Mere Baubles ...

but I like them.

I fashioned the balls around the outside from bits of coloured fleece at last week's WI meeting.  They were easy enough to roll between my palms, the only difficulty being in trying to make them all the same size.

The two in the middle were ones someone else had prepared earlier but which I decorated with sequins and beads sewn on with glittery thread.

The plain ones will be used to make a bracelet.  The decorated ones will become ear rings.

Barley Wood

A couple of weeks ago I visited Barley Wood with the Malago WI.  You can read all about it here.  During the course of our conversation with the gardener, Mark Cox, he mentioned that he welcomed volunteers to help out with tending the plots.  Now my elder daughter has spent a good deal of her university summer holidays WWOOFing all over the country and was very interested in the possibility of spending a day working in a walled garden and picking up tips to take back to Glasgow where she hopes to become involved in a local community garden.

So the week before last we caught the bus from just round the corner and traveled out to Wrington.  Mark welcomed us warmly and, passing up on his offer of a cuppa, we got straight to work uprooting blighted potato haulms which Mark carted away to be burned.  After a short tea break we were set to harvest two crates of beans for the following day's vegetable boxes.

We'd brought our own picnic lunch but Mark insisted on making us a cheese sandwich with locally produced cheese and a salad of freshly harvested onions, tomatoes and cucumber. Mark is an interesting person to talk to, a mine of information on growing all manner of fruit and vegetables, yet anxious to hear about our limited experience of gardening. 

After lunch we planted four rows of salads and finished the day's work by loading the truck up with dead vegetation destined for the compost heap.

Mark not only insisted on giving us a lift home but also on making up a vegetable box for us to take with us.

It was an altogether enjoyable day, even allowing for the fact that I woke up the next morning feeling every muscle in my body!

Barley Wood

I love walled kitchen gardens - fruit trees espaliered across weathered brick, seried rows of rainbow chard, cane wigwams buried under the weight of runner beans, explosions of rhubarb, the heady scent of culinary herbs.  A patchwork quilt of texture and colour.  I have fond memories of our visit to the Lost Gardens of Heligan and hope to reacquaint myself with them in the near future but meanwhile I have discovered an equally enticing kitchen garden a mere 30 minute bus ride from where I live.

Barley Wood is situated on a south facing slope overlooking the gently undulating Mendip Hills and on Wednesday evening the Malago WI saw it at its best, bathed in mellow evening sunlight.  We wandered at will before chancing upon the gardener who was more than happy to answer a wide variety of questions.

True to WI tradition the evening ended with a cup of tea and the opportunity to sample a variety of luscious cakes in the Epicurian cafe.   

Let Them Eat Pudding

Last evening's Malago WI meeting was largely given over to the consumption of pudding. Members were asked to bring along two portions of their favourite dessert - a family favourite or perhaps one with a particular significance.


I made Gajjar Halwa to reflect my Indian upbringing. It's a carrot sweetmeat, prepared by boiling milk and grated carrot for an hour until thickened and then sweetened with sugar, enriched with butter, flavoured with cardamom and decorated with flaked almonds.

It's quite delicious.

Quilting for Beginners

Inspired by Jane Brocket, who visited the Malago WI to talk about quilt making and show us some of her gorgeous creations, I signed up for an introductory course last Saturday. We began by sewing precut squares together and then moved on to using paper templates and try our hand at a log cabin design. We trimmed our patchwork squares with the rotary cutter and sandwiched wadding between the quilt and the backing fabric. By the end of the afternoon we each had a small quilt to take home.

I had a really good time.

Jam & Jerusalem

Well here's something I never thought I'd write. I have joined the Women's Institute. Seriously!

A couple of weeks ago, at the Best of Bedminster Show on North Street Green, my attention was drawn to the WI stall, not by the cakes, but by the relative youth of the stall holders and the retro leaflets on the table. I signed up to receive further details and a few weeks later I was invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the Malago Institute, which is where I was earlier this evening.

There were a good number of women present, most of them in their thirties. I went with a friend and her daughter and recognised a handful of others. The meeting was very informal: an icebreaker game, a short introduction, a chance for suggestions for future meetings and the opportunity to sign up - which I did. It seems to me to be a great way to get to know other local women, have fun and make a difference to our neighbourhood - and, of course, eat cake!

It wasn't long after we moved to Bristol that I had our first daughter. The National Childbirth Trust, with its local coffee mornings and amazing secondhand clothes sales, saved me from going stir crazy, and some of the mums I met at that time are still good friends. But life's moved on and so have I, and it's time to look for new friends and new challenges, and I think the WI might be the answer.

Anyway the next meeting is at 8 pm on Wednesday 10 December at Ebeneezer Church on British Road and will have a Christmas theme.

Oh and I voted that we sing Jerusalem at our meetings!