It’s autumn, so naturally the weather has improved markedly! Apparently by the end of the week, we’ll have met heatwave conditions. I’m so confused not least because Friday was so wet…
I did three days at work last week and it was full on. I had Friday off for a haircut and the weekend was a write off because I wasn’t well, this time cystitis, which is possibly my least favourite peri menopause side effect. I’ve been off HRT for a month as I transition to a new one and it’s definitely confirmed that HRT helps because this month hasn’t been fun at all…
This week is reporting week and a training day in Southampton. We have four training days a year, they are always in Southampton and they require me to do a lot of running around mostly making sure people are fed and watered.
Other than work and seeing Ma, I have no plans except to remember to buy the youngest nephew a birthday present as he’s eight at the end of the week.
Ministers face calls to explain delay in closing schools over concrete crisis. In the very early 90’s, at 6th form college, we had to have lessons in portacabins, they were not in great shape and I remember one had a massive hole in the back of it. So large that there were always less people at the end of the lessons than at the beginning of it, as the less interested would just disappear out of the back of the portacabin. In 1997, one of the reasons that the Tory’s lost was the absolute state of public buildings, schools and hospitals were falling apart. Here we are at the end of 13 years of Tory government and public buildings are in a bad way again. Yes there was a Labour gov in between that last Tory government and the absolute shower of chaos that’s been in charge since 2010. I’d like to remind you that Michael Gove shut down the school building fund in 2010.
Ex-Tory MP threatens to sue Cambridge University over slavery research. It’s interesting to me that the MP in question feels so threatened by the truth about her ancestors. I don’t know how I would react, although I’m pretty sure that my ancestors didn’t do anything of the sort (too poor).
Cleverly’s humiliating China visit was the perfect symbol of isolated, ill-led ‘global Britain’ James Cleverly is the most misnamed man in politics right now. He’s also (typically of his peers) completely unable to see that the world is not as he would wish it, it’s a special talent of this crop of Tories that they seem to think things are so because they wish it was so. And this is why and how we got in the current state.
A pony in Kingston, I did have to double check I wasn’t hallucinating…
Yesterday was the last Bank Holiday until Christmas and I just realised last week that it’s starting to get dark at night. Yes, I know it happens every year. Yes, I know that I should be used to it by now. And yes, I know I whine about it every year, this is my space where I get to do that if I want to but if you need to go elsewhere because you want to be excited about autumn, please go and do that. Why do you think I use this space to whine about it. Everyone I know in real life is very tired of the whinging on!
All that to say, I suddenly realised we are four months away from the end of the year and I’m going to have to get a lot more organised, if I want to get through it without sinking into a depression…
Aside from my existential dread of the cold, dark part of the year, last week was fine, I guess. I still didn’t feel much better but by Friday was so incredibly bored of it, I decided that if rest wasn’t working, I’d just burn it out with activity. This was partially fuelled by the knowledge that Josephine was coming to dinner on Monday and she hasn’t seen it since the work and I do like my living space to look nice for other people.
Washing was done and ironed and put away, things were tidied. Ma and I had a really good day on the plot on Saturday and while I’m never really ready to go back to work, I’m feeling that the work is doable rather than last week’s feeling that I was in way over my head!
A godchild!
Jo and T came over for dinner last night and goodness, the godchild is looking very grown up!
Plans for the rest of this week are very quiet. I have a Grace dinner on Wednesday and a haircut on Friday and everything else is the usual work, housework, allotment and for added fun jam making!
It’s the end of August and there is a surprising amount of news for the silly season. Although, I seem to be all about housing and cost of living this week:
We had an abundance of blackcurrants this year. More than enough for jam, I have some in the freezer and I made cassis.
I have no idea how authentic it is, I saw a lot of recipes using vodka, a couple involving wine and eau de vie, but this one using brandy seemed simplest and more french than vodka.
We had 800g of blackcurrants so adjusted the other ingredients accordingly. If you’ve been around here for a while or seen my other experiments in alcohol and fruit (here and here), you will know that while I have no opinions on brandy, I do have an opinion on the alcohol you should use when making fruit liquors.
I know people say use whatever cheap booze works for you and if you want to do that, please do, I won’t worry about it at all. However, I firmly believe that if you wouldn’t drink it normally, don’t use it for this. I don’t as a general rule drink brandy, so the hill I decided to die was the ABV (alcohol by volume) of 40%. The Courvoisier VS was on offer and that’s what I went for.
So far, so good!
Plans for this, are to drink it, or to use for Christmas presents (see Tuesday’s post), I have plans that I’ll show you nearer Christmas!
This week we finally got tomatoes. Not many but they are starting….
There are bits of the plot that need weeding so badly and things that really need to get in the ground and there may be blight but there are actually tomatoes…
I got the tomatoes more or less under control too.
The cucumbers are giving and trying to take over the polytunnel and we have a baby aubergine…I’m excited..
We are also getting a ton of french beans and now I just have to sort out autumn/winter crops and tidy up and week, so not much!
So now I’m over my birthday, my thoughts have turned to Christmas. Yes, it’s early. So let me set a scene.
It’s Christmas 2009, I have no job, money is tight and I’m wondering how to do Christmas. Everyone says make some Christmas presents to save money, I looked into it and it’s not that cheap because ingredients are expensive! Later on when I am working but still not entirely recovered, I start buying ingredients in August and for some of the gifts making them in advance. There are several posts, handily labelled ‘Homemade Christmas’ if you want to see what I’ve done.
We are now slap bang in the middle of a cost of living crisis, as we get nearer Christmas people will suggest making presents is cheap. I don’t necessarily agree but if you want to get this way (it’s a lot of work) and if you want to do it, you need to start planning for it now.
