Post Comment Love 24-26 September

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

Last week you’ll remember that my photo was raindrops on the window, thankfully the weather here has been much improved. In my home office it’s been warm most days, MOH though is noticing the drop of temperature in his home office at the back of the house. I’m finding I’m still dressing for summer and feeling chillier in our main living areas, it’s all very confusing. Heading to campus and wearing proper office clothes - and worse, shoes - is equally as problematic, but I’ll cope - and it’s been nice to sit outside and eat our lunch some days.

So today, I’m sharing a sunnier photo and one from our trip to Scotney Castle back in July. Admittedly the greenhouse looks as if it needs a bit of work, but isn’t it characterful and beautiful nonetheless? It’s situated in the walled garden, and walled gardens are always a must visit for me.

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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!