Mushroom magic...

Puffball mushrooms are a magical mystery to me... You can never know when or where they will appear, you can long for one ages and then when you least expect it one will pop up right in the middle of your lawn...




Or at least that's the wish . They never arrive in my garden, but bionic grandpa came home to find an enormous one waiting by his back door - the local farmers know of his penchant for them and some one had left him an anonymous gift!

I only got a few slices saved for me as you can see - but that was enough for breakfast for two...




I fried them in butter then added black pepper and lemon zest - trust me it works....and voila! Seasonal breakfast heaven!



Now I have to work out which field it popped up in and cross my fingers for next year!


Posted using BlogPress
from my iPhone

La Dolce Vita...

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to visit Italy. From being a teenager reading A Room with a View to discovering Italian food through Jamie Oliver's obsession with the place I always knew I was going to love the place....and this summer we finally got there, the whole tribe went Italiano..and we loved it...

We had our very own Room with a View...

Surrounded by olive groves...

 

grapevines...

 

 

 

and fig trees ripe for the picking...

 

 

We were in Northern Tuscany, which I can promise you is even more beautiful than any film or book about the area. I was concerned that my expectations might be a bit too high - being twenty years in the making and all that...but I needn't have worried! As we opened the shutters on our villa to the views of the Tuscan hills we knew we'd arrived somewhere pretty magical!

 

 

BH got into the touristy spirit...the holding up the tower photo is a must!

The mini freerangers loved it so much I'm wondering if they are Italian!

 

 

 

 

 

but then whats not to love about sunshine, gelato and Chianti! We are about to begin a serious diet regime to recover from our two weeks of indulgence -I think if we lived there we would have to run up and down the mountains to burn some calories off...or we could end up looking like this fella!

Anyone who know me knows I love Yorkshire, but I have to say Italy is coming a close second now - if they could only make a good cup of tea we'd be emigrating...

 

 

Ciao!

Where did the time go....

Hello again...is there anybody there? The last thing I remember school was breaking up in July, we had a big list of things to do and then what do you know...its September and we're back at school!

We have been busy though honest! I can prove it...

We almost finished the hallway...

Even John Deer is finally in his rightful place,

we made a start on decorating the new build - the room that will one day, finally, be our grown up bedroom!

 despite a dreadful harvest in the garden, the broad beans did us proud...

and this was our best year yet for gooseberries - red ones at that!

 and our dragons egg cucumber - we only managed one, and it didn't taste great but it grew!

and then what with the weather and the kids activities and playdates and packing and unpacking and laundry and putting away...the summer was gone - hey ho!
The plus side for me though is I have time for blogging again - every cloud has a silver lining!

We did have one other big distraction over the summer...I took the following picture there - can you guess?

 to be continued....