Bears, jam etc................

The end of another busy week........... spent several days making jam, turning this

 into this.......................

The Mirabelle plum tree is loaded with fruit, we rake the lawn at least three times a day and the garden recycling bin smells like a brewery! Thought I would be industrious and make jam. Cooking the fruit and removing all the pips and skin was somewhat labour intensive but my first batch turned out well until I found that I could not just walk into a shop and find suitable glass jars, hence the hodge podge collection of re-cycled jars which formerly contained joints, buttons and beads. All sterilised and now filled with jam. I spent several hours visiting various stores, Tesco and Sainsburys to find suitable jars without any success. Came home and did some internet research. Google pointed me in the right direction and I duly ordered glass jars and lids, delivered to my door the next day!! Guess why internet shopping is so popular. My second batch filled fourteen jars, we will be eating plum jam for some time!

The garden is looking so different now, all our hard work is starting to show some results and the vegetable garden is a veritable jungle.

I have managed to make some progress with the bears. Some pictures of work in progress............

Lots of little faces, sitting waiting expectantly. I have reached that dreadful feeling of what can I do to make them extra special, a sort of creative writer's block. My usual panic filled weeks before a bear fair when I dislike intensely everything I have made and just cannot think of how to make that little bear change from the ordinary to the extraordinary. The panic sets in ...................

Nerves and butterflies are fine - they're a physical sign that you're mentally ready and eager.  You have to get the butterflies to fly in formation, that's the trick.  ~Steve Bull