Hello Friday, you little beauty you.
This week has felt incredibly long, so I’m exceptionally pleased Friday has arrived.
Aretha Franklin
I still can’t believe Aretha Franklin has passed away. I grew up with her music; her songs are in some of my favourite films (My Best Friend’s Wedding being one of them), her music features on most of my playlists and in a way she was part of my life, as music is a part of many people’s lives.
On Thursday 16th August, we lost another one of the greats, so I fully intend on playing Aretha (I Say A Little Prayer For You or A Bridge Over Troubled Water) for the foreseeable future.
“Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift.” Aretha Franklin born 25/3/1942 and went to the angels on 16/8/2018.
Courgettes
I have a newfound love for these little gems! I had absolutely no idea what big, beautiful leaves they’d have – the sheer size of them is astounding. And when you move these leaves, you find little treasures underneath waiting the be chopped and added to a curry, peeled into slices, marinaded and added to a salad.
We’ve got four plants; two are the standard green courgettes and two yellow courgettes. Now I don’t want to tempt fate but between the two of us, we’re not overrun with them.
I grew courgettes because they have an reputation for being easy to grow and not because I particularly liked them, but luckily I’ve grown to love them. Keep growing, my little beauties.
Barbour Jacket
Yes folks, it’s that time of the year where you need to grab yourselves a tin of Barbour wax and re-do your wax jacket. It’s not the most exciting of jobs, but it makes a massive difference and keeps you dry!
I’ve had my Barbour for five years and every time I wax it, it looks like new again.
You can send your Barbour off to be waxed but it costs loads of money (about £60) and it takes a few weeks. Save yourself some time and money by investing in a tin of wax that’ll set you back about £10 and spend an hour bringing your jacket back to life. Barbour have a brilliant video on their website that shows you how to re-wax your jacket.
Good luck!
Stalking the Verges
When we’ve been walking Bella, I’ve started noticing that the fruit is really starting to ripen; the apples, elderberries, blackberries – it’s all ready for the picking. So the question is what to do with it?
Well I’ve never made elderberry jam before, so I’m going to give this a whirl – apparently it’s quite tart, so I’m thinking it would be perfect companion to cheese as well as toast. If it tastes any good, I’ll share the recipe.
When it comes to blackberries, we’re lucky if we can bring any home between Bella and I. Luckily she has plenty of black hair around her face, so she doesn’t get blackberry juice around her mouth like me… However, these beauties do make a mean Apple & Blackberry Loaf – looking back at this post, we were actually picking blackberries in July last year, so not quite as early this year!
Be Thankful
There have been some awful stories in the news this week; the collapsing of the bridge in Genoa has really played on my mind. The fear and horror those poor people must have felt must have been unimaginable.
So every time I feel frustrated by traffic, annoyed by work, angry at something I won’t even remember in a week, I’m going to take a breath and remember how much I’ve got to be thankful for.
Have an amazing weekend!
A x
Abi in the Garden 