Glenuig and Sanna

While up in the Highlands in October (this way), we spent a lot of time in Glenuig. It was only a 10 minute drive from our cottage (always welcomed by sheep), the only place with a tiny shop nearby but most importantly, it had a sweet little beach that at low tide was the perfect place for Finn to burn his energy off (if such thing exists). One day, we went for a walk in the woodland just off the coast there and it was again, just magical.
Although beaches, lochs and the sea were constant in our days, I realize most of the images are of hills, glens or woodland. I’m just so much more drawn to these places.

One afternoon, one our way home from another day out, we stopped at Glenuig and the beach was full of sheep. We waited until they moved into the woodland bit and let Finn out for a run. I just love these wee creatures dotted all over Scotland.

Sanna. I cannot recommend visiting Sanna highly enough. But. Sanna was 30 miles from our cottage and took us nearly 2 hours to get there. It was raining but that wouldn’t have been a big issue in its own. But. The road was very scenic, very windy and very narrow. But oh my. It must be one of the most beautiful drives I’ve experienced. Driving past sheep, of course, highland cows, of course and we even spotted a stag.

Sanna itself is a tiny hamlet of a few houses and crofts. And unspoilt beaches. Sandy dunes and black, volcanic basalt rocks.

October in the Highlands

Silverbirch, beech, bracken, heather, sea weed, white sands, sheep, highland cows, rain and sun, big skies and rocks, lochs and glens, on repeat.

Late October, we spent a week up in the Highlands. Places get booked up really quickly nowadays, so I was happy when we found this lovely cottage online, still available. And dogs allowed too! It didn’t have wifi or phone signal in and around the cottage at all but that’s just what we needed. It had, however, a log burner and a week supply of logs. Perfect.

We travelled via Glencoe as the road to the Forth Bridges was closed. I didn’t mind it at all as driving through Glencoe is one of my favourite things to do in Scotland. After Glencoe, as we really get into the Highlands, the spaces open up and the sky just gets bigger and bigger. Traffic is almost non existent. This is what I really wanted from this holiday after a busy year.

We stopped in Fort William to stock up on food supplies. It was another hour from there until we got to the cottage. A very long drive all in all but it was so worth it as it all slowed down after.

The drive to our cottage with views of Loch Moidart.

The Cottage. And lichen covered trees everywhere.

From a walk on our doorstep..

We walked a lot and one of our best walks was the one to the Singing Sands in Kentra bay. This beach is not accessible by car so you have to walk to it and it’s totally worth it. This walk led us through a variety of scenery but most if it was through a forestry plantation - pine trees as far as you could see. It was absolutely magical and you were almost waiting for a fairy to appear. It rained a lot, more like a heavy drizzle than heavy rain but it was enough for us to get soaked as we walked there. When we stopped, all we could hear is the raindrops gently landing on the trees and the ground. Absolutely peaceful. This peacefulness followed us to the beach too, there was not a soul and Finn enjoyed having the whole place to himself. Well, and me too, I must say. I didn’t bring my camera here. It was a long walk through woodland and I just didn’t fancy carrying it for hours and in the rain. The phone worked just fine capturing moments to forever remember this special place.

We went to other beaches too, like the Silver Sands of Morar, near Mallaig. While Finn was chasing a ball, I was admiring all the colours and textures. I also had a little commission of photographing sea weed and it was the perfect place for it.
Silver Sands is more popular as it’s very easily accessible. When I say more popular, imagine maybe maximum 12 people on the beach. On a huge beach.

Someone once told me one shouldn’t include too many images in a blog post so here you go, I’ll continue with more images in a different post.

Quince jelly

I remember the quince tree in my grandmother’s garden. It was an old tree with long branches and big yellow fruits. She didn’t use the fruits every year but when she did, she made quince paste (membrillo) from them.

Quinces are one of my favourite things of Autumn. They are very often overlooked and not many people use or even know them.

I love their uneven and bumpy surface, the colour of their skin and their amazing fragrance. I love seeing them as they grow, I absolutely love photographing them and I love them in the kitchen, too.

I have been making quince jelly for a while now (occasionally membrillo too) and below you’ll find the recipe I use. Quince jelly is not difficult to make but you’ll need quite a lot of time.

