Take 5 pears

Take 5 pears, British conference pears that cost just £1 for 6 at Booths. This BTW was the smallest of the 6.

Add a chunk of freshly grated ginger, some local honey and a little local orange marmalade

Top with a crumble made from flour , butter , barley flakes, dark brown sugar , allspice and a few left over pecan nuts. 

Bake in oven until golden and you see pear juices caramelising on top of crumble.

Serve it with fresh live yoghurt

Delicious taste of Autumn.

I've been chatting to a friend about colour and its effect on  our spirits, especially during the dark half of the year. I mentioned some merino silk I had dyed and how I was trying it out on a spindle. TBH once I started to spin it I realised I wanted to use a wheel not the spindle as it just felt so gorgeous and was so bright. As its getting quite late in the day the full glory of the yellow doesn't show, its almost fluorescent 

As you can see and for some reason this photo has turned sideways. Very weird. The fibre is 70% merino and 30% tussah silk from Adelaide Walker and I dyed it with procion acid dyes.

Autumnal magic potions

 Today was magic potion day:)  I always try to make my Nan's recipe for winter, a secret mix of autumn fruits spices and honey. Ideal for coughs, colds, flu and a general tonic through winter.
I had struggled to find elderberries this year. We had found plenty of blackberries and black currants but no elder.  However last night 2 very dear friends arrived with 11 pounds of elderberries so the fun could begin:) They only took part of the forest harvest, leaving plenty for winter feed for the animals and birds. They even prepared them for me so no taking them off the stalks needed.
Here you see the first stage, fruits simmering slowly to release the juices.

Almost ready

 Now the fun, squeezing every bit of juice ready for stage 2. All the fruit remaining will go to the woods for the birds. As will a little bit of juice as a libation for the Goddess and a thank you.

 Stage 2 the spices and secret ingredients added along with my last 2 jars of Blue Witch's marvellous honey and some local honey to make up the total needed.

 Bottled ready for labelling. I ran out of the smaller bottles so had to use the litre ones until I get more supplies

 nothing remaining in the pans

 We had so much the last lot had to go in a honey jar for now. Over 6 litres of autumn magic for friends and family.

The house smelt glorious and I loved being part of the old magic once more.

An out

We had an out today to a new event -  Kendal wool gathering. Held in the K shopping village in Kendal(gateway to the lakes)

Free event, free parking and very good for a first event. 

I didn't need anything but saw this yarn and loved it.  It was a new to me dyer Yarn garden

The website is under construction but well worth a visit. This is called Tree Lupin and comprises 70% BFL, 20% silk and 10% cashmere. 100gms 400 metres.

Not a colour I'd have thought of buying or dyeing but I loved it.

 Found this book and at £5 thought it worth buying to  loan to beginners.

there were alpacas, gorgeous creatures and very interested in all the visitors:)

Who were also very interested in the alpacas;)

I had to remind Mr Mog that alpacas were too large for our back garden despite their appeal:)

We were then taken to a rather splendid eatery by the friend we were with and this is my  part eaten lunch before I tackled the rest. Cumin crusted lamb flatbread with salads. Very delicious

 They even had a special teapot for Mr Mog with a black cat on the cosy:)

 A thoroughly good day out with good friends. what more could you ask?