One of my favourite Christmas presents, was The Aperitif Pack. It was inspired and themed presents like this are really good because you can make a couple and distribute.
I also given people I know will have a busy Christmas, cinnamon rolls for an easy morning breakfast over Christmas. (The linked recipe is the one I use and I tend to give them with a bag of frosting attached!)
Look at the miscellaneous Christmas gifts in places like M&S and work from there to make something fun. Non food gifts are trickier, but lotion bars,hand or body scrubs are all good shouts of things you can group into ‘hampers’
If you want to make alcohol, you pretty much need to start them now, there are loads of recipes about
So if you’re thinking about handmade gifts for Christmas, have a think about budgets, about who you’re giving to and plan ahead.
The news this morning is about the Lioness’ defeat, Lucy Letby, shortfalls of local authority budgets and the ULEZ. It’s not a happy start to the week.
I spent last week not quite having Ma’s cold, it didn’t fully develop but I was really tired and my throat was sore so Tues to Wed I worked from home and on Saturday I had a migraine! Really it was a good week!
Yesterday, I took Ma produce and we listened to the football, all football was a disappointment, Chelsea lost 3-0 too!
So this week can’t help but be better. I’m hoping to get lots of work done because everyone is on holiday for the next two weeks, so it should be easier to tackle some work without interruption (she says optimistically!)
That really is all the news that’s fit to print, life has been really quiet and I’m really pleased about that!
So the country is excited by the Women’s World Cup Final, however, Spain are a good team so there will be no counting of chickens but it’s a massive achievement to be in the final.
The country is still a mess and I need to say this one thing, inflation going down to 6.8% doesn’t mean that prices will come down, it just means that they are going up more slowly and the factors that have caused inflation to go down are entirely independent from anything the Government has done (although it could be worse, we could be in Russia)
How Australian and UK newspapers reacted to the Matildas’ defeat in the Women’s World Cup semi-final. I’m fascinated by the difference in how this is being reported in Australia and the UK. I think for the Australians the World Cup has been for them what the Euros were for us, it’s really put women’s football on the map. However, the way England played was not cruel, the Lionesses were doing what they needed to do to win, I think (and I would wouldn’t I?) that they played better in that match than they had in most of the tournament and won. They didn’t cheat, they knew where the Matildas were weak and they targeted it, the same way the Australian cricket team took the English one apart this summer. I’ll be really happy if we win on Sunday but it won’t change the fact that the UK is in a mess and it’s not a reflection on the national character.
Death masks help recreate face of Bonnie Prince Charlie. I read somewhere that sanitation and eradication of so many disfiguring diseases (smallpox, measles etc) means that we have a very different idea of what constitutes attractiveness. This is a case in point, he was considered attractive, hence ‘the bonnie’ but I don’t think by modern standards he is. It’s interesting…
There are raised beds with tomatoes in amongst the borage and verbena
The general theme of 2023 seems to be that I can have good things, but I can’t have any control over them, this is very clear on the plot. Before I launch into talking about the plot, I do take comfort from the knowledge that it’s not just me, people with more time and bigger and more productive gardens have off years too and I needed the encouragement today to accept that you have to give up control sometimes…
So the plot is wild and beautiful and time off last week helped a bit but I need to be more consistent, to get it back to tidy but not too tidy.
I did start to clear up at the sides and the back though. Weeding and planting out some of the comfrey and thymes that have been languishing on the tables at the back of the plot.
Comfrey and lavender (and two lemon scented pelargoniums, that won’t survive the cold but there is a limit to how many houseplants I can have)
I also cleared the carrot bed and planted the cabbages out. I have kale, brussels sprouts and cauliflowers that need to be in the ground this week too and tidied up the sides those beds and put thymes around the other plants. I also took out the last of the potatoes and I had several summer squash plants that needed planting or throwing out so I stuck them in that bed with the spare tomato that was already in there!
More weeding and tidying happened on Friday and also planted out the very waterlogged beetroot plugs but the mint bath, there’s a self seeded chard there and if they grow great it’s a bonus crop and if they don’t, at least we tried!
I started to tie up the tomatoes and weed around the beds because the paths are full of borage and verbena (and weeds), and I have two beds done and two more to do but I do (finally) have ripening tomatoes. These tomatoes have been barely tended, watered mostly by the rain and not fed at all! So I’m surprised to have anything but hopeful that in a week or two, I’ll eat some tomatoes!
SungoldMystery Tomato, could be moneymaker but I’m not sure!slightly more tidy tomato bed
I’m spending an hour or so a day at the plot this week, to work on the tidying up of the tomatoes and the side paths and getting all the comfrey and other plants into the ground.
Ma came down on Friday and planted up all the tiny garlic bulbs that won’t produce garlic this year but might the year after, she also plotted up the pansy plugs that will go in for winter. I also have some violas coming for the same purpose, and I need to sow chard, beetroot, lettuce, turnips, swede and herbs for autumn into winter.
In the polytunnel, we have cukes and melons on the way but poor pollination because I haven’t been opening the poly as much as I should because the weather has been so bad, it’s starting to warm up a bit now so more daily visits to open and close should help.
The peppers are another matter though as I have only had one (a jalapeno) that hasn’t been munched but the bloody slugs. I haven’t used slug killer in about six years, and I still won’t outside of the polytunnel but today I did in the poly because I’d like one pepper this year!
Peppers that the slugs ate first!
The raspberries are starting to happen too and this weekend, we picked over 2 kgs of french beans, the summer squash is slow but we’ve had some and the straightneck, which isn’t being early or prolific is starting to produce female flowers so we’ll have some soon. I fed them yesterday to see if that would help.
It’s not as productive as it has been but there is food and it’s really pretty, which I can live with…
Nic Dempsey 