Recipe

1.6 kg quince, washed, stems removed, cored, quartered but leave the skin on
1.6 litre of water
Equivalent amount of sugar for each 120ml juice that will cook out of the quince
This amount generally gives me about 5x120ml juice.

Method
Prepare the quince. Wash them, remove stems and core but leave skin on. Cut them into quarters.
This will take just a few minutes. For this amount, I usually need 5-6 quinces, depending on their size.

Put the quince in a pot (a cast iron or similar), add the water and cook until soft.
Mash the quince - I use a potato masher - until it looks something like in the picture below. Make sure it’s not too thick as you’ll need the juice of it. If it’s too thick, add more water.

Ladle your quince pulp into a very fine mesh strainer and let the pulp strain. I often just use a linen cloth. I either keep it over a strainer or just hang it and let the juice drip.

This should take a few hours. During this time, you can prepare your jars. I sterilize them in the oven (leave them in there for 15 minutes on 150 degrees)

Once I have all the juice from the pulp, I measure it. For each 120ml juice, you’ll need about 110g sugar.
Bring the juice to the boil (I use the same thick bottom cast iron pot as earlier but clean it after I cooked the quince in it) and stir constantly so that the sugar dissolves. Skim off any foam that comes to the surface.

Your quince juice should boil and when it reaches 103-104 celsius (I use a thermometer), you can pour the jelly into your jars. Quince has a lot of pectin in it, so it will set quite quickly.

And then enjoy. We love it most with cheese.

Daucus Carota

When the heat was gone and the light wasn’t too strong and blinding, I went for a walk around the field at the back of our house. There are masses of wild carrots growing there now so I picked some. Wildflowers and July go hand in hand for me. I absolutely love seeing them grow by the side of the motorways (and I’ve seen a lot of those lately) and by roads of any description really.
I didn’t take my camera for the walk but I took some pictures later when I brought the bunch back home and here they are.

South Wood Farm

Long before I became a full time garden photographer in 2017, I worked in an office. Full time. I always had a garden and always looked for garden inspirations. One day at the office, I remember this so clearly, instead of working, I was looking through Arne Maynard’s website. That’s where I first came across South Wood Farm. Visiting and let alone photographing this garden one day seemed like a long shot dream. But like most dreams, if we really want to, they do come true. I’ve been to South Wood Farm a few times now and I pinch myself every time I’m there. This applies to some other gardens too and I’ll share those with you too sooner or later.

My first visit was in 2020 when I was on a garden shoot nearby. It was Summer so I had a very early start to the day and I was very tired by the time I got to South Wood. (I was tired only because I booked a room in an inn and when I checked in I was told I was going to be the only person there and so spent my night alone - and awake - in an inn full of empty rooms and an empty pub below. All sorts of Agatha Christie stories came to mind) Anyway, later that morning I made it to South Wood. The first selection of images is from that day and all taken with a 50mm lens. No, it was not a sunny day but did I mind that?

In the Spring of 2021 I returned for a shoot of the gardens for House&Garden magazine. You can read and see the full article - by Anna Pavord - here and see selection of my favourite photographs below.
It was an early Spring shoot and the morning brought a gentle frost. I absolutely loved it.

And only just a week ago, I found myself at South Wood Farm again. Early July. A cloudy day. The garden visit didn’t last long as a heavy drizzle set in. Sitting on the porch, listening to the sound of the rain in this most peaceful place with the friends I went with was the cherry on the cake.

I really tried to limit the number of images I wanted to share here with you, too many, too few, I don’t know, here they are, gloomy or not, whatever the weather, I just love gardens. Follow along as I might have some more things to share with you with South Wood Farm.

Hellebores

The garden is still very bare, with hardly any green to be seen but then suddenly, early Spring (or late Winter?) there’s this very welcome sight of hellebores.

Every year, when I first spot them in the gardens, on photoshoots and when working with floral stylists, I always decide to plant more the following year. While I have a few beautiful ones in my own garden, as soon as early Spring is over and narcissi and tulips and blossoms start to appear, I quickly forget about hellebores. That is a shame as I know the following Spring I will wish I’d planted more. Just like the one here, I captured it in the hellebore-heaven-garden of Simply by Arrangement in Yorkshire. This must be my favourite of the year.

