"With Pomp, Power & Glory the world beckons vainly, In chase of such vanities why should I roam?While Peace & Content bless my little thatched cottage,And warm my own hearth with the Treasures of Home."*Beatrix Potter

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Cozy February Days & A Day in Lincoln.

With snow on the ground we have just enjoyed being at home this past week. 
There has been a lot of baking, knitting & reading going on.
We have been discussing all that we are going to plant this year in the vegetable garden, a strawberry bed is something we would love to add.
Flowers are popping their little heads up all over the garden, you can see the garden coming back to life.
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Sweet Snowdrops from the garden.
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The postman brought me a couple of lovely parcels, one with three 1940's Woman's Weekly magazines.
They are full of knitting, stories & baking, so many ideas & inspiration.
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The second parcel was a huge batch of early 1950's Stitchcraft magazines.
So many lovely cardigans to knit & some pretty things for the twins too plus a few recipes.
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Seed Cake ~ Miss Marple's favourite cake.

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I have been wanting to bake seed cake for quite a while, so at the weekend I made one for Saturday tea.
It was a simple cake to bake, it turned out very soft with a mild caraway flavour.
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Seed Cake Recipe.
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Cream together 4 ozs of margarine with 4 ozs of sugar.
Add two beaten eggs a little bit at a time beating all the time.
Stir in 6 ozs of self raising flour, 1 full teaspoon of caraway seeds, 1 oz of mixed peel & one tablespoon of tepid water.
Spoon into a lined 7 inch cake tin, sprinkle sugar on top & bake for one hour.
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Boiled fruit cake made using dates & prunes. 
This is a cake out of Ruth Mott's cook book that I have changed slightly from sultanas to dates & prunes. I still make it the same as Ruth did but it is nice with the different dried fruit for a change.
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My first vintage tea cosy.
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 I have only crocheted granny squares before so I bought a little book on crocheting & worked out how to make leaves & flowers using the pattern.
Kitty chose the flower tea cosy pattern, now I am on a cherry one that Mary has chosen, they are both from 1940's patterns.
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It has been nice to make some smaller items & fun for the girls to look through the vintage patterns we have.
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Stone ground bread rising.
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All ready for tea.
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Dene & Ellie came to visit us on Sunday & spent the night. So on Monday we all took the girls to The Museum of Lincolnshire Life in Lincoln.
It was cold at first then the sun came out & it was a beautiful day.
It was lovely to be outside after a cold week inside.
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The museum takes you through many era's of life in Lincolnshire which is a farming county.
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Lovely old shelves in the Victorian kitchen next to the range.
The girls found it fun to find so many items that we have at home.
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Beautiful sunlight.
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I love these old  wagons used for harvesting wheat.
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The old co op shop.
Old packaging has such pretty muted colours.
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The view at the top of Steep Hill in Lincoln.
This is called the cathedral quarter.
All the shops and tea rooms are so pretty.
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Half way down Steep Hill, it is very steep.
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Time for afternoon tea at Bunty's Tearooms.
They use vintage china & pretty old tablecloths.
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Can you see how steep the pavement is outside the tearoom.
We all had a lovely day, it was so nice to get out with the sun shining.
After our afternoon tea we went to a few vintage shops, I found a sweet old knitting bag with wooden handles & Ellie found a beautiful vintage pearl necklace.
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It is back to being cold & damp now in our small part of the world, we were truly blessed on Monday with the weather.
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Thank you dear readers for all your kind words,
 I love hearing from you all & about your lives.
Fondly Michelle
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