I took the pictures for this post a week ago but was too busy to put it together.
So here is some views of my garden recently.
I was pleased to find that my Vagabond clematis had a new flush of flowers. 
but less so to see that the slugs had been busy lower down. 
I was surprised to find that the fuschia seemed a little more compact than last year, 
though I prefer it that way.
The lavender that I planted last year had grown into a much bigger plant 
and as this is just next to my favourite sitting place, the smell is quite delightful.
I took another picture today, the flowers have really opened. 
The golden sage is looking very happy. 
This will mean pruning next winter I think, as I know what sage is like!! (Like the card the leaves are more yellow than this!).
My roses were in full flow. 
I bought them because of the scent but they seem to have far more petals this year which is not so good for the bees I believe.
Now Bread
I made another granary loaf 
and photographed it this time.
Next morning I cut some slices for breakfast.
Here are two of them. 
and here is breakfast.
Three slices covered with peanut butter or fig conserve or honey. Yum!
And as there was pastry and mincemeat over I made a mincemeat tart to be cooked and eaten straight away. 
I also made a Stollen, just one of a moderate size this year, but as I was feeling ill by the time I cooked it, I took it out of the oven and left it on the side without brushing it with melted butted and sprinkling it with icing sugar.
Some marzipan, of course, a grater (the small side), a skewer, some food colouring and cloves.
Be prepared to wash your hands at frequent intervals, between the different colours and whenever they begin to feel sticky when forming the fruit.
The ball on the right is before and the other is completed.
I use the green marzipan for apples. Again you make a ball and I like to coat one half with a dab of red colouring (shades of Snow White!). You can stick a thin clove the other way round for a stalk and I like to mark the bottom with a skewer to suggest the part where the flower was attached. Of course a small change in shape and you have a pear!
I kept a bit of the green for when making a strawberry with the pink.
(The photographs were taken indoors under artificial light and the green marzipan came out very faded. So I adjusted it in some photos but not here!)
And here is a whole plate (or rather saucer!ful) 
I think I have become much better at forming them so they don’t open up.
As you can see this year I made a lot less dough. I made a quarter my original recipe that would make four large ones and used my food processor to do the kneading to save my wrists.
I was making some millionaires shortbread for when my daughter came on a present drop and decided that that was the ideal time to make double the amount of shortbread and turn half of it into biscuits. I had been intending to try lavender shortbread ever since I had bought some in Waitrose and really loved them, so I put in plenty of lavender as I had had it a while. (Yes it is edible lavender – some lavender tea I had bought in Winchester.)
And here is my first attempt at a tunis cake. 
My son had said that he would be interested to try one and having been introduced to tunis cake years ago, when I first knew my husband, but then forgotten about them, I thought I would see if you could still buy them.
so I carefuly sat down and wrote out what half quantites were, double and triple checking as I went!
I always have raisins and sultanas in the cupboard but currants are always a bit more problematical as the only thing I need currants for is pikelets and I rarely make them these days. I almost bought 500gm (smallest available) but then I had an idea. My two most popular fruit cake recipes use mixed fruit and mixed fruit contains currants, so I bought a bag of mixed fruit and sat down and sorted the fruit into currants, peel and raisins & sultanas. I didn’t bother to sort between raisins and sultanas as they are so similar. 
I halved the sultanas/raisins pile and made them up to the required quantity, added all the currants, as you hadly need to be exact, and topped up the peel with other that I had bought.
Weighed out some almonds and cut them into slivers. 
This is half-way.
I have been extra generous with the cinnamon and nutmeg.
The recipe says to leave this for twelve hours before adding the brandy so that is what I did.
and when I came to look on the ground a few weeks ago there were a whole load of quinces on the ground. I picked them up because you can make jam with them, which I had done previously.
I had plenty of granulated sugar so I decided one day to make them into jam.
Here you can see what they look like inside.
When they were all chopped I covered them with water. 
and simmered them for about an hour. 
I then sieved them to remove the skins and pith. 
Put them in a saucepan with about 20oz of granulated sugar and boiled them for about 10 minutes.
I had forgotten to weigh them after I had prepared them but 20oz seemed about right (which it was).
Luckily I had written instructions on how to prepare the jars on the back. I don’t make jam very often!
I went in the garage and got out some of my favourite hexagonal and multi-sided jars that I had saved. 
I prepared them before the jam was finished so I was able to quickly fill them and cover with wax discs. 
I found I only needed two.
I used one of the other sterilised jars for some mint jelly I was making at the same time. 
The mint jelly had to wait till I next had lamb but I had to have a taste of the jam straightaway. Sharp (as I expected) but delicious!
(I have been eating rice cakes rather than bread lately.)
