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By now you will have (hopefully!) seen our beautiful book A Green Guide To Country Crafts published by CICO Books Ltd. and chock full of gorgeous photographs by Gavin Kingcome (pictured above) all taken around the lovely part of the world that we are so lucky to live in!
We had a lot of fun during the photo shoots and made the most of the brilliant beach and picnic projects - essential for any picnic is the scotch egg!
I started making these as a way to use up a lot of eggs and was inspired to do so by my mate Maria Matthews, she quite often adds herbs to her sausagemeat but I leave it plain - the instructions here are my quick and easy adaptations to many online and printed recipes...you may have to jiggle the timings a bit as I get giant eggs from my ex-battery hens and teeny eggs from Button and Zsazsa the Silkies!

Jane Southgate - textile artist - and I got together to do some dyeing and whilst the rhubarb leaves were cooking we made a couple of these for our lunch - so here we go!

I use my little and very old Le Creuset pan that I got from the Sue Ryder shop next door...

About 6 - 8 minutes should give you a good yolk but as Jane and I were eating them straightaway we soft boiled them for runny ones! Take them out of the boiling water and sling them straight into a big bowl or sink of very cold water - if you get the timing right you wont get that grey line around the yolk...

Roll the peeled eggs in some flour seasoned with salt and pepper and set aside while you get on with the crispy, crunchy crumbs...
Blitz some old bread in a food processor and then toast them, I use a big griddle pan for this.

Watch them and keep turning them - I usually have to do this stage twice as I get distracted by a cake or knitting blog...

Grab your sausage meat - quarter of a pound for big eggs - squash it flat and wrap it right round, you don't want holes and dampening your hands first will make it easier to do!

Get a couple of eggs and beat 'em up! Rolling the sausagemeat wrapped eggs in beaten egg makes all those scrummy crumbs stick on fast and then you should end up with something like this!

Deep fry in some sunflower oil for about 8 minutes...being very careful and taking all the usual warnings about deep fat frying into consideration etc.

Turn them carefully and frequently so that they are evenly cooked and gorgeously golden brown!

Ta da!

Absolutely the best thing to do with eggs and they will make grown men weep with joy! Knitters, artists, cake makers and photographers are pretty keen on them too...

with love from Nic x

It's arrived! The day we've been waiting for!

When we finally got to see the final result - it's a proper real life book! More importantly, our book!

We knew it was on it's way - and Nic arrived extra early almost lynching the postman when he turned the corner towards Halfpenny Home HQ! But what a scary moment too!

As only a handful of copies are available at the moment we've only been allowed one copy to share between us - and so far we've managed not to fall out! Nic even slept with it by her side on that first night!!!

It's been a hectic few days! We've been out on location with Gavin, taking shots for our book at a beautiful location just outside Ipswich. We were privileged to have been given access to this idyllic spot on the river by Sam's relations. And to top it all, the weather was just perfect.

Of course, we had to take a picnic! Nic made her famous homemade scotch eggs and also brought grapes from her allotment no less! There was Scoffin's lemon drizzle cake, which was very lemony indeed and Sam's relations kept us topped up with mugs of tea too!

We were dyeing woad on the beach and in between taking shots for the book, Sam even had Gavin help her skein some yarn for the next shot!

It was a beautiful evening with the light changing constantly. Here's Nic having a quiet moment of contemplation!

Visitors to Halfpenny Home have been inspired by some of the many craft titles that CICO books have produced. In particular, the Cabbages & Roses Home Made Vintage has sparked lots of creative makes at the studio in recent months.

Imagine then, how excited we were when CICO asked us to write a craft book for them! CICO are part of Ryland Peters and Small and produce beautiful craft books with lavish photography. As you can see, we've been enjoying just a small selection of these! Our book is going to be produced under CICO's Green Home series, which sits perfectly with the ethos of Halfpenny Home!

We have been asked to produce 35 projects with step by step instructions. We are very privileged to be working alongside a really great photographer, Gavin Kingcome (www.gavinkingcome.com), who has provided the photography for a number of the River Cottage Handbooks.

It's been a really brilliant excuse to play with lots of creative supplies and we have also asked some Halfpenny Home friends to help us. Laura, who makes soap and Sam, who every summer becomes Peg the Dyer at Kentwell Hall, Long Melford (www.kentwell.co.uk)

So thank you to all our Halfpenny Home friends and followers for all your enthusiasm, inspiration and support.

Nic & Jacqui x