it's that time of year......

in our house we have a love for elderflower cordial......

it's one of those quintisential summer beverages......

still or sparkling, it doesn't matter too much

{though I have to admit to preferring it with a little 'fizz'}......

at the beginning of this week evie came home from a

walk with a little sprig of elderflowers in her hand and

so, of course, we all had to troup off at once to find the source of 

the elderflowers - across the road, in the woods......

the flowers are a bit late this year but they are no 

less abundant, except that the ones in the woods 

across the road from us just happened to be in the

middle of a field of chest high nettles.......

or about 15 foot off the ground......

we did manage to gather enough flowers for one

batch of elderflower cordial but I was sorely 

disappointed that we had not been able to gather more......

so the next day I sent evie off on an elderflower expedition 

{as she was a little restless and needed 'something to do'}.....

she came back full of excitement to say that she had found

not one, but two, large elderflower bushes/trees right

here in the asylum..... with not a nettle in sight.......

nor did we need a ladder to gather them......

she and I headed out straight away with our scissors and

a bag to gather the flower heads in......

home again and evie got to work shaking the heads

{just to make sure there were no poor bugs taking shelter in them}

counting them and cutting the thick stems off.....

she did a sterling job......

and in the end we had all manner of pots filled with

beautiful smelling elderflowers....

it was exceedingly difficult for evie to wait the 48 hours it took for 

our original batch of elderflowers to steep in the syrupy mixture.....

but she did {just about} manage it.......

and so our first single batch of delightful homemade 

elderflower cordial is ready and bottled.....

two bottles of golden, sweet, fragrant

lusciousness.....

 

so I did indulge myself and have a little taster    

{it would be wrong not to}.....

with a little fizz in it     

{I like to live on the wild side}......

and we have a double batch steeping as I write, 

so there will be a few more bottles to add to the cupboard tomorrow.....

 

yiphee.....

now all we need is the sun to put his hat on so we

can recline in the garden with a little fizzy beverage......