Monday, 10 August 2020

A Good Monday

A little cooler on the Island today, at least in the morning it was.  I managed to get the plums picked and some jam made, did some gardening, studying and painting.  I enjoyed a lovely walk in the later afternoon and was delighted to spot some dolphins out in the bay - about four or five, it was difficult to tell, and unfortunately a bit far out for  my little pocket camera.

In the garden today:


Beautiful roses.


All a bit too high for me to prune  and dead head roses unfortunately.






Fabulous dragonfly


It was very high up so I had to zoom in to capture it on film.




Someone's cat visited the garden.




In the kitchen:


Picked plums.


Cutting the plums open - quite a lot had yukky creepy crawlies in them, so they ended up in the compost, that was partly why I prepared the plums outside.



A 'double plum'.  


I'm not sure what type of plums they are - either Cambridge Gage or Pershore apparently.


Chop them up. (1307 g of plums)


Add 120 mls of water with 1 tbsp of lemon juice.

Boil and then simmer until plums are soft, add sugar - I added about 1200 g of sugar,  boil until reach setting point.  Pour into sterilised jars.


On my walk...


A bit a sea mist/haze this afternoon, I took this from the seat I sit on most times I come down to the bay.


The fields are so very dry.


A couple of crows.  There was quite  a few of them at one point and there was a kestrel (?) trying to dive bomb them - normally it is the other way round, but it must have been after something.  In the end it did fly away.

The highlight of my walk, as mentioned at the beginning of the blog, was seeing the dolphins.




Art today:  

I'm finding it a bit frustrating that I don't have any of my easel boards anymore, (no thanks to the removal company who lost them!), as I have nothing to prepare and tape the watercolour paper to.  I tried out some of the other papers I have... one was really for acrylic paints, and it definitely wasn't as good for doing water colours on.




This is just a mess!  Free style, is definitely not my style! Ha ha.


I tried an elephant.  Room for improvement, but pleased with my first attempt, using only one colour.

7 comments:

  1. oh lovely roses, I'm looking forward to mine blooming soon.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. I miss the rose garden I used to have, and will definitely have to plant some more here at some stage.

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  2. Your plum jam has such a pretty colour.
    The roses are all lovely but the pale peachy one would be my choice.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, it is a lovely colour, but looks quite different to the plum jam I have made in the past.

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  3. That plum looks like the Louisa over here but I think they are just in New Zealand.

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    Replies
    1. The previous people left a list of the fruit trees, so I know it is either one of the other that I named, but not sure which it is. I suppose I ought to look them up on Mr Google to see if I can work out which is which!

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  4. Hi,
    Art is subjective. Enjoying doing it, result. Nothing more to say. Soooo envious re your dragonfly.
    I scoffed all the Victoria plums from my tree a fortnight ago. No chance of them ever getting to the jam stage. Mind you, I might have been hasty, as they would have been lovely in a Victoria sponge.😃

    ReplyDelete

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