Friday Smiles 2023: Week 22

Not much happening here this week, except more rain and intermittent bursts of sunshine. We have had more rain in the past couple of weeks than we had all Winter, but its all good and of course the gardens, (and the weeds) are flourishing. It is actually looking a bit greener everywhere now.

On Sunday my friend at church gave me two carrier bags full of little nectarines, that had washed off her tree in the storms. She had made jam, and filled her freezer with prepared ones too, and had no room for any more. She warned me they would need to be picked over before I used them, and she was right. Even by Monday, many of them had got very 'squishy'. But I went ahead and stoned them all and chopped the good fruit up to make jam. As I knew she would want to sell her own jam on our church stall, (I do marmalade and pickles and she does jam), I went for two different recipes. The first was Low Sugar nectarine jam, which only had a third of the sugar normally used in fruit jam - in fact it is the smallest quantity that will allow the jam to set. I added a little lemon juice to help it, and it did set enough to use, and it tates fine. In fact I wouldn't have know it had so little sugar in it. So it is one that I can use in moderation without feeling guilty. The second one I made was nectarine and ginger jam. This was expensive to make as it contained ginger three ways, fresh, crystallised and powdered, and the yield was only small, but as Chris and I both love ginger, I will be keeping most of that one for us.

Last week we had a little cat washed up by the storm. This week Chris came in to say a wee frog had fallen into our pool. As it is usually me who carries out the rescue missions, so out I went, camera in hand to record another visitor. I fished him out but knew immediately that he was  a toad, not a frog.  He was a good swimmer, but he was covered in quite pronounced warts. He was very tiny, no more than three or four centimenters in length.

I looked him up and found he was a European green toad, and as his secretions can be toxic for the animals, I removed him some distance from us in the green zone. It is so damp down there right now, I am sure there were plenty of bugs to eat, and wet leaves to hide under.

And now a few photos of some of the furry family members. When we got Kim as a baby he always held one ear cocked over. We thought he would grow out of this but he never did. Here are two photos taken, first when we got him as a puppy in 2012, and the second taken just last year.

But all of a sudden, this week he has perked up his second ear, and kept it like this every day. We have no idea why. As you can see he has aged a lot this year and now has a grey muzzle and face, but he is still a handsome boy isn't he?.

And here is little Leo who is not so little now. He has a long sleek body and the most magnificent tail. He mostly holds it erect as he runs around, but he wouldn't stand still enough for me to get a good photo!

Kim will chase any stray cat that come into the garden, but he mostly ignors all of ours. But Leo really wants to be his friend. He leaps across his back, and plays with his tail, but Kim just sighs, and takes no notice. But a 'Good-morning ' kiss was allowed this morning, and I did just about catch that on camera.

And that my friends is about it for this week. Hopefully by next week the storms will have moved away. There is still some thunder rumbling around us today, but when it goes it will probably be really hot as we are now into June, and usually I am starting to wish for cooler days again by now! Some folk are never satisfied are they! It has been nice to see that my friends in UK have been enjoying a spell of Summer weather, so I hope it lasts for you all a bit longer too. Now I will link up wth Annie's Friday Smiles.