I think it's interesting the way that animals seem able to predict some natural events. Apparently some pets became agitated just before we had the earthquake that occurred earlier this week...did they sense it, I wonder? And it's very widely believed that cows will lie down before it rains. This local herd got it right anyway...it did rain.

Margaret & I are always harping on about simple pleasures. I have to tell you though that one of the absolutely best things about winter/early spring is sitting by the fire and looking into its depths every now & then; looking at the colours, smelling the wood burning, listen to it crackle and day-dreaming.

Meet Elizabeth Shirley, or Shirley Elizabeth, depending how I was feeling about the names on the day. She's a very old doll of mine - nearly as old as me (not quite that old then).

Jayne at http://www.countrycottagechic.blogspot.com has asked about everyone's favourite doll or teddy from childhood. I've a couple of dolls...the smaller one is called Pamela (the children are very scathing about my choice of names -I've pointed out that they were very popular at the time).
Elizabeth Shirley has her original dress but her bonnet has been lost unfortunately. Her hair is a bit worse for wear. Apparently I took the scissors to her when I was young, hence the very dodgy fringe!

This banana bread is so easy to make and is best when cold and buttered.

Mash 3 large bananas. In another bowl sieve 8oz plain flour with a good teaspoon of baking powder. Beat 2 eggs. All you have to do is add each in turn to the bananas, mixing well, between each addition. - see! I said it was easy. Put into a buttered loaf tin and bake in a moderate oven for about an hour.

Margaret's posting about the Brook Bond tea, set Brian off...thinking about the various things he has collected (hoarded). Soon he dug out his collection of cigarette cards. Some amusement ensued. On one of the packets this is written, where you would expect to see the government warning: "Awarded the certificate of the institute of hygiene for quality and purity...Made specially to prevent sore throats...

So that's where you have been going wrong!

Rhubarb makes a wonderfully pink preserve...very distinctive I think, and different from jams made with summer fruits. This is very much a taste of springtime. Les has been taking it to work for his jam butty breakfast.

2lb/900g rhubarb
2lb/900g preserving sugar
half an ounce/10g root ginger
1 lemon
1 orange

Wash and trim the rhubarb and cut into 1in/2.5cm chunks. Place in a large pan with the sugar. Grate the ginger and add to the pan. Add the zest and juice from the orange and lemon. Heat very gently stirring occasionally until the rhubarb softens and the sugar is dissolved.
Bring to the boil rapidly and keep stirring. Allow to boil for about 10 minutes unitl it is ready to set. Pour into clean jars and replace lids while hot.

The robins are around quite frequently now. I find it very amusing to watch them trying to land on the fat bells - they do manage it, but not with the same ease and agility of the blue tits. At last we've had visits from the nuthatches again...I don't think we saw them at all last year, but I still haven't seen any woodpeckers...most annoying because Les did see two in the garden a while ago (that's what he says anyway!)

Noreen and I have been discussing what foods we tend to have left over, despite our best efforts, and in our house most often it's bread that goes a bit stale. Emptying our bread bin revealed several pieces of bread that were a bit too dry for sandwiches, but were fine for a pudding - so I've used these; plus I threw in the breadcrumbs I'd got left over from the fishcakes. Last night, thinking ahead (there's a novelty!) and being unusually prepared, I soaked 3oz of sultanas in sloe gin so that they were juicy and plump for the pudding.

Slice the bread thinly and butter it well. Cut into squares and layer half in the bottom of a large dish. Add the sultanas and 1oz of sugar.
Make another layer from the rest of the bread with butter side up. Add 1oz of sugar. Beat two large eggs into 1 pint of milk and pour over. Leave to stand for about 30 minutes. Bake at 150C, gas mark 2 for about 45 minutes.

I've been rained off gardening at the moment - and loads of clearing still not done. As for the greenhouse, don't even go there, especially in person - but as it's raining, I suppose I ought to.

Instead I've been potting up up some of the spring plants I've bought. Three fresh hyacinths are now in the kitchen window, and high on the cobwebbed shelves in the greenhouse I found the hollowed out half of silver birch log that I use as a planter. Last year it was snowdrops and grape hyacinths, this season it's tete-a-tete daffodils and little pale yellow primroses.

Looks dry again outside...back to the border.

When it comes to beef, the source is very important, I think.

This is very much in my mind, at the moment, because last night I think I tasted the nicest roast beef I have ever had in my life. We were at a friend's house and she told us she had had the beef from a butcher in Ashbourne, (Derbyshire); and that it was from an Aberdeen Angus. It even made us think of perhaps keeping some ourselves!

