Plenty of Snow Fall

You would be forgiven for thinking that Rowallane was made for such weather - our home looked beautiful this morning - and if I manage to tear myself away from the fire and the sofa I am sure the tearoom looks equally pretty - the walled garden did look lovely this morning - but with three dogs I thought it best not to take my camera with me - so, so far the only pictures are from around Field Cottage. Very pretty :)

Now we just have to battle the elements and get ourselves well and truelly organised for the Yuletide Market this weekend - always a brilliant event with lots of hand picked stalls and festive fun!

Baking Course

At the start of November we held a couple of baking courses. They went very very well and we are delighted with the amount of interest - we will be running more courses in the new year.

All the students had a great time and made some lovely loaves - I hope everyone has as much success at home as they have had on the courses!

Paris

Matt (the potter) and I have just returned from a trip to Paris. It is such an inspiring city. The produce the bakers and chefs have to offer is of such a consistently high standard. Something we can only aspire to here.

The flower shops in Paris are also eye catching - this one had a lovely display of flowers - along with chilli and pepper plants!

The high availability of spectacular produce is something I envy! Every corner shop has an amazing array! I didnt manage  to take as many pictures as I would of hoped - but I have got a few to share. I really liked the look of this basket or pumpkin.sqaushed -  few of which I have seen before!

We had some fabulous food when we where away - particularly on our night of arrival. The lovely lady on reception (at our fabulous hotel petit paris) recommended - Bouillon Racine - We both enjoyed the set menu - which meant I had chilled pea and mint soup, followed by steak tartare, annd then mango and gingerbread! The flavours in the soup where so lovely and the steak tartare was no less than perfect! Matt had a salmon rilette, followed by a squid dish and creme brulee -  I only tried the squid - but it was lovely, rich and creamy!

I also enjoyed a particularly fabulous meringue scented hot chocolate in the chain cafe Amorina. It was beautifully thick and rich! I believe there are some of these in London so will pay a visit again when I am next over....

And just for good measure

Autumn sunshine!

On halloween weekend we had some fabulous weather - so I whipped out the camera to take some pictures of Rowallane it its full autumn glory! The colours this time of year are so pretty!

I love this picture of left over pumpkins from ghosts and ghourds - the colours are so  bright and vivid!

rain, rain, go away.....

another damp and cold day in rowallane - you can just about see the horribleness from the photos - must try and remember preoper camera more!

thankfully there are many wonderful blogs for me to busy myself  this one today - i particularly love the gifts in jar!

cookies for santa fabulous idea! easy to put together and such a cute kiddies pressie! and you could change the labelling to anything at all! if only i had someone to make little gifts like these for! they are a good idea for the tearoom too - but maybe nextyear - gotta organise myself a little more yet!

officially winter time :0(

Today seems to be the begining of the winter - here - all alone - lonely in the gardens!

Noone likes to walk in the wind and rain! Though the Autumn colours are beautiful.

halloween - ghosts and ghourds day

taken me a few days to get to doing this post - last weekend - our halloween here in rowallane gardens - i think we may all STILL be recovering!

thursday and friday where spent baking what i then thought, where a large amount of cupcakes and cookies - however saturday saw it all disappear and a 2am job was needed on sat/sun to address the situation!

ghosts and ghourds day is a big thing for kiddies in rowallane - pumpkin carving and a halloween trail where amongst the treats in stall!

we dont usually see many littles ones in rowallane - so it was a good excuse to play about with little treats! we offered a pick 'n' mix selection of mini cupcakes and sugar cookies - i think i was trying to make work for myself! i headed to mums house on thursday to try and get on top of everything!

managed to take a good few snaps - of both the mini cupcakes and the cookies
the little vanilla cupcakes had cute little bats - and then some ghosts on the chocolate ones!

then i moved on to making the bigger cupcakes - i am still trying to master the sugarcraft - but they do look cute



everything looked good when eventually was set up - and avril carved us a fab little pumpkin :)

we had a brilliant weekend - the busiest of the year so far - yet to see if it will be beaten at christmas! that is the next thing to get plotting!

p.s. we also have a new addition to the family which is filling up my spare time - a little 3/4 spring/1/4 labrodor pup - she is a little gem so far - and such a little bright spark!

decorating products and organising for pumpkinfest!

We prompty sorted out our packaging for the jam/chutneys and got to work on the dog biscuits! I am happy with the final look!

David set about making many batches of dog biccies - and we packed them away in packs of 8

The dogs got to do plenty of tasting - so they where happy :)


Then we packed everything up and Matt and I buddled ourselves away down to castleward to set up our stall. We where pleasantly suprised to have 2 tables inside - which meant BOTH of our fabulous posters could be displayed!
The weather was glorious and we had an enjoyable weekend - meeting lovely people and making lots of contacts!

Now to start to organise ourselves for Rowallanes Pumpkinfest this weekend!

Rowallane Plant Sale!!! (2)

The plant sale on Saturday was a great day - lotsa lovely plant lovers around - who where eager to enjoy some of our produce - great lentil and herb soup (herbs from our garden) and lovely sweet treats!

I took some snap shots of the court yard as everyone was setting up.




The stall on the 1st and 2nd picture belongs to Mr & Mrs Pilcher - They sell a fabulous range of herbs, amoungst other things. Their website is http://www.lisdoonanherbs.co.uk/ .

Matt (the Rowallane Potter) also had a stall in the courtyard. Managed to bring his wheel outside - and attract a good amount of attention - with some purchases and orders.




Visit his blog at http://rowallanepottery.blogspot.com/

Spent today foraging for lovely ingrediants for Castleward hedgerow jam! Can not wait for it to have my first taste :) and to take it to pumpkinfest at the weekend!

attempting sugarcraft!

a few days ago i received another lovely package - this time from http://www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk - and box full of cupcake fun!

this prompted me to attempt some simple sugar craft! armed with punchers and coloured icing i gave it a good shot - and this is what i ended up with


and a not so good blackberry photo of the first batch!

pleasantly suprised!

A lovely package arrived for me today - from vista print!
I was somewhat dubious about my order - but because of the marvoulous FREE offers - I knew I was not out to loose much if the products where not very professional looking. As I had been warned they may be....
However - what a great suprise! My postcards are perfect!
Thank you vista print!!!!