Holidaying in September

Hello friends. 

I'm back again after a short break. I hope you have all enjoyed the past few weeks. I have missed being here and am glad to be back in this space. It was really lovely to read all your comments and well wishes, which D kindly posted for me.

A couple of weeks ago, hubby and I enjoyed another cruise holiday visiting places along the Aegean and Adriatic coastlines. 

We started in Corfu, a well-known port of call, and the above picture was taken from the ship while we were still at anchor. 

While we were on board for the two weeks, we enjoyed some amazing entertainment from the show team, guest acts, and other very talented artists around the ship. 

We also had fun at several craft sessions and met lots of friendly people, including Erin, one of the lovely crew members.

Have you ever tried painting with coffee granules? No! Well, neither had I until this holiday. This was my coffee artwork. 

 

On one of the sea days, we took the opportunity to play crazy golf and also later on joined a group of other guests for some wine tasting, which was a lot of fun.

 

We docked for a few hours in Koper, Slovenia, and visited the Museum of Saltmaking. This showed the restored salt-bed pools and some of the buildings and living quarters of the old salt-worker families. There were also plenty of artefacts and stories to bring the skills and challenges of salt collection to life. 

We made several ports of call in Croatia - Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik. Here are just a few images of this enchanting place.

During our second week, we visited Piraeus, in Greece. We have been here before to see the Acropolis, but this time our travels took us to the Temple of Poseidon, which D visited earlier in the Summer. She was absolutely right to say how windy it was. But it was an amazing site to visit whatever the weather.

We stayed on board the ship in Santorini, since we had visited several times before and didn't want to use the tender. Here is just a reminder of those wonderful white buildings along the high cliffs.

In Souda, Crete we visited  the small historic St George's Monastery known for its 19th century olive oil production. The ancient oil press is at the end of twelve stone arches and there are also the remains of four other mills within the area. 

And finally, some picturesque views of Argostoli, Kefalonia, before we returned home. Some of the backdrops used in the film 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' were filmed here. 

Holidays are over for now, and life returns to normal for us. I'm settling into Autumn, planning the jobs I need to do and the crafting I would like to do. There may still be some day trips out.

Whatever your plans are this week, stay warm and safe and have a great time.

B x

Green Tomato Chutney

Hello everyone.

The tomato harvest is finally over for this year in this small corner. This week, all the plants have been dug up, and the last red tomato fruits have been enjoyed. However, I also had quite a large number of green tomatoes to deal with. 

Thursday was chutney-making day. I have made chutney a few times before but never with green tomatoes.  I used the BBC Good Food recipe. The only ingredients I changed were using some soft brown sugar instead of Muscovado sugar, and adding a slightly overripe eating apple.

To add a little interest to the finished jars, I added ribbon and a couple of green beads to imitate the tomatoes in the chutney. Now the family have a new chutney to enjoy. I will certainly be making it again.

Hubby and I will be away for a few weeks now, but will be back in October. Enjoy the rest of this month, whatever your plans are. 

See you soon.

B x

Update

I have removed the link for the recipe and just direct you now to the site I used. Not sure what happened with the link but thank you for letting me know, Jan.

Snowshill Manor- the Collection

Hello everyone, welcome to 'Back2OurSmallCorner' and thank you for taking the time to visit.

Last Monday was the final bank holiday in August for all of the UK except Scotland. The forecast had been for showers, but we decided to go out anyway and hopefully dodge any showers. We headed out to Snowshill Manor and gardens, which is in Gloucestershire. The property is now owned and maintained by the National Trust, which meant free entry for both hubby and myself.

The main building is typical of Cotswold properties, and although it dates back to the 16th century, its most famous owner was Charles Paget Wade, who owned it in the early and mid 20th century. Wade can only be described as an eccentric who liked to collect a vast amount of items that interested him. 

Wade restored the property as he was an architect himself, but he never lived in the manor. Instead, he lived in a small priest's cottage in the garden and used the manor to display his vast collection. However, Wade did not want it to be set up as a museum, and his eclectic style is evident in every room. His motto was " Let nothing perish". 

Here are just a few glimpses of Charles Wade's vast collection.