For a change I made these meatballs today, using good mince from the butchers, some breadcrumbs and some grated parmesan (season and add some basil). The sauce was very simple, consisting of fresh & tinned tomatoes, garlic, a chopped red pepper and seasoning. I baked the meatballs in the oven for about 40 minutes; pouring the sauce over for the last 10 minutes. Some grated parmesan is nice on top.

The more simply fish is cooked the better, we reckon. What could beat fresh fillets cooked in the oven with a knob of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice? But home-made fishcakes are simple too.

I cooked 2 salmon fillets we bought earlier in a parcel of foil and boiled about 2lbs of potatoes. Remove the skin and gently flake the salmon. Mash the potatoes well with butter and milk. Stir in the salmon and add a handful of finely chopped flat leaved parsley, a squeeze of lemon juice and salt and pepper.

Chill well before forming into fishcakes. Dip each one into beaten egg and then breadcrumbs, and shallow fry in a little olive oil. Any left over can go in the freezer for another mealtime. I've wrapped each one in clingfilm and freezed them separately - that's another meal sorted!

Bit of a mad thought process here perhaps, but we are struggling in the farming world with the price of corn at the moment - the farming programme this morning on R4 focused on this and was a bit alarming; certainly food production seems to have shot up the agenda again. Not long ago, it seems an abundance of food here in the west was just a given.

Brian captured this the other morning when there was what is called, I think, a hoar frost.

We're very fortunate that we still have busy and well supported markets locally. On Saturdays the market place is full of antique and bric-a-brac stalls that provide an intesting browse. Les is always taken by the old tools and assorted bits of wood and metal (it must be a man thing); naturally, my preference is for the pretty bits of china and embroidery.
Inside the buttermarket there's just about anything you could want. All kinds of fresh produce alongside sewing and craft stuff, furniture, pet foods, soaps and candles and more besides...you get the picture, I'm sure. We bought some fresh fish and some more rhubarb...no, not for the same recipe...but more of that later.

Do you remember Brooke Bond picture cards? Recently I came across one of the sets I must have collected. These wild flower cards were illustrated and described by Charles Tunnicliffe RA...my favourite is the one of snowdrops.
I'd forgotten all about them, but was reminded of how we used to open each packet of tea in eager anticipation of finding a card we hadn't got already - not really different from how youngsters collect Pokemon cards now, I guess.

Noreen and I love to shop ('get off' I hear you say, 'we'd never have guessed'...or as the kids say, 'you're joking me!')
But, as you know we always like to bag a bargain and need a...er...bag to carry all our finds. We've grown to dislike using plastic carrier bags, so I've made us simple cotton ones to use. They're so easy to roll up in a handbag and are much more pleasant to carry...no nasty plastic handles stopping the blood flow to our fingers. Now Emily has said she would like one too, so I've sewn a couple more.
I feel a shopping trip coming on!

There was a dual purpose in making these. I need to use up some of last year's jam; and in the absence of chocolate from my life (I may just have mentioned that I've given it up for lent!) I'm always after a bit of something sweet. I made the pastry simply by rubbing in 2oz butter to 4oz plain flour and adding a little water. I mixed this and put in the fridge. In the meantime I mixed together 3oz caster sugar, 4oz butter, 4oz self-raising flour, 1 oz ground almonds and a teaspoon of almond extract & an egg. I put the pastry on the bottom, put a little jam in each and topped with the cake mixture I baked in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.

We are definitely not vegetarian, but this is the kind of simple tasty supper that you can knock together with the most basic of ingredients. First, cook the tagliatelle. Wipe and thinly slice a couple of large mushrooms. Fry these in some butter, and then toss the pasta in the same pan. I grated 3 cheeses on top. You can use whatever you like, but for this I used Shropshire Blue, Cheshire & some Cheddar. All of these I got from Mary's cheese stall in the Butter Market. Just cook the dish in the oven until browning on top. Nice with some cheese (or garlic) bread. Some salad would also go well in summer.

Nothing says spring more than daffodils. The little tete-a-tete are the first in our garden to come into flower, but I did feel sorry for them when we had the heavy frost - it made them hang their heads so.
I prefer these to the big blowsy daffodils that we also have in the borders. Although I love to see them growing in the grass of an orchard I'm not sure I'd plant the big daffs in the garden, given my time again...all those leaves. At the moment though anything emerging from the bare earth is exciting.
I even managed to plant the tulip bulbs I'd forgotten about in November...can't wait till they flower. So many of you have wonderful vases of tulips on your blogs in gorgeously vibrant colours...think I'll have to buy some to keep me going until then.