Freshyl picked hellebores are notoriously temperamental. Make sure you sear them or cut the stem. Any maybe even then they will droop) I also usually only pick them when they are almost over. I had one in a tiny vase for 4 weeks this Spring.

Hellebores grown by Simply by Arrangement, Yorkshire

Flowing hellebores reveal the real beauty of this charming early Spring flower. Here’s one bowl full of hellebores arranged - and grown of course - by Huw Morgan.

Huw Morgan, Hillside, Somerset

And more hellebores grown by Milli Proust and Rachel Siegfried. I took these images for their books, Milli’s is coming out very soon and Rachel’s will be out next year. They both grow stunning flowers, not just hellebores, and I’m so lucky to have been working with them.

Milli Proust, Sussex

Green and Gorgeous Flowers, Oxfordshire

If you - like me - want to grow more hellebores, Twelve Nunns Nursery is a great place to get them from.

Château de Miromesnil

I was commissioned to photograph a beautiful garden in Normandy, France back in 2018. After the shoot, I had some time left before catching the ferry back to England so I stopped at the Château de Miromesnil where I had a lovely walk around the gardens.

Birthplace of Maupassant, many visitors come here because of him. I didn’t know much about the place before I got there and I was so happy to discover the beautiful potager around the château. It is not your usual manicured French garden but it’s full of lovely fruit trees, colourful dahlias and zinnias, cabbages and very photogenic rows of dill. Absolutely heavenly. I would highly recommend to visit and join the guided tour as well (if you’re a French speaker) which is very informative and gives lots interesting details about the past of the château.

Gingerbread

I have been baking gingerbread cookies at Christmas for a long time now. I remember making little gingerbread houses in my grandmother’s kitchen years and years ago. I’ll try and find images of those..
I’m not a great baker and there are only a handful of things I bake and most of the time with fruits in them. But no Christmas can go by without me filling the house with the smell of gingerbread cookies. I find them very easy to make and very relaxing to bake and decorate. Perfect.

You won’t need a huge and special list of ingredients but you might want to make sure you have some cookie cutters before you start with your gingerbread. They come in all shapes and forms but I do like using Christmassy ones at Christmas time. Christmas tree, bells, moose, stars, angels..

This gingerbread is soft and keeps for weeks only that it’s so good it never really does..

You will need:

200g of honey
150g of butter
250g of icing sugar
3 eggs
1tsp sodium carbonate
750g of flour
1 pack gingerbread spice mix

or
your own mix of the following
2tsp of ground cinnamon
1tsp of ground ginger
1tsp of ground cloves
1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp of ground cardamom

And this is what you’ll need to do:

Put the butter and the honey into a bowl that will fit over a pan of simmering water. Leave it over the water, stirring occasionally. When melted, let the mix cool.

In a large bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients and add the butter-honey mix to it. You’ll get a soft dough. I don’t mix or overwork it too much, just slightly shape it into a ball. Let the dough rest in a cool place or in the fridge for overnight or even a day or two.

When ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. Roll the dough to about 3-5mm thick. Then out with all those cookie cutters!
Flour the cutter a bit so the dough doesn’t stick to it. Line your baking tray with a sheet of baking parchement and put your cut cookies onto the tray and into the preheated oven for about 5-8 minutes.

Do keep an eye on them as they bake very quick. When nice and golden, they are ready.

Place the cookies on a cooling rack. When completely cooled down, you can start preparing for the icing. If you don’t have time for it straight away, just put the cookies in a cookie jar or tin, they will last there forever and can decorate them anytime.

For the icing, you’ll need 1 egg white, 200g icing sugar and a drop of lemon.

In a bowl beat the egg white and gradually add the icing sugar. This should take about 3-4 minutes. Then add a drop of lemon that will give a nice shine to the icing.
When nice and firm, spoon the mix into a piping bag and have fun icing your own designs!

And now it’s time to use your beautifully crafted gingerbread cookies.
I like making gifts tags or place cards for Winter parties. They can also be wonderful gifts in a nice jar or just the perfect treat on a cold Winter afternoon..

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas!

with love,
Eva