raspberry Smoothie
I sometimes feel like a bit of a fraud posting smoothie recipes, because they’re just so simple, and yet I can’t resist sharing this one. Its creation was a bit of a fluke, but it’s truly delicious. Last weekend we were having (a somewhat rushed) breakfast before driving up to Scotland for the wedding of two…