Simple things..

Today has been a fantastic reminder that the simple things in life are great. Stephanie is showing the beginnings of the cold I am getting over so we have not done anything major considering it is the summer holidays. People that know me know that I like to explore and discover new places, which results in lots of day trips so it is not normal for me to have spent the past few days close to home.
However, that is not to say I have not enjoyed my peaceful few days. Today we decided to go to a local field, not the best description but my sleepy brain can think of no better word to describe the area, where there are always hundreds of blackberries. So with drinks and empty Tupperware tubs we set off for a the half hour walk. When we got there we picked hundreds of berries which will be made into jam, but not tonight as I am too tired.
We found a rope swing whilst we were there;

So much fun, it even held my weight so that I could have a short turn. You can't beat a rope swing!

A little catch up post

Wow its been a while! I am shocked at how ling it is since I last blogged. Since I last blogged we have been to stay at my sisters and met my knewest nephew- he is gorgeous. The blanket was well recieevd, my sis was very shocked when I said I had made it myself.

Dylan has started secondary school, Stephanie has started primary school, and so far they both enjoy it of course Stephanie has only done two days and Dylan has done one so there is time for change, but I hope so.

After our swim this morning we went for a walk through the woods and gathered this little lot;

Some blackberries but the bushes are starting to empty, I got loads of damsons and the trees were fully loaded, there are a handful of elderberries there were more but I couldn't get to them and then I got some windful pears again the trees were laden of them so will be going back to collect some more over the next few weeks.

With this little haul I made some Forest Fruits Jam, I also followed some recipes for preserving some of the pears in jars and a couple of jars of preserved damsons.
I seem to have a LOT of jam in my cupboard so need to find other ways of preserving fruit, I found preserving the damsons whole into the jars easy, I decided to quarter the pears before preserving them into their jar as I only have small jars.

This is what I have managed to preserve today. I don't have many empty jars left in the drawer so need to get collecting again.