Oops...and success!!

 On the bus to town again.....but luckily I remembered before it arrived, that it wouldn't be a good idea to go out to the gallery....as it is closed on Tuesdays!!

I had a few things to do anyway..checking with the bank about my savings....paying in cash to another savings account...I do that with most of the small change I get.... painless saving!! 

My favourite young bank manager was working on the counter which was fortunate...nice to say Hi ....and a quick chat..he is from Oz....he has booked his next trip back...and understands why I'm saving for mine to NZ!!

A quick whizz round Lidl...a summer dress and light nightwear...Ideal for the French trip!!  

The tollbooth has been restored...pity about the cinema.

The 1975 police building out of picture to my right is being demolished now...it has been shut up for a few years, and the police station is now in a beautiful Victorian brick building....fair comment on modern buildings.

Back home and this afternoon has been filled with fruit processing.

Gooseberry jam made, gooseberry pulp in the jeely bag, dripping juice nicely for jelly.

A couple of small carry out plastic boxes of gooseberries and one of currants in the freezer...and some small strawberries open freezing. Finally apricots were on special in Lidl.....one punnet halved, stoned and open freezing as well!!

And good news....I've been offered kiln space until my kiln is ready...must get making!!!

This and that

rear of house view....then the view from the front !

That was Sunday night.

In the morning I rode over to the community café in a village we used to live outside...aiming to meet a local bike club on their run.

It is good to see the café popular....a group of four cyclists arrived just after me....and then the group of ten I was to meet. We had a table set upstairs!! Which probably would have been used again soon after as there was another group of ten on their way!!

Today was bright and sunny.... with a bitterly cold wind...

A trip to town on the bus... another bus to the shop....and back in just over two hours..not bad going!

As the wind was so cold I finished cleaning off the garlic in the greenhouse!!

Then braved the wind to pick the last of the gooseberries.

Fruit processing tomorrow.
 

Hanging around

 Waiting for the post....that came

Waiting for someone to pick up an old printer...said he wanted it, didn't say when...

But I did get some things done...finished and processed the cordial.

The fruit press didn't get as much juice out as I'd hoped..the pulp was still a bit wet...and if course full of seeds.

I've mixed in a bottle of home pressed apple juice...after it has all gone through the mouli legumes, I'll decide what to do with it ..fruit leather perhaps? Fruit spread? We'll see.

Decidedly Damp

 Not a day to venture out.

Only to roll back the thin cotton curtain that I'm using as greenhouse shading...it was needed in May to stop scorching...now the plants need all the light they can get!!...Just like us...

So a bits and bobs day today. 

I did a bit more sewing...half a quilt corner finished, and I'm pinning the strips together for the next one.

Five pounds of blackcurrants are in the process of being made into cordial... cooked over a water bath, with half a pint of water added per pound. That is now sitting in the "jeely bag" dripping away.

And the pulp will go in the fruit press when it has dropped enough.

The Alpine Strawberries are in the freezer on a tray, open freezing. 

I'll deal with the gooseberries tomorrow..jam and possibly jelly...

They make good presents!!

I checked the jam section in the larder...only four jars left!  They do make good presents!!

I even had the heating on for an hour this afternoon.. so an early night to keep warm!!

Not because the power company I get gas and electric from (Ecotricity)

Dismal

 I was glad that I'd lifted the rest of the garlic yesterday..the second half followed the first, to hang from the shelf in the greenhouse.

The first half I cleaned off the earth and broken skin and they are now left for the tops to dry properly.

Last night's sky...at the back...

And the front...

The last one was taken holding the phone as high as possible in order to see more of Arran!!

This morning my garage man was let down yet again...so I phoned my landlord who also owns a small garage about 15 miles away and is a good mechanic.

Would you believe that he has just had an operation on his knee!! No mechanicing for two weeks!! 

He is asking around to try and find someone who will do the job...and I trust him not to pass me on to anyone dodgy!!

Dismal news on a dismal day. It is cold and wet.

So this afternoon I set the bread machine going, sewed patchwork and made falafels with Dal I had in the freezer, grated carrot and blitzed the dry end of a loaf for breadcrumbs...a little gram flour and water, some extra spices ( ras el hanout mix) ...half gone in supper, half in the freezer.

Nicely warming!!

Garden day

This morning it rained...nice fine soaking in rain..not too cold...shorts and rain jacket weather!!

After finishing the ironing and keeping all the clean clothes...and text chatting with friends....and doing this morning's "leçon"....time for a sandwich lunch and an afternoon's gardening as the clouds cleared and the sun shone.

Tomatoes and aubergine plants are in the earth in the greenhouse ..and drying garlic! I've got three small melon plants but I don't know if anything will come of them.

Runner beans are just starting to run...squash and zucchini plants are there but a bit reluctant! I've had germination problems...but that could be old seed!

Beetroot are doing ok. And a few carrots. Broad bean plants are ok..no blackfly yet, but I'm keeping an eye out!!

I've just put half the seedling leeks out..my back needs a rest before doing the rest!

Big strawberries hiding under bread trays from cats and birds...and little strawberries under their own leaves

All that and it is a running battle to crop the fruit before the blackbirds...I don't mind sharing some...but as far as they are concerned they don't do sharing!! Between them and the gooseberry sawfly caterpillars the currants and gooseberries are suffering.

The raspberry canes need a different place.

Supper in a minute then tidying the first half of the garlic crop that has been drying already... mainly cleaning off broken leaves and any earth clinging to them.

And of course the evening "leçon".....I may not be getting much proper spoken practice, but my reading and listening is coming along ok helped by links my friend in France sends, and cycling pages on fb like "Dans la musette"... although some of that is extremely colloquial!!

A quiet day

 Today started warm and got slightly hot...

Not the 33⁰ as in the Southeast of England...but did briefly top 20⁰...and two lots of washing dried very nicely!!

Today has been getting things back to "normal".. whatever that is!!

After a late lunch more fruit was picked

That is about the end of the redcurrants, and the gooseberries that should be red...they are just beginning to turn colour...

The small blackcurrants are just that...the big ones are Jostaberries ( blackcurrant x gooseberry) 

Then after a tea break I uncovered half of a large raised bed, loosened the soil and added some mature compost. Added some calcified seaweed for minerals and good bacteria...like a probiotic!! And started planting leek seedlings. 

I think that I have rather too many...as the first lot didn't germinate I may just have overcompensated when the second lot got sown....

The garlic that has been drying is due to be cleaned and tidied before finishing drying...but that can wait until tomorrow.