Post Comment Love 25-27 November 2016

Hello and welcome to what will most likely be a chilly Friday, although I very much hope I'm wrong. If you were here last week, thank you it was great to see you and if you're new here this week, welcome!  Morgan and I hope you find our growing #PoCoLo community friendly and supportive, and we know you're going to find some great posts to read.

My photo this week was taken on Saturday as we headed home after a day of eating and drinking, the best sort right? We'd spent the day at A Taste of London, where with some teamwork and some delegating on my part, we made some lovely madeleines and a butterscotch sauce in around thirty minutes. Totally amazing, and if you want the recipe head over to Gluts and Gluttony and say I sent you!

On the way home we stopped of in Canary Wharf and made a detour through the Roof Garden and onto the Big Easy for a whole pile of meat, but you can read more about that in the post I've linked up. Heading back to the tube, I was met with this wall of colour and what is actually an advert for a fashion show, but it felt like a good indicator of the week ahead. 

And didn't it turn out that way? Autumn seems to be passing us by and Winter seems to be saying hello. I'm hoping we can hang onto the autumn colours for a little longer, but we'll see. And as usual my preference for winter is crisp rather than soggy please, if anyone's listening!

Blogger Showcase: Erriel from Erriel J's Life Chronicles

Erriel loves to blog about fashion and lifestyle over at Erriel J's Life Chronicles and she blogs to get her small voice heard and describes herself as fun, energetic and opinionated.  You can find out more about Erriel over on Morgan's blog today, so do pop over there once you've said hi on social media.

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Dahlias, roses and fuchsias in Dad's autumn garden

At the end of last month we headed up to Norfolk and one of the things that struck me was how colourful Dad's garden was still. The dahlias, roses and fuchsias were putting on quite a show. They were the attention grabbers, but looking around more closely at the garden, there was more to it than these.

These fuchsias always remind me of dancers, not quite a ballerina but more a glitterless Strictly kind of ballgown, and it's easy to see why I needed to hold it up to get this shot. The leaves are starting to tarnish, but that just makes it more appealing. Like a dancer that's had a good time, or one that had done the rowing boat song. Yes, that's never a good idea is it?

In the greenhouse the Aloes were huge. Just look at them. I am the mum of these, all of them. Well apart from the babies at the front, Dad can be the mum of them as they arrived on his watch. But they're huge, clearly the Norfolk weather and the greenhouse work for them, I hope they've managed to survive the colder weather since then ok. 

Also in the greenhouse the purple oxalis was creeping out from under the staging. I regularly take cuttings for my greenhouse and it never does as well as this. I've a sneaky suspicion I'll be taking another cutting quite soon. And helping myself to some of the many burgundy heuchera's that have been potted on to see how they do.

The leeks were also thickening and no doubt there'll be a good crop. The beetroot Dad pulled up for me, I politely declined. The side you can see looks perfect, but underneath someone - or rather something - had got there first and it went straight onto the compost heap.

The mushrooms in the grass appeared overnight, and who knows what they might be. Knowing your mushrooms is a great skill to have, but not really something to take a chance on either. I think I'll stick to admiring the flowers. The nerines were still out and looking more swirly and curly than I remember.

And oops, this fuchsia came off in my hand. Thankfully there were plenty more, so I think I got away with it...

And just when you think the colour is done, you pop to the car and are reminded there's many more roses and dahlias in the front garden too.

We're in Norfolk soon for a couple of days and it'll be interesting to see how much difference a month makes. I'm hoping that some of the colour remains, but who knows. It's been feeling more wintery here and I know if I were a plant I'd be considering shutting down too. Heck, some days I feel like that as a human too!

Have a beautifully colourful day.

Inside the barn and farmhouse at River Cottage HQ

I was possibly a little bit too excited by my trip to River Cottage HQ, but I probably wasn't the only one. When I received the invite earlier in the year I knew I'd be going, and I just needed to work out the small matter of logistics. I'm in London, River Cottage HQ is in Devon, that's do-able in a day, right?

Well it turned out it was. A very long day, but do-able. I timed my arrival pretty well arriving just before the parking spaces started to run out and went to wait for my tractor ride down to the farm. I hadn't appreciated beforehand that River Cottage HQ was in a valley, but soon did as our tractor made the slow and steep (and bumpy) descent. 

At the bottom the first stop was the barn and a welcome drink, and a chance to take a look round. I snuck out for a look around while the light was, well not as dark as it could be at this time of year. And because I really couldn't wait any longer. 

I quickly realised I knew very little about what goes on a River Cottage HQ, I mean I knew the bits from the telly-box, and the garden but there's a whole lot more to it than that. 

For example, did you know that you could book a dining experience there? Or that it's the base for their Cookery and Chef's School? Or that they hold cookery courses there which have an emphasis on local, seasonal produce with a nose-to-tail approach. No me neither, but obviously I do now!

I also learnt that Hugh and his team have a pretty space, practice what they preach - and when I say preach, I mean in a non-preachy way, and that they can grow weirder shaped squash and gourds than me. But as you know I'm up for a challenge so maybe next year I'll try and top them in the knobbliest squash league of growing, who knows.

Yes that's the knobbliest squash I was referring to. And look, sweet peas. It was a week into November and there were still sweet peas growing happily. That's what having a farm in a Devon valley does for you.

And having a barn to dry flowers in makes for the prettiest of decorations. 

Over in the farmhouse, which sssshh! don't tell anyone, isn't actually called River Cottage, but Park Farm, there was a lovely homely feel. There were more flowers drying, this time on the windowsill, lots of kitchen paraphernalia which while artfully placed looked like it would actually be used, a lovely warming fire and a rather charming picture of a cockerel. 

Plus The Kitchen. The fireplace is huge, and so is the table. But actually the room didn't feel as big as I imagined it would. Although I imagine with a film crew in, it feels even smaller. 

No sign of Hugh though, which for his sake was probably a good thing.

For me the kitchen was the iconic room and so grinning like a goon I stood behind the table and posed for pictures Hugh-style, but without the carcass of meat that no doubt Hugh would have in his picture.  From the table there was a view out to the garden - more from there another day - and the rain. But to be honest, the rain wasn't going to stop me enjoying myself today.

It was great to get to have a look around the farmhouse, it's a working farm not a tourist attraction and as such you need to book to be welcome. The food we ate back in the barn - that's most likely another post in itself - was delicious, and as I was there with a lot of food bloggers I had lots of reminders to take pictures before digging into my plate.

And yes London to Devon and back to London is just about do-able in a day. It's a long day, but worth it. The weather on the drive home was awful and not even the unfolding American election results on the radio could hold my attention, but to be honest they were competing with mastering a new sport of aqua-planing on the motorway, just as well I had it mostly to myself. 

And if like me you don't manage the four hour drive without a break, then on the way back there's quite a nice well used, but dark layby near Farnham which served me well for a 20 minute nana-nap before I set off on the final leg of my trek home, arriving back just before 3.30am. A long day but one I wouldn't have missed, thanks to River Cottage HQ, Foodies100 and HIBS100 for inviting me.

* This is a collaborative post, but all views and opinions are my own