Elderflower cordial, moss agate pins and more

The sun has finally shown itself a couple of days ago – wasn't that wonderful! To mark this rare occasion, we went with the girls to pick elderflowers to make elderflower cordial. It is the end of the season, so it was not easy to find 50 flower clusters that are needed to make 3 litres. Somehow almost all the trees that still had flowers were surrounded by stinging nettles – just to make the task a little more challenging! But we persevered and got all 50. I used the Danish recipe from my husband's family, which has an additional meaning to me because of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale «The Little Elder-Tree Mother» («Hyldemoer”), and I loved those stories as a child. Here is the recipe:

50 elderflower clusters                                                                                                                          

3 kg sugar

3-4 lemons

75 g citric acid (from a pharmacy)

3 l water.

First dissolve the sugar and the citric acid in water. I heated up the water in a pan to speed up the process. Let the syrup cool to room temperature and add the flowers and chopped lemons. Let the mixture infuse for 48 hours, stirring it occasionally, filter it through the clean cloth, and pour into bottles. Last time I’ve made it, I used glass bottles and stored them in a fridge; unfortunately, in a few months whatever was left became mouldy and had to be thrown out. This time I bought a pack of eight 500 ml bottles of still water; I used the water for the syrup, and plan to pour the cordial into the plastic bottles and freeze them.

I’ve also tried my hand at jewellery making – pictures of the new creations to follow, as it is too dark to photograph now, but here are some moss agate pins that I’ve made recently:

Apart from experimenting, the last few days were dedicated to doing what I actually promised to other people. It’s amazing how the wish not be seen as unreliable spurs me into action! So here are some little boys’ jeans that a friend asked me to patch, and a second “Poppy cottage” felt doorstop, which will be on its way to Denmark on Monday: