Gerrit

 Yet another storm...we are having 40 mph gusts, with stronger overnight, and yet more rain with added hail.

I think that they should have shut the snow gates much earlier....and people should have heeded the weather forecast and warnings.

Indoors jobs today

The district nurse came today and she has been having problems with her central heating like us...both sorted now, thankfully..ours was an air pressure diaphragm which is supposed to keep the water pressure up, hers was a damp control box.

She was pleased with Pirate..but we will all be glad when he hears from the hospital about his next step.

Tidying and sorting continues...and Pirate has joined in on his Stuff!!

I am getting pieces of old jeans ready to patch my favourite shoulder bag...from the inside, as it is black. The bag that I mended at Xmas time in NZ last year is definitely worse for wear now. It doesn't help that the black cloth that I bought in Geraldine has faded a little so no longer matches the bag! But it has done a good job for the past year.

Indoors

 

Success! Only one cutting from the Money plant/Crasularia didn't take, so now we have 22 small plants to give away!! The mother plant needed a trim and Pirate insisted that the bits were used.

There are a couple more succulents that have decided to multiply, so when we can  sort them....in other words when it gets a bit warmer....they will get potted up too.

Pirate is getting enthusiastic about house plants, but we don't have decent wide windowsills. A decision must be made as to where to grow them!! Maybe a corner with a light source? LED lights wouldn't take much power...

Himself is improving slowly, but isn't happy at the prospect of not over exerting himself for a few months...as he says, losing one season when you are forty or fifty isn't too bad.

However at nearly 83, he is deservedly a bit grumpy about it!!

Still positive today, but only a pale line this time. We will hope for no line in two day's time.

I have been slowly making sense of paperwork, getting files into accessible places.

Archive personal matters have just been left. I know I went through them a couple of years ago, so I don't need to face that again, yet!

What I am aiming at is making artwork accessible and having a place to work that I can go to with no fuss. I need to get back to selling so that I can afford to do more and to develop what I do. If I have to reorganize a space every time I need to do something that does not work.

So far this is going in the right direction for printing, computer work and gardening.

Archive pots and collection are heading for the pot shed. Out of the way!

Wardrobe needs to be weeded again. I have started just putting things in a large box and I am looking forward to Pirate joining in on that one!!

Its surprising what you can get on with when the weather turns back to winter!!

Wet but productive

 Still working on the 7am start...I don't like using an alarm, but it is a way of setting a pattern.

Today's main job has been chutney! Steadily tidying the greenhouse, sorting the green tomatoes, weighing them and adding other ingredients to the right proportions...windfall apples and homegrown onions to start with, then a mango that needed using, a handful of yellow sultanas to empty the jar, cayenne pepper, salt, four large chilli peppers from Carpenter's allotment, a large chunk of fresh ginger, golden granulated sugar and cider vinegar.

Work on this was paused while other tidying was done, neighbour called over, lunch, pirate rode the turbo as it kept on and on raining.....and then after his siesta we caught a short break in the weather.

I already have a bag of rosehips ready to use, now was the time to get some crabapples from a nearby field hedgerow...and we found pears this year too!

Ripe enough to pick, they are now in a shallow cardboard tray to ripen enough to use for juicing.

We saw some blue sky!!

Just after we arrived home, with damp trousers and jackets from the grass in the field and drops from tree branches...it rained again!!

No chutney process photos... too busy stirring!!

The four pounds of green tomatoes ended up as nine pounds of fruit ingredients!!

All the fresh fruit and half the vinegar cooked gently until soft, then the dried spices, sugar and the rest of the vinegar was added for the final cooking as the jars were warned in the oven.

Supposedly fifteen minutes according to the recipe, but actually half an hour, a quick five minutes resting then into hot jars, covered with waxed circles and two teaspoons of melted candlewax before the lids were shut.

It was satisfying eating supper, hearing the lids go pop as they cooled and the contents contracted!