pick your own

Today, we had a wonderful day at PurFruit, the biological fruitfarm in Oeselgem. 
We went there to pick lots and lots of fruit, grown with respect for nature, without any pesticides.  Everything is cultivated in a biological way.  The fruit tastes just marvelous, and cannot be compared to what you buy at the supermarket.

The farm just opened at the beginning of June, and they had red and yellow raspberries, red and white current, cassis, jostaberries and green and red goosberries.  Plenty of choice !

After the long drive, we started with a cup of coffee...

the raspberries were ready to be picked

You get a bucket and you pick as much as you like.

Yellow raspberries in abundance

At the entrance is marked what fruit is ripe and ready to be picked.

You can have your lunch in the garden.

They also serve blueberry cakes.  Yummy !

Winnie laughing her head off with me...

I was picking cassis, when all of a sudden I noticed a BEAST in my bucket !!!  I yelled and did a silly dance, hoping it would fly away.  But it didn't, it had no wings....   but lots and lots of feet....   I danced and yelled a bit more, and it dissappeared.  I'm a city person.  I have no garden.  I am scared of little things with many feet.  Unfortunately some English tourists that were peacefully picking their fruit, looked at me with their eyebrows very high on their foreheads.  They must have thought I went crazy -  or had a heartattack.  5 minutes later, it happened again.  Winnie nearly fell over with laughter.  I went to pick gooseberries instead.

Lilianne loaded with fruit

What shall we pick next ?

Having a rest ... with a piece of cake and tea...  Heaven !

All our buckets waiting to be weighed and payed for...

And then we went home, and in the evening the house smelled of jam ...

If you want to visit the Purfruit farm, 

or want some more information, have a look at their website here

curious words in a virtual language

I like to read blogs, and leave a little remark to express my admiration, and a greeting from Belgium on all those wonderful blogs.

But before blogger wants to accept my response, I have to type in a strange word.  This is to check wether I'm a real person, with a brain, and not a computer, I was told. 

These words fascinate me.  I always try to read them.  And decipher them.  What could be the meaning of ambiantel,  sthoppr  or teclef ?  Who invents these words ?  Is it alien-speak ? A code ? Perhaps these words do exist in a very rare and uncommon language, or a dialect.  Perhaps I could start a completely new language with them, invent it like Tolkien did for his hobbits and elves.

Or is this just my slightly autistic inclination ?  I wonder.... 

some new necklaces

In one of my previous blogs, I told you about my visit to Zahia in Gent.  I confess that I have (again) bought beads...  But on Monday we had a holiday and it was really lousy weather.  So I was stuck at home, and confronted with the difficult choice what I could do.  Ironing, or fiddling about with the beads. 

the sunlight reflects on the glass beads

this clasp is a little silver flower

in between the glass beads is a strap of rubber

I made matching earrings

amber and red, again with matching earrings

As this isn't about ironing, you will understand, dear reader,  that I choose the beads.  You can see a couple of my new creations.  I had a lovely afternoon, and the pictures were taken in the evening, when the sun decided to make an appearance.
Ironing is for tomorrow, unless my little invisible gnome friends will do that tonight, after they've eaten the rest of the cakes....

father's day cakes

On sunday, we celebrated father's day.  In my case, it's also grandfather's day...  both my father (75) and my father-in-law (72) are still very much alive and kicking.  My sons don't realise how lucky they are.

waiting for the guests

I never knew my grandfathers.  One died even before I was born, and my other grandfather died when I was too little to remember much.
I do recall one thing : he was a schoolteacher, and in one of his cupboards at home, he kept a pile of brand new excercise books.  When we visited , he always gave me one, and asked me if I could write some words for him.  I couldn't, I had not learned how to write.  But I was very proud to show him on one occasion that I could write my first name.  I must have been 3 or 4 years old.  It was just before I learned to crochet....