You know how it is...certain evenings there needs to be something easy for tea (most evenings in our household actually...I like to cook, but don't want to spend all night doing it). This is one of those simple meals - a few good ingredients and a tasty result. It only needs some good back bacon, mature Cheddar cheese, onions, and mashed potato. We had some buttery red cabbage with it...delicious. And the bonus is, there's enough to put in the freezer for a day when there's even less time.
I boil five large potatoes for the mash. Fry a couple of sliced onions gently in a little olive oil. Add about 8oz of lean back bacon, cut into small pieces, to the onion and fry.
Grate about 8oz Cheddar. Drain the potatoes and mash well with butter, milk and a couple of ounces of cheese. Layer half of the mash in the bottom of a deep dish. Add a layer of half the bacon and onion. Grate some cheese on top. Add the second layer of mash, then the rest of the bacon and onion. Grate the rest of the cheese on top.
Place under a hot grill until the cheese is bubbling and golden.

Though there are many signs of spring, the weather is very cold at the moment. Brian hates getting up these early mornings - but he must have been coming round because he took a few sunrise pictures yesterday morning (after a gallon of tea, no doubt!)

Our cottage is wonderful to live in because it has a quirky character all of its own. It does have some disadvantages though and keeping it warm is one. On cold nights a force ten gale blows under the doors, especially the one between the kitchen and the conservatory, so at last I've made another draught excluder for here. It's a very easy version of patchwork...just strips from remnants of flowery cotton I'd already got, sewn together and stuffed with wadding. It should do the trick.

When Margaret & I went shopping (and for lunch) on Friday we found lots of pretty cheap primroses, tete-a-tete daffodils and primula on the market stalls. It is so easy to look out for bowls (charity shops are a great source), buy a bag of compost and make your own arrangements to scatter around to house - an awful lot cheaper than going to a florist!

Just because I've given up biscuits for Lent - and let no-one underestimate what a sacrifice this is for me, biscuit lover that I am - doesn't mean that I have to go without all treats. Needless to say, I haven't given up cake! So I decided, naturally, that these mincemeat squares definitely count as cakes. During my little cleaning and clearing out spree this week, I found some mincemeat left that I wanted to use so this recipe is ideal.

I rubbed 2oz of butter into 12oz of self-raisng flour, 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp mixed spice. Then stir in 2oz caster sugar and the zest of 1 orange. Add about 7 fl oz of milk to make a soft dough. Grease and flour a tin about 11 ins by 8ins. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Divide in half, roll out one half to fit and place in the tray. Stir the juice of half an orange to 12 oz mincemeat. Spread this over the dough. Roll out the other half of dough and place over the mincemeat. Press the edges together lightly. Brush with milk and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake at 170C, gas mark 3 until golden. Cut into squares. Can be eaten hot or cold.

Bacon from the local butcher - egg from the goose shed, couldn't be more local! Brian assures me he works all this off. With all the winter bedding down etc, particularly in this cold weather, I agree with him. He does.

The wood (well, more like a little spinney really) behind our house has been bathed in sunlight today. I love it at this time of year as we can see through the trees, and the trunks and bare branches show up so clearly, especially the silver birch.
Clusters of snowdrops are just visible amongst the brambles. These were planted (the snowdrops, that is) a couple of years ago and it's great to see them expanding into good sized clumps.

This one is for Kathyann & the girls. Artwork (!) by Farmer Brian.

Well, I did pretty much throw away my to-do list today. I suppose it's not completely abandoned - these jobs will have to be done - but there's time...I mean, it's not spring yet, is it?
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and a stroll around the charity shops. Being rather skint right now, (when aren't I!), I had to be quite selective, but I did find this embroidered table cloth that was too beautiful to resist...and at only £2.50, a real bargain. It's going to look so good on our table...just need to sort out the rest of the room.

But has been laid by a goose! The first goose egg of the season is usually laid around St. Valentine's Day, so this is not far out.

Brian is looking forward to having it for breakfast tomorrow with some bacon. Wonder if we will have some goslings later...Hope so.

Happy Valentine's Day! Hope you were showered with cards, flowers, chocolates, champagne, wined and dined, and so on.
Now heaven forbid that I would want any of you kind people to feel sorry for me, but I have spent the day with my head inside the kitchen cupboards having a good clear out. And very necessary it was too, scarily so...all the half used packets and jars festering at the back of shelves; those best before dates come round so fast!
I felt quite proud of my achievement though, and when I'd just about had enough cleaning to last me a lifetime, gave myself a bit of time to make a heart for Valentine's day. It's from a remnant of fabric I bought a few days ago, topped with a pearly button.
This week is going so fast and still loads of jobs on my list. Tomorrow I'm out bargain hunting, after a spot of lunch of course. Think I'll throw the list on the fire!