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I now have five bottles of Elder Flower cordial in the pantry. Along with fourteen jars of cherry jam.
I love filling the pantry shelves with home made things. I am slowly using up the kilner jars I was given.  I have kept some ready for the chutney I will make when the courgettes start arriving. My plants have flowers on them so I hope we get loads!
The raspberry canes are laden so more jam will be made later this year.

My sock adventure is going well. I am just about ready to start on the toe part. I need a block of time so that I can complete it in one. It uses something called the Kitchener stitch...this creates a seamless sock which is more comfortable. Having never done this before I will need to concentrate on what I am doing. I have to confess to ordering more sock wool. I will do the second one for this pair before starting on another pair. My plan is to have four pairs for winter. I think the second pair I will make a bit smaller as the current ones are a bit too big. This is something I hope to perfect before too long.

The days are long now, it is still light at 10pm. I am very aware though that we are getting close to the longest day after which the days start shortening again. It enables me to get so much more done. I am often in the garden until almost dark! This means less knitting and crochet which is why I save that mostly for autumn and winter.

We are due a heatwave which is not welcome. It makes it hard to keep the veg garden watered and the water butts go dry quickly. Our old stone farmhouse stays fairly cool due to the thick walls so we hide indoors at the hottest part of the day. I cannot use the Esse now which makes meals a challenge. I have the halogen oven and a gas hob. We have more salad just now which makes it easier. Over the next winter I plan to make meals for the freezer that I will just reheat as needed. I do use the slow cooker when we have a heavy work day but it will be vegan and him indoors does like his meat! He is very good about it though.

We seem to be in a good routine now with seasonal work. It will be so much easier when the building work is finished and all our energy and money can go on being as self sufficient as possible.