The weather has turned now & Summer is a distant memory. We have had a wet week here in Lincolnshire & have spent some beautiful days inside baking & doing crafts. ~ I have a love of old pieces of furniture. This is the hand carved top of a wall cupboard in our parlour dated 1640. I would love to know the journey these pieces have taken. ~ Dried Honesty from the garden. ~ This is the only original window we have left in the cottage with some of the old hand blown glass in it. It is hard to see but one piece has been initialled & has the name of our village on it. Even writing on glass they had such beautiful writing. ~ Pumpkin ready to make pumpkin butter. We will enjoy it's beauty for a week or two first. ~ The area beside the inglenook fireplace. Antique bonnets & aprons hanging. ~ I love our old stick back chair, George does too as it sits next to the range. ~ Two little boys sleeping in the kitchen. ~ Bobby bless him he does love to sleep. ~ The Ewe's are back in the field behind the hens. They make such a gentle noise when I am hanging out the washing on these wonderfully breezy days. ~ Our bare graceful old walnut tree in the morning sun. ~ I used some of the lovely stone ground flour we bought at the Lode water mill to make some pastry for pies. ~ The pastry turned out very crumbly using the flour so decided to make two rustic apple pies with it as we still have so many apples. ~ They turned out lovely & tasted good too. I sprinkled demerera sugar on top. ~ Kitty fancied a plait loaf for her lunch. ~ George really likes to curl up in the rug hooking basket. Since finishing my jumper I am back to rug hooking. ~ Chocolate brownies. This is a simple recipe that the children love. Put all the ingredients into a bowl & mix for 2 to 3 minutes. 1 1/2 cups of plain flour 1/2 cup cocoa powder 2 cups of white sugar 1 cup vegetable oil or melted margarine 4 eggs 1 cup of chocolate chips if desired 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence Bake in greased tin for 30 minutes at 350 f I do change the recipe sometimes by adding dried fruit instead of chocolate chips. Cool & cut. ~ The twins made little harvest mice from fir cones they found in the garden. ~ These beautiful old fir trees line the back of the garden between us & the grave yard. The girls so love to gather the fir cones. ~ Thank you dear readers for all your kind words. If there is anything you would like to see in a future post please let me know. Fondly Michelle ~