Where have I been?

I know it's been a very long time since I posted anything...apologies but it's been a very busy summer!!

We had a wonderful road & camping trip to the Black Forest in Germany to see my brother, sister-in-law & 3 nieces. The youngest nieces are twins that were born earlier in the year so it was our first time to meet them & have lots of cuddles. Plus my brother & his family hadn't yet met our youngest neither. We also became Godparents to the twins & had a lovely day with all the family at the Christening at a little chapel high in the mountains.

Heidelberg

Heidelberg

Black Forest

Only a few weeks after returning from our holiday my mum suddenly passed away, which was quite a shock for us all, but meant I was very pre-occupied with all the arrangements & grieving.

In memory of mum

August brought my return to work after nearly 7 months off, which has been a big adjustment for us all. 

Hence, I'm sure you can now understand  why the blog has been a little neglected. But I now have some wonderful new recipes to share with you, especially as we have now all become vegetarians I have even trying out lots of new foods & recipes.

Peas in a pod

Green tomatoes waiting to be made into chutney

On top of that I've been:

• Enjoying the garden & more recently harvesting
• Learning lots about essential oils & their benefit to health & wellbeing from my sister-in-law Maria in the Wood
• Started doing some Christmas crafts in preparation for December coming around much quicker than I'd like to admit! 
• Looking after my 2 gorgeous little boys  :)
• And a last minute camping trip to Northumberland enjoying the last of the summer sun in September.

Bamburgh in September

More Hogan Harvest

For my first year of gardening we have done quite well, we had lots of peas, we have quite a number of tomatoes, many are still green but here was my first red tomato.

I also have a toddler who arrives at my side regularly with a proud smile on his face and a handful of freshly picked green tomatoes, which he says are apples! So we shall see how many manage remain on the plant until they are red.

My herbs are doing really well after a slow start and I have started to use them in my cooking.

Do you remember the photos I posted of the basil in June (What's Wrong With My Basil?) well these are the same plants, you would never guess how healthy and green they could look after starting out in the garden so brown & yellow.

And this is my first red raspberry, which is a surprise as I only planted the canes this year and had read that it can take a few years for them to bare fruit. Well, we have a number of flowers and small fruits beginning to grow on the plants now, so we have done quite well with our first season.

The blackberries which have grown over from next door are also feeding us well, with 2 apple and blackberry crumbles made this week with the produce.

I am looking forward to trying some different plants and more of the same as well next year.

First fruits

Carrots

Red Strawberries

Peas

Peas

Green Tomatoes