Evita and a Charidee Dinner!

I mentioned in my previous post that we had gone to my parents for the weekend. It was quite exciting as we took half days and headed West (on different trains ... but that's a whole different story!)

Me and mum got dressed up and headed to the college where my Dad works for a Charity Dinner in aid of Help For Heroes and the Fifteen Foundation. It was a brilliant evening - a team of chefs from Claridges go to the college and work with the students to produce an amazing six course dinner! Very nice!! I also got to briefly meet An American Girl In England, a family friend, who is writing a book with my Dad!

On Saturday we went to see "Evita" in Birmingham. It was wonderful! You can't beat a good show!

Whilst at home, Mum helped me out with my first big knitting project! I am still an incredibly slow knitter - and as this project is going to be a Christmas present for someone, I needed a bit of a hand! Does anyone know where to buy cheap Rowan Kidsilk Aura yarn? Or know of a cheap alternative?

Foraging in the Hedgerow

Autumn is definitely here ... I tend to feel slightly detatched from Mother Nature stuck in the big smoke ... so it was nice to go home to the Cotswolds and see how far on Autumn actually is. I love the cooler mornings and beautiful colours. This weekend we headed to the hedgerows to pick some sloes (I'm not making any sloe gin this year, but was picking some for a friend who had given me some blackcurrants in the Summer), some crab apples and some rosehips. I'm looking forward to making crab apple jelly and rosehip relish (from a recipe in my dad's book-more of that later!)

Blackberry Jam

Last weekend, me and Mr Plum scoured the hedgerows of Plumton-on-Stour for blackberries and sloes .... there was an abundance of fruit and we came away with 3kgs of berries and 2 kgs of sloes! The sloes are in the freezer (traditionally, you shouldn't pick the sloes until after the 'first frost' - freezing them is a bit of a cheat!) - I will probably defrost them tomorrow and get the sloe gin on the go.  Anyway, back to jam!

I have never made jam before - so am quite excited! I am using a recipe in my trusted Betty's cookbook - usual equal amounts of fruit and sugar.  I have also stocked up with jars from Ikea - not sure how much jam I will make!  In my head it will be enough to stock a farm shop and I will be able to give up work and live off the proceeds ... 

Next on the list of things to do is making green tomato chutney .... 

Joules - A Guide To The Cotswolds

Having had a slight mis-hap on the way to a meeting yesterday, I am currently sitting at home with my feet up nursing a sprained foot...so inbetween reading about Georgiana I am also browsing the Joules website thinking about what lovely Autumny items to buy ... on the Joules Village part of the website they had put a Guide to The Cotswolds - all they need to do now is open a flagship store where Mummy & Daddy Plum live (and not Cheltenham) and that would be GREAT!

The Cotswold Way Part 1 - Chipping Camden to Broadway - 6 miles

This was the first leg of The Cotswold Way – a national trail of about 100 miles stretching from Chipping Camden to Bristol.

I won't go into huge detail about the actual route of the walk – if you want to do the trail yourself, there are plenty of websites where you can download maps, routes etc. Here are some points of interest I spotted on the walk.

Dovers Hill
This was the site of many family picnics and adventures when I was younger.  This is also the venue for the Olimpick Games!

Meon Hill
Legend has it that the Devil stood on top of the hill and kicked a boulder towards Evesham Abbey. There are lots of local tales and legends about this hill.

We did the walk on the first hot and sunny day for what seems like months! This was good as it meant that the farmers could get out and finish the harvest.  

Broadway Tower

Another venue for family picnics and birthday parties. We stopped here for a lovely ploughman's, cup of tea and glass of locally produced apple juice!

Broadway itself was much prettier than I remembered – but of course as this was August Holiday - and sunny, it was full of tourists! Unfortunately (although, fortunate for my bank balance) my walking boots meant that I was not able to go inside any of the lovely shops there!

The walk took us about 3 hours, at a leisurely pace. The walk from Chipping Camden to Dovers Hill is quite steep, but the rest of the walk is quite even until the walk down hill into Broadway.