Monday 1 August 2011

photo hunting... and plums!

As usual, a day late with the scavenger hunt pics - I am so disorganised at the moment! too much going on and not enough hours; at least, that's my excuse!

I have struggled a bit this month - doesn't seem to have been any time to go out photo hunting with any kind of deliberate intent so most of these have been 'Ah! that might work!' type snaps as I've gone along. Can't say I'm overly proud of this months efforts but here we go anyway...

Red, white and blue.
I liked the light through the roof of the shopping mall in Burton-upon-Trent, taken while hunting for cheap home furnishings for son 2's new flat. Don't think I got the light right but son and other half were marching ahead so didn't have much time for playing!

Flip flops
Mid late night shop in a certain well known supermarket! Lots of brightly coloured flip flops! I'm sure the woman who was refilling the shelves thought I was stark raving bonkers!

Ice cream!
I was getting a bit desperate for this one when I walked past this van in the city on Saturday! I would just like to point out that, in spite of the bloke in the T-shirt, it was bloomin' freezing on Saturday! Hence no queue at the ice cream stall I guess!

Strawberries
Can't remember what, if any, the story was behind these! They are just strawberries! Yum! (oh, and the bowl, which you can't see very well, is an original one of my Mum's tupperware bowls - given to me when I got married I think! I still love these bowls, even if they are a bit scratched and faded now!)

A flag...or flags, in fact!
This was taken outside the Millenium stadium in Cardiff at the beginning of the month.

Fields.
This is the field of wheat opposite our house, glowing golden in a summer storm, which had caused a fabulous rainbow that was so wide I couldn't fit it all in the shot.

A celebration
Preparations for Norwich Pride in Chapelfield Gardens at the weekend. There was a lot of bright funky hair about!

Sea shells
This is a bit of a cheat, as I didn't actually take this until this morning... I was thinking I wouldn't be able to get this one, then today remembered this little dish of shells in the downstairs loo! These are collected from various seaside holidays over the years - mostly not in Norfolk, we don't have many shells on beaches here - hey have been threatened periodically with being dispensed with but They hold little memories for me and I don't want to part with them!

Stars
 On the top of my birthday lanterns.

Stripes
It struck me that there was a lot of stripe-iness going on in my pile of ironing!


Something that makes you happy
I think I mentioned before my childish love of bubbles - these were monster bubbles at Latitude Festval and I love love love them!!!

So that's my photos for July - the observant of you will have noticed there are only 11; didn't manage a kite. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with this month; thanks as always to Kathy for the monthly list. Can't quite believe its August already, at risk of sounding like my mother...where is the year going!!!

So on to plums... This is a cry for help really! I got home late last night from the Cambridge Folk Festival (more of that another time maybe...) to find this...


We have a plum tree in the garden that this year has been absolutely laden with fruit. They are eating plums really - delicious straight of the tree (and I'm sure about a month earlier than last year?) but there are only so many fresh plums that you can eat. I can't quite believe R picked so many! While they were on the tree I could sort of ignore them but now I have to do something with them! Soon!

Even before this lot I had already made 15 jars of this...


Because they are such sweet, juicy plums, I added a cooking apple and the juice of a lemon. I also added a small handful of blackberries that I had in the freezer - the green plums make a rather dirty green looking jam which tastes lovely but is a bit off-putting to look at!

This morning, I have frozen 10 lbs, potted up some with brandy and some with rum (plum hooch! never tried it before but willing to give it a go!) and have another 4 lbs in the preserving pan waiting for me to make it into chutney. And I have only emptied the basket! Haven't touched the wheelbarrow yet!

So, has anyone got any good recipes for preserving/using sweet plums???!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Sx

9 comments:

  1. wow what a lot of plums, good luck using them all!!

    I think you have done very well with your photographs. I love the fields photo and the stars. I'm a child with a love of bubbles too. I have a bubble wand sitting near my computer but never though of using bubbles for that category!

    Louise

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  2. I LOVE your monster bubble...how fun!
    I used blowing bubbles for last month's childhood memory category. Seems like all the kids these days can't get enough video games, but in my opinion, simple things (like bubbles)bring the most joy.

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  3. Great photos! The fields photo is amazing and I love your stars and stripes. The strawberries look tasty as do your plums. Our tree is laden this year - we only had a dozen fruits of it last year:)

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  4. Great photos, I love the fields one. That is my very favourite sky; dark steely blue and the sun shining, and of course you've got the added bonus of a rainbow.

    I've got a few greengage trees but they're pretty old and don't produce much at all. They're not ripe yet so your's do seem early. No recipes I'm afraid.

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  5. Great photos - love the field!!

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  6. Lovely selection of photos ~ and I agree that the fields photo is a stunner. Can't help you with the plums, but you have done an admirable job so far processing them! Good luck with your wheelbarrow full.

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  7. A lovely set of photos, especially the field one.

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  8. Some lovely pics there, love the bubbles and the ominous looking one of the field!

    Have you tried the Good Food website for recipes? Just search for plum and there'll be loads. How about some sort of plum crumble? Plumble?? :)

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  9. I quite like you collection...especially the flip flops. :o)

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! I love to read your thoughts.