My garden in October

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a garden update, and I’m really not sure why. Our garden, like any other, requires work at all times and we’re just about keeping up with it. With weekend plans and darker evenings there’s not as much time as we need, but then any gardener is likely to say that.

I decided to try and try the sunflowers which spent a good few weeks on our dining table, the messy greenhouse wasn’t the space for that though and I later added some furry and rotting heads to the compost heap, so maybe my compost will bring some surprises in the future, if I’m lucky.

The small Christmas tree is doing well, and maybe it’s sprucing itself up (sorry pun intended) for its season. Sssh, don’t say anything but it’s staying outside.

One of the discoveries of the ivy is this almost white leafed version. Ivy is usually ripped out of our garden, but this one has permission to stay, as long as it doesn’t misbehave.

You’ll know that our garden is pretty green in colour, but it’s the varieties of green that make it work. The ferns always enjoy the sun and the glossy leaves in the sunlight always look special. You wouldn’t know that most of the ferns in our garden have been rescued from a shady wall, and they’re thriving.

The sedum’s also thrive at this time of year - saving their colour for the later summer and autumn days - and don’t they just look glorious? They will only improve though as the colour darkens.

The dogwoods in pots, which at one point I thought we’d lost, are doing well and playing host to plenty of visitors, and some weeds too.

To end the month there was some pottering - these small cyclamen plug plants have been potted up and have doubled in size, feeling quite at home in the conservatory. Going outside is likely to be a bit of a shock for them, but for the time being I’m happy to have their greenery right by the back door.

Two ways to enjoy Oxford Rye, from The Oxford Artisan Distillery

This post contains items gifted by The Oxford Artisan Distillery.

Over the past eighteen months, like many people during the pandemic, we’ve drunk more at home. With pubs and restaurants closed, it’s hardly surprising is it? Noticeably though we’ve enjoyed drinking more spirits than before, and have been experimenting to find a drink that we both like equally as much, rather than having a couple of bottles on the go.

So when I was offered the chance to try what’s described as “a unique English spirit” I was keen to find out more. MOH was also keen to try this telling me it would be like a bourbon - and that was before it even arrived.

When it arrived, it was confirmed as a ‘rye spirit’ and not a ‘rye whisky’ - you, like us might be wondering what the difference is. A ‘rye spirit’ must be under three years old - so a ‘rye spirit’ it is. Or a liquid rye as it’s described.

Want to know more?

I thought you might. It’s distilled from ancient heritage rye, a commonly cultivated crop in pre-industrial England. It’s distilled twice and rested in American oak barrels. The heritage grains are chosen for their flavour and are grown mostly within 50 miles of Oxford. That brings another dimension - sustainability - the grains also improve the quality of the land and the wildlife by the farming methods which avoids using all pesticides and uses traditional methods to manage the land.

And it tastes good too

It has a distinctive flavour - there’s definitely vanilla and spice. MOH has a better ‘nose’ than me and regularly identifies ingredients in food, whereas I’m much more “I like that” - and I liked this. Looking at the tasting notes there’s also sandalwood and the spice is described as “nutty and spicy notes”.

To start with we tried it neat as we’d drink whisky, which for me is with a splash of water. And it was very drinkable, and a nice warming feel so would work well for an end of meal digestif.

The bottle also suggested trying it as a long drink, with ginger ale, Angostura bitters and lime - and with a warm, sunny day this weekend gave us the perfect time to try this. After a mostly lazy day interspersed with chores, knowing we had plans to sit and enjoy the garden we’d spent time working on, was a very good plan.

So that’s what we did - moving to the end of the garden to catch the last of the sun, we enjoyed an Oxford Rye take on a dark and stormy - on a day that, thankfully, was far from dark and stormy. While it was good neat, in my opinion this was better.

* With thanks to The Oxford Artisan Distillery for providing The Oxford Rye for me to try for the purposes of this review, all views and opinions are my own.

A deer nose job

It’s been a couple of years now since we got our new cushions, remember the ones with the matching crockery, yes those. The other night while getting comfortable I heard a bit of a rip, and that’s never a good sound is it? When I looked the rip was on the softer tweed just by the antler - the material there is soft and more delicate than the other two panels, but I was pretty sure I’d be able to fix it.

And so after formulating a bit of a plan, and hoping I might have some material I could use. When I looked more closely I realised that some of the stitching around the nose had also parted ways with the appliquéd fabric.

That felt like an easier place to start and so I found some red embroidery thread and a hoop and set to work to tack the fabric back together.

With that done and after a quick trim, it was almost as good as new - well, not quite new, but passable.

Which left the bigger job. My idea was to place a piece of material behind the hole and take it from there. I found this old t-shirt which was a good tonal match to the section that needed repairing. I decided to use half of one of the short sleeves, so much larger than the part to mend, and carefully attach that.

Then I used beige, blue and cream embroidery thread to catch the threads around the holes. While you can see the mending in the picture below, when you stand back it’s far less visible - and overall the cushion cover is much more durable than it was before I started!

But if you look quickly, it’s hardly noticeable - MOH only saw it when he looked more closely, so I’ll take that - and the deer cushion lives on. While looking at this more closely, as I did, I realised that this is a craft that would be great to learn - so watch this space!