I baked 2 low-calory cheesecakes, one covered with strawberries and one covered with blueberries.
I baked a cake with cinnamon and other spices.
And I baked a apricot flan (vlaai)

All very low in calories and no sugar added, because of the diabetes diets they are following.
We had a great time, my husband showed some DVD's with old - really old - films of the children when they were babies, and we all were 20 years younger.  How nice to notice that we haven't changed a bit.  (or so we believe...)

wwkip day in Gent

We did it !  And proud too !


We had an amazing day : knitting is hip in Belgium it seems.
there were 6 of us on the early train from Oostende to Ghent.

  After exchanging a lot of girl talk (you know...) and comparing knitting with eachother, we were very quickly in Gent.  There we took the tram to the beautiful shop 'Stoffenidee' and were welcomed there with coffee, home made cakes and a big table set out for us.

People from the Gent knitting club were there too, and we were happy to get to know eachother.  How funny it is to talk to somebody you meet for the first time in real life, and then they say they are followers of my blog.  I was so flattered and thrilled to meet kindred spirits.
Of course, I couldn't resist to have a look at the wool.  The Noro, the Rowan, the Debbie Bliss....  My heart went like a jungle drum  tonk -a-tonk-a-tonk  like in the song.

This is what I bought.

this is just amazing colours : don't know yet what to make with it, but I couldn't NOT buy it...

I already started with a chevron scarf !

And to our big surprise : the ladies of the shop gave us a pakket filled with 4 skeins as a gift, just because we went there on WWKIP day !  What a wonderful thought - one can never have too much wool to chose from, don't you agree ?

 (hmm, my husband doesn't quite agree there, but then again, I don't complain when he buys another guitar...)

In the afternoon we went shopping, and had a bit of rain.  So I had to buy this umbrella.  Doesn't it look like a parasol in stead of an umbrella ?  Anyway, the rain soon stopped and we could continue.

One of my favourite stops is Zahia.  They had an action : a bag full of pearls for only 5 euro.  I choose from these :

And then we had to go home....  tooo tired to knit on the way back. What a lovely day we had, lots of inspiration and memories to cherish. 

very very fine crochet necklace

I have finished another necklace in crochet !  This time I used a double thread of plain sewing cotton.  The hook is nr 1, and the work is really bad for your eyes.  But hey, the result is nice - so who cares about sore eyes.

I started with a little closing ball.  It's a small wooden bead that I crocheted around.  Then the tube, and some more  balls.  I changed colours because one of the rolls of sewing cotton I used was finished.  So I added another colour, giving it a bit of a speckle. 

all the materials  I used

a few wooden beads and a hook nr 1

I started with the 1st bead

and ended with a closing bow

It is very soft around your neck.  I promised a friend to make one in 'marine' colours for her, so Helen, as soon as my eyesight returns, I'll start on that project.

I made one earlier, in 3 shades that match one of my dresses.

If you like this, do check-out the website of Veerle Maes .  She taught me how to make these in a great workshop.  She has many many other delightful designs as well....  

special strawberry jam

On Wednesday afternoon,  one of my LETS-friends organised a trip to Sijsele, a small village near Bruges.  Why Sijsele ?  Well, there is a bio-farm that grows strawberries, and we went there to 'pick our own'.  The weather was fantastic, and I enjoyed it so much, that I ended up with many many biologically grown strawberries. 

Rik Broux is the farmer

In the evening, those strawberries changed quickly into the most delicious jam ever !  The taste is so much sweeter and fuller than the ordinary strawberry you buy in the supermarket.  I always use special  sugar with added pectine.  You only need 500 gr of sugar for 1 kg of fruit.  So that's only 33 % sugar per pot.  And with the pectine, it sets easier : you only have to boil the fruit for 3 minutes.  Very easy, and very healthy as many vitamines are killed by boiling too long.

the taste is great !

This sugar is great for jams !

After all that jam-making, I made some scones.  The best excuse to indulge in a generous amount of jam...

The British sure know how to make a good dessert!

When I have some time I would like to make some nice 'hats' for my jampots.  Anybody seen a crochet pattern somewhere ?    I found these in fabric that I really like, but still would like to try a crochet one.