ABC WEDNESDAY - O

I've had terrible problems connecting t the Internet and my phone has gone haywire too....I think I'll be phoning BT this afternoon. Thank goodness this post was in draft or my O post would have been 0 (zero).

O IS FOR ONION

The common garden onion or Allium Cepa is, like garlic (another member of the Allium family), thought to lower high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. Of course peeling onions can make you cry. As onions are sliced, cells are broken, allowing the realease of sulphenic acids; these decompose into a gas which diffuses through the air and eventually reaches the eye, where it reacts with the water to form a diluted solution of sulfuric acid. This acid irritates the nerve endings in the eye, making them sting. Then the tear glands produce tears to dilute and flush it out.

I love pickled onions and usually make my own. There are many recipes and everyone has their favourites but this one seems to work for me.......

4lb Pickling onions (or shallots if you prefer them)

8oz salt

2 pints Pickling Malt Vinegar

Peel the onions and place in a large bowl (to make peeling easier soak them in warm water to soften the skin). Dissolve the salt in about 4 pints water and pour over the onions to completely cover them (a plate over the op helps to keep the onions under the surface) and leave for 24 hours. Drain and rinse under cold water and then pat dry. Pack into sterilised jars and cover with cold vinegar. Seal, label and store for 2-3 months (if you can wait that long!)

You can tailor the recipe by adding mustard seeds, black pepper corns or a couple of chillis. A clove of garlic or herbs like rosemary, bay and thyme will all give their unique flavour.

And of course if you remembered to collect the seed heads of your decorative garden Alliums

now's the time to spray them gold or silver to use for Christmas displays.

ABC WEDNESDAY BLOGROLL

abc wednesday
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JUST ONE MORE THING

Whether you agree with it or not there could well be a knock on your door from trick-or-treaters. If you do have children or grandchildren who are going treat-or-treating please follow these guidelines.
Trick-Or-Treat Safety Tips

Make sure young children are accompanied by some responsible teenagers or adults when they go trick-or-treating from door to door.

Ask your kids to go trick-or-treating in known neighbourhoods.

Tell them to use pavements, cross only at the corners and strictly instruct them never to run between parked cars.

They should not go inside anyone’s home unless it’s someone known.

If they go out in the dark, give them a flashlight and ask them to stick to well-lit streets.

NEWSFLASH

Moi - Not by a long shot has successfully defended her thesis and next month will be graduating. Well Done Moi!!!!!

BACK TO SCHOOL AGAIN!

I've on numerous occassions mentioned the crossover of seasons in the garden. I still have quite a few Summer flowers in my garden and only the other day posted a photo of an Azalea in bloom at Wisley. Well, even more astounding than that, as we walked through Wisley's rockery and pond area..........

what did we spy but this......YES a SNOWDROP in bloom in October!!!!
Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Trinity of Rooms Of My Heart has passed this lovely Friendship Badge on to all of her Blogfriends......
In turn I'd like to pass it on to all my regular blog pals......Yes that's YOU!

I've also had this Halloween Treat passed to me from Anne M of Under The Sea.

The award originated at Hootin' Annie's, and the idea of these awards is to pass them on to new, random visitors to your blog. As I don't do specific tagging on this blog...but if your a newbie blogpal then this one's for you. Of course if regulars would like to pass it on to their random visitors please do.

I'm back to college today....how quickly the half term went. I managed to get the rest of my assignments finished yesterday thank goodness! We will now be moving from the Key Concepts stage to Childhood.....looking at the subject from a sociological and historical viewpoint plus how childhood has been portrayed through the eyes of various authors in literature.

If you don't hear from me for a few days I may well be under a pile of books!!

I hope at some point to post the rest of my Wisley photos...not many left now!

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY - GO SLOW, QUICK PICK, SLOE

green thumb sunday

Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday,

visit As the Garden Grows for more information

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY BLOGROLL

As a respite from all from Wisley photos, for Green Thumb Sunday some photos of our Sloe picking adventure on Friday........we've had a few frosts now as you can see from this poor Coleus (it's always best to pick Sloes AFTER they've been frosted)...

though the garden is holding up quite well...still a fair amount of colourand the Chrysanthemum is in full blooom now...Although the weather was prettty gloomy.....we couldn't laze around all day.................so we went out Sloe hunting....we found rose hips and Campion.....plenty of Fungi...... fallen trees to walk along.........Ahhh here are the Sloes...We picked 320 Sloes...we know that's exact as Melissa counted them all!!!!!...... Then it was all hands to deck when we got home to make the Sloe Gin....I'll give it a good shake everyday and just before Christmas Melissa will take some home to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve..........

It's been such a funpacked half-term week that I'm glad the clocks went back for Daylight Saving last night....it gives me an extra hour to finish my assignments!!!!!

PHOTOHUNTERS - PINK

How lucky I am that this weeks theme is PINK as it means I can carry on showing more photos from Wisley! First some of the beautiful pink Cyclamen from the Cyclamen Society.

Even this white one has the slightest blush of pink...I'd never realised before the range of patterns on the leaves

Back to the pinks though........I couldn't believe it when I saw this Spring flowering Azalea in bloom. It won't be a surprise to John G though....on Monday he posted a similar photo of his white Azalea in flower.

There were some beautiful Colchicums (Autumn Crocus) in bloom...these doubles took my breath away! They are not actually part of the Crocus family at all....I think they are related to Irises......they are often familiarly called Naked Ladies due to the fact that the leaves don't appear until Spring.

I'm not sure what the name of this Rose was but it smelled heavenly...I'll end with last Saturday's fabulous PINK sunset.....
photohunt click to see who else has joined the hunt

SKY WATCH FRIDAY

I hope you're not getting bored with my Wisley photos!

the beautiful blue sky over Wisley

and in keeping with today's Sky Watch theme a few more views which include some sky..

As Leanne & co are here I'm not getting much Blogvisiting done but I know you'll all understand. We were hoping the weather would be fine enough to go Sloe hunting...time to make some Sloe Gin in time for Christmas!........but at the moment is quite rainy and gloomy. Fingers crossed that some of the blue skies in these photo will rub off the cloudy skies outside.

SKY WATCH BLOGROLL

If you're taking part in Sky Watch and you're not on my blogroll please let me know.

A THURSDAY THOUGHT

"You don't stop laughing because you grow old.

You grow old because you stop laughing."

~Michael Pritchard~

and we certainly laughed at the name of this Dahlia on the trial grounds at Wisley...

(bet you wondered how I'd find an excuse to put more Wisley photos on my Thursday Thought post!)

This time of year it was mainly the Dahlias in flower...

these were a few of our favourites......we had a few more laughs watching the antics of the bees as they buzzed from flower to flower..There was a fine display of Pampas Grass being trialed.....
and lots of Chrysanthemums.....
Sadly my camera wouldn't zoom enough to get a very clear photo of this butterfly....
such a shame as it was a beautiful Peacock......

Believe it or not I've still a few photos of Wisley left for another day but I must get into the kitchen soon as Leanne & co will be arriving this morning...I'm sure they'll be hungry!!

p.s. I've had a few comments lately saying my blog is difficult to get into sometimes just a white page or only photos but no text shows. Anyone got any ideas why this should be???