While we were inside, the promised rain arrived, but very kindly stopped when we wandered around the gardens. These are laid out as a series of outside rooms and also include a dovecote, the model village (photos below), a kitchen garden, an orchard, and a small sheep field. 

Back home, I have been working on another project that has been collecting dust in my craft room. I bought the piece of slate about 5 or 6 years ago, intending to make it into a useful kitchen item. I really love the artwork on the narrowboats I have seen on the canals during our travels, and I wanted to include something similar in this project. I didn’t feel confident in my painting skills, so I decided to use some wonderful self-adhesive stickers instead. After applying the stickers, I added a spare white kitchen tile. We also varnished the slate, and now I have a brand new cheeseboard!

And so a new week begins. Whether you are due for sunshine or showers, take care, everyone, and have a great week.

B x

Saving a Family Kilt

Hello everyone.

I hope you have had a good week. 

The rain here has been wonderful, but it has kept me inside for a while, and I decided to go in search of a crafting project. I have a lot of these activities awaiting my attention; some are partially started, while others are still just ideas. The one I have been working on this week is a family project. 

My husband and his family on his father's side have some Scottish ancestry, and this project was intended to showcase some special items.

When hubby and his siblings were youngsters, they often went along to Scottish dance evenings with their parents. They learnt many of the dances, and hubby's brother and sister also took part in competitions. Hubby's kilt was made using the tartan with our family name. This particular tartan is Ancient Wilson, with orange and green colours woven into the fabric.

Hubby kept his kilt from those early years but has not worn it since then. It has been in the loft, and unfortunately it now has some moth damage as well as wear and tear. I was reluctant to get rid of it and instead wanted to transform it into something we could display on our living room wall.

It was quite scary cutting into the kilt fabric, but it needed to be done for the greater good. I had a suitable frame and some backing fabric and set to work. It was at this point that I realised the intricacies of how a kilt is made and the huge amount of fabric involved. Eventually I managed to fit everything together, including a section of the pleats. 

Once this was firmly attached, it was time to add the other items.

The largest item was the leather sporran, which was wired through the fabric to keep in place. A sporran is worn at the centre of the kilt, around the waist. It acts like a money purse for personal items because traditional kilts don't have pockets. This one is really for daytime wear, as it is made of leather, but there are many beautiful and far more intricate versions for more formal occasions. Sporran means purse in Gaelic.

The ornamental knife is called a Sgian Dubhs (pronounced skee-an-doo) and is tucked into the right or left sock depending on the dominant-hand side, with only the upper part of the hilt showing.

Finally, the buckle is from hubby's leather belt that he also wore. He gave it a good clean with some metal polish before adding it to the display board.

And here is the final photo showing all the pieces together. Now it can be properly displayed, and our family can still enjoy those memories of Scottish country dancing together.

Have a fantastic week, everyone, and who knows, I may start another project this week. 😊

Cat sitting and a Walk in the Forest

Hello everyone. 

I hope you have all had a good week. If you are in the UK, hopefully you will have had some cooler weather and maybe a spot of rain. If you live somewhere else that has already given you lots of the wet stuff, I hope the sun shines for you in the coming week.

Our son was on holiday in Morocco last week, so we have been keeping an eye on his two sweet girls, Lola and Nala.  

On one of the days we were kitty-sitting, we ventured out to Kingsford Country Forest for a walk. It was clear to see how the weather had taken its toll on the ferns and other plants. Even so, there were green shoots and plants unwilling to give up completely. Kingsford is owned and managed by the National Trust and is in the southern half of the Kinver Edge escarpment. We followed one of the shorter routes for our walk, which was quite steep in places but still very enjoyable.

We found this swing in the forest but were not inclined to try it out!

Even though we found many areas that had been scorched and burnt by the excessive heat and sunshine of the Summer heatwaves, we did find plenty of places that were still green or showed some colour. 

It has also been one of the busiest birthday weeks of the year for our family, with hubby, daughter and son celebrating their special days. I shall need next week to recover from all the cake. 🎉🎈🎂😂

Wishing you all just the right amount of sunshine and showers this week, good health, and something to make you smile.

Take care.

B x