local food research

Beautiful Bluebells

Some snaps of the beautiful bluebells in Rowallane!

I dont know if the lighter flowers are bluebells but they are very similar!

More to follow :)

Bread Making Course

The lazy option!

The lovely Alfie from Oldefarm joined us for our bread baking course - and put together a lovely blog post afterwards :)

Some things are meant to be shared!

'bread making at rowallane'

Alfie also left us with some beautiful cuts of rare breed pork - which are being very much enjoyed and can bought via the above website :)

Aunt Sandra's

The lovely Jim for Aunt Sandra's in Belfast happened upon us yesterday - and boy was I glad he did!

It said on the side of the beautiful pink van - Made in Belfast For Your Pleasure - and a pleasure they where! 

Too many samples where taken - and much excitement is building for the gorgeous products they make literally 10 miles away from Rowallane Gardens, and less than that from Divis and the Black Mountain!

I hand picked a selection of gorgeous products for both locations, and am currently wrecking my head for pretty and enticing ways of displaying them :) Expect piccies in the not so distant future :)

Sunny Pictures

Some sunny pictures, to brighten up a rainy day!

the beautiful flowers outside the tearoom

and again! the tearoom door is seen to the back of the picture!

little cwtch :)

the most important signs ;) the tea room and the pottery :)

a collection of snaps from around the walled and outer walled garden

some pictures of the the garden kitchen, garden, within the walled garden!

As you can see, the salad leaves are starting to appear - and thankfully Lucy has them well protected with lotsa of organic slub pellets!

Cupcake Prettiness :D

Lotsa lovely cupcakes this weekend :D

Started thursday making many many pretty things to top the cupcakes with - my first experience of lustre spray which was a joyous occasion! And a little messy whilst working out the best way of applying and making my stars etc beautifully shiny :)

and then came the cupcake making, lots of vanilla, coffee and choc orange for a golden wedding anniversary - and my favourite pretty girly ones for a christening :D

I hope everyone enjoys very much :D

Rowallane Pottery

A lovely friend of ours has done a fantastic blog post on Rowallane Pottery - I suggest you scoot right on over there to check it out :D

http://tinyurl.com/6aanjpv

Beadtastic!

Today marked the 2nd beading for beginners workshop in the garden kitchen tearoom. And being such a good host, I thought it was about time I tried beading out for size!

The classes are lovingly organised and taken by Kara McCullough - a lovely lady who works in Rowallane Gardens.

Our back room was set up with multiple pairs of pliers and ready to go!

My Mum joined me, and the lovely Deborah and Lynne from Castleward, sat with us!
After a quick run down by Kara - we all leapt in with gusto - however some people caught on faster than others! lol!

The level on concentration is apparent on the faces!

Everyone went away with a number of bespoke pieces. With what seemed like hundreds of different beads to choose from, it was easy to find some that suited you! And Kara was on hand with friendly help and advice when it all went wrong!

I really enjoyed my morning - and everyone else seemed to have a whale of a time too - I hope we see many more of these workshops :)

If you fancy learning how to make some beautiful, personal pieces - you can get in touch with Kara via her Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beading-Bliss/180989881932455

Rowallane Pottery

After my post about the wheaten bread bakers I thought it was about time I posted a bit of information about Rowallane Pottery.

Tucked away in the secret garden the pottery is a beautiful little haven! With terracotta, stoneware and smoke fired pots of all different shapes and sizes, and a friendly Matt the Potter to help, assist and make/throw anything you could ever wish for, it is definitely worth a visit. I shall hopefully have some pictures of some household pots to show you soon, too many pictures to trawl through! Here are mainly terracotta plant pots, and a sneak look through the windows of the showroom!

Here is the resident robin checking out a particularly nice smoked fired pot!

 And a picture of another little character you are likely to meet in the pottery, our puppy Cwtch!

The pottery is currently open from Fridays to Sundays, from 12 - 4. With these hours changing at the spring! However, Matt the potter, is contactable via email - mattliddlepottery@yahoo.co.uk - and via the blog! 

Hidden Secrets!

You would think that, with both living in Rowallane, and working here, I would know the place like the back of my hand!

Well think again!

I went on a little wander the other day to take some pictures for Matt the Potter - He wanted me to take some snaps of the drive way and stuff.....

So the small black gremlin (Cwtch) and I set off on our mission!

Whilst we where wandering around, I came across something I never knew existed in the walled garden! It makes me wonder if I am walking the dogs with my eyes closed on the mornings and evenings! However I prefer to think it is because there are so many pretty little details in the gardens - though I admit that this isnt little - but it was tucked away in a hedge hideaway!

Another reason new pretties keep appearing is because the hard working gardeners keep uncovering and/or creating new things!

A week or so ago I noticed this little pond for the first time. The gardeners had been hard at work uncovering it. For some reason I simply LOVE it! I can visualize it all colourful and lovely when the grass recovers, and the surrounding rhodi's begin to bloom! It also makes me think of dinosaurs.... think it is the giant leaves on the rhodi's there....