Mum and Baby

Noticed my resident Hedgehog had a young baby in tow this summer, this was a quick pic I managed to take with my phone so the quality isn't too good.
I noticed the youngster was out and about when two mins later mum came out and brought him back to their hiding place, it was truly wonderful to see.

Just hope they managed to eat enough this Summer to see them through the winter I presume they will now have gone into hibernation for the winter.

I have lived in this house for 8 years now and not a year has gone by without me seeing Hedgehogs in the garden, they are so cute don't you just love them.


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An Autumn Evening

An Autumn Evening by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Dark hills against a hollow crocus sky
Scarfed with its crimson pennons, and below
The dome of sunset long, hushed valleys lie
Cradling the twilight, where the lone winds blow
And wake among the harps of leafless trees
Fantastic runes and mournful melodies.

The chilly purple air is threaded through
With silver from the rising moon afar,
And from a gulf of clear, unfathomed blue
In the southwest glimmers a great gold star
Above the darkening druid glens of fir
Where beckoning boughs and elfin voices stir.

And so I wander through the shadows still,
And look and listen with a rapt delight,
Pausing again and yet again at will
To drink the elusive beauty of the night,
Until my soul is filled, as some deep cup,
That with divine enchantment is brimmed up.

Autumn apples

Once again I know autumn is here simply by my abundance of apples propping up the kitchen. My neighbour has several apple trees and every year she gives me a boxful, I think at the moment I have about a hundred so I guess the family will be pretty appled out by the end of the month.

My neighbour and i share our garden bounty which I love doing I grow a lot of tomatos and herbs so I keep her stocked up during the summer and she always repays the gesture in autumn.

I have spent the weekend cooking them down into sauce to freeze I then turn them into crumbles, muffins, pies. I also plan this weekend to turn out some chutney. The smell of apples cooking is definetly an autumn smell for me, there is something very spiritual in the apple I always think.

I have already turned out several batches of apple spice muffins, some I gave my neighbour I bought in a batch to work this morning and they are always very welcome with my brother and his wife and four children as you can imagine muffins don't last too long in that house.

As a newly Vegan convert this is a great way to try out my new way of cooking, I love the fact people couldn't tell they were actually vegan and my neighbour commented about how they needed to cut down on the cholestral in eggs for health reasons so as well as using my apple supply up I think its getting the message out that Vegan food isn't all lettuce leaves and nuts!

My first apple recipe I'd like to share is Apple crump this has to be the easiest pudding ever.Don't be tempted to add more sugar to the apple filling as you need the contrast between the sharp apple and the sweet crunchy topping.

175 g (6oz) dairy free butter
175 g (6oz) Granulated sugar
175 g (6oz) Plain Flour
4 large cooking apples

Method

For the topping; Place the flour,sugar and butter in an oven-proof bowl(do not mix together)and transfer dish to a pre heated oven at 170 C or 325 F gas 3 for 15 mins until butter melts.

For the filling; peel and core apples and chop roughly. Place in oven proof serving dish and put into oven for 5 mins.

Remove Crump topping from oven, stir together into a paste and spread onto partly cooked apples. Place in oven for about 40 mins until topping is slightly browned. Serve with either custard or cream.