Bramble Picking And Other September Pleasures

So this weekend the children were playing in the garden and spotted some brambles ready for picking and had a little feast and came home with smears of blackberry juice on their faces. We then decided to have an official bramble picking outing with three small boys in tow. They went exploring up and around the back of the houses in the woods and found a huge bramble patch untouched by others and drooping with lots of little juicy jewels provided so lovingly by Mother Nature.  They came back full of cheer with a big tub of fruit and went straight to the neighbours' house to make jam (this was a community effort!) ready for the afternoon. I was on scone duty and had my orders to produce a batch ready for a feast when the jam was done.

The scones were in the oven and ready in a flash (15 minutes) and were lightly browned.

My recipe for scones is here

I keep my scones small and light, not big and heavy, so they don't end up sticking you teeth together!

Then it was down to the garden to eat them with the children's jam and a pot of double cream.



They went down a treat with everyone wanting seconds, I think I should have made a second batch...

Thumper tried to get in on the action. I relented and gave him a bit of mine.

The jam was really delicious, with a wonderful deep purple colour, and was heaven with the cream.

When they were finished everyone wanted more! And the and result was blackberry faces all round.



A very lovely Sunday afternoon. And one to be repeated as we have plenty of jam already and the bramble season isn't even in full swing yet. I can see me having pots of it in my cupboard soon, ready for winter.

I will have to post a lovely recipe for a jam pudding when the weather really has turned for the worse and it's time for puddings and custard.

At the moment I am still enjoying the lovely final days of summer.

It was beautifully warm yesterday morning and I woke up very early (I am not a morning person!) and after a cup of tea and looking out the window at the most gorgeously pink morning I decided to get Thumper out of his bed (he is also not one for getting out of his bed in the morning!) and headed out for a walk. It was so lovely, I am very glad I did.

It was magical walking along in the pink light, and with very few people around - a couple of runners and dog walkers only. 

 

It always seems as if this path is leading somewhere very special, even though I am very familiar with it, it still holds a magical appeal.

Thumper met a friend and had a great run and play and paddle in the water, then played King of The Castle on the rocks.

And then he did a good impression of the Loch Ness Monster ;)