Our week that was: Litter pick, antique fair and apple pie

Summer is slowly turning towards autumn. The garden is looking a little scruffy with the grasses and wild flowers in need of chopping back. Our huge sycamore has begun to drop a few leaves here and there in preparation for its big release. The week saw a couple of events for us; an early morning drive to an antique fair for Justin and a local litter picking mission for me.

Village litter pick

I organised for some of us Women’s Institute members to meet up to do a tidy up around our village. I borrowed a litter picking kit from the local council – a very easy task done via their website. Justin & I collected the kit a few days later from the library in Aberystwyth town centre. The bundle comprised grabbers, refuse bags, bag hoops (for keeping the bags open as you fill them) and heavy-duty gloves.

Four of us met up outside the village church and set about clearing the verges of plastic drinks bottles, cans, fast food containers, crisp packets and the like. We collected about one large bin bag full between us in about 2 hours. We were having such a good time nattering to each other along the way that we didn’t realise we’d walked about 4 miles. Good for the village AND our health!

Builth Wells

The twice-yearly antiques fair held at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Showground at Builth Wells was on again this week. It’s a huge, 2-day event with hundreds of dealers indoors and out from all over the UK.

Justin picked up a few choice items, including an antique margarine crock that has been receiving a lot of love over on our home Instagram account.

All the items above will be hitting our web shop or listed on eBay in the not too distant future, so keep an eye out if anything is of interest… or contact us to reserve.

Apple pie

The first thing I made with the apples I picked last week from a friend’s orchard was a plain apple pie. Without the addition of cinnamon, blackberries or sultanas, we could easier judge the flavour of the baker’s delicious variety. It was certainly delicious – the pieces of apple held its form on cooking and kept its colour too. A good all-round cooker.

Our week that was: Apple picking, a play date and moon missions

We’re still playing catch-up here on the blog after another fun-filled week – time is whizzing by in a flash. It does, doesn’t it, as you get older?

Apple picking

One of my friends from the Women’s Institute has a garden with an orchard. She invited a couple of us over to pick some of the apples, as she’d never be able to make use of them all.

The apple trees are old, rare Welsh heritage varieties such as Baker’s Delicious and Cadwaladr.

As well as apples, there were a few, much less commonly found trees in the orchard… including these walnuts that were almost ready to harvest.

We spent less than an hour apple picking, after which I returned home with two large sacks, heavy with fruit, with not much of an idea of what I was going to make with them. A pie and an upside-down cake are most likely; I have so many apples, I can attempt things I’ve never done before; apple juice, apple jam, hard cider?

Play date for Barley

A few weeks ago, we encountered a lady out walking her dog near the Arch near Hafod. After a tentative 30 seconds or so, we were all really pleased to see that her dog, Tala, and Barley hit it off splendidly. They’re about the same size and possess the same energy levels. They got on so well, in fact, that we agreed to meet the following week in the same place for a doggie play date.

The afternoon of the play date was a welcome chink of lovely, warm sunny weather in an altogether damp and dreary week. Tala & Barley loved it; tearing through the woods, chasing each other for most of the hour-long circular walk. We hope it will become a regular occurrence.

For All Mankind

We’ve just binge-watched 3 series of For All Mankind. The series proffers an alternative world history that hinges on the ‘space race’ not ending with the USA landing on the moon in 1969. The series broaches many subjects such as male chauvinism, feminism, sexuality, politics, technology and conspiracy theories. And I’ve just found out – there’s going to be a series four at some point in the near future!

Our week that was: Hafod, harvest and new shop stock

This weekly round-up is very tardy; partly because we’ve been unusually busy on the socialising front. We went out for food and drinks twice in a week – practically unheard of for us these days!

We had a rare “carers’ break”; Nerys, our dog sitter, came over for a few hours, so we took the opportunity to go for a quiet coffee and drive into Aberystwyth town for a mooch and spot of shopping.

Hafod

We arrived at the restaurant of the Hafod Hotel in Devil’s Bridge as they were opening their doors, so we headed for the comfy, mustard-coloured armchairs next to the fire. That turned out to be a great plan, as the Rheidol steam train arrived mere minutes later and scores of passengers disembarked and made their way straight down the hill to the Hafod.

We started with a couple of coffees followed by fish & chips for Justin and Welsh rarebit for me. The food was delicious – as were the coffees. The staff were friendly and very efficient – effortlessly coping with the sudden onslaught of customers.

Harvest

We’ve finally dug up our first crop of potatoes; we don’t know the variety, as we were given the seed potatoes by our neighbour months ago, and he couldn’t remember what type they were. We just chitted and planted them, then waited until we thought the plants were at the right stage for us to pull them up and dig down for spuds!

Our runner bean plants were also given to us by another very generous neighbour – they’ve been profuse, so I’m planning on canning the beans or using them to make a pickle or chutney.

New shop stock

A few, new things have been listed in our online shop and our eBay account this past week, with more planned for next week. As always, if you see anything you like, get in touch. Also, if you’re looking for anything in particular, let us know and we can keep our eyes out on your behalf.

Our week that was: Beans, berries and a birthday

We’ve spent a fair amount of time in the garden again this week, picking fruit, veg and flowers. We have little jugs and vases full of sweet peas dotted all around the house that are replenished daily; the house smells divine!

Runner beans

Our veg plot is beginning to offer up produce ready for harvest. So far, we’ve had a couple or three courgettes; nothing compared to previous years’ crops. We were given about a dozen runner bean seedlings by a neighbour a couple of months ago. These have been growing rampant, and I’ve picked the first couple of portions this week. I think we’re going to be inundated with them in the next few weeks and, as I’m the only one that will be eating them (Justin hates them!), I’m hunting for recipes for preserving them. If you can recommend any, please share!

Blackberry upside-down cake

Last week, I picked a couple of kilos of blackberries and have them stored in the freezer for use later in the year. It’s been such a bumper year for them that I picked another kilo or so yesterday and used most of them to make this upside down cake. It’s one of my favourite, quick, go to recipes where I use any kind of fruit in season or tinned in the pantry. Team it with pouring cream or vanilla ice cream.

Barley is two!

The blue birthday bandana was taken out of storage and dusted off. Barley turned two on Saturday – not that he realised that it was different to any other day… except that he was allowed two portions of buttered toast instead of one!

H is for Home Harbinger

Category: the week