ANOTHER RAINY SUNDAY

After yet another restless night I was quite glad to get out of bed this morning, that is until I opened the curtains, the weather looked exactly as I felt,ghastly! Last night I had the pleasure of Twiggy,s company,she slept for reasons best known to herself in the magazine basket by my desk and now and then she jumped up on my bed to be fussed. She seems to have gone in to her Autumn routine
since the weather turned stormy, she keeps on sniffing at the radiators to see if they are warm but at the moment she is having to make do with the warmth from my desk lamp.

I am still shaking with pestilence and I feel disinclined to work which is unlike my usual self, I expect I shall improve soon, I do hope so. My son and I had coffee together this morning, I shall be glad when this week is over for his sake, it has been a total bitch all round one way and another.

Today was the day of the Church Fête I watched the poor souls struggling to erect stalls as they were being lashed by the heavy rain and the strong wind played havoc with the bouncy castle and the bunting. Pa and I have attended this fête for years but today the weather was daunting so we waited until the last moment before making up our minds about going this year. In the end I nipped off on the buggy during a lull in the showeres and picked up some pretty its and pieces, soft toys mostly for some children of my aquaintance, a couple of cache pots for our indoor plants and a nice bottle of perfume for myself. On my return Pa went off to have a look around, it is fun to look at the stalls and chat to old friends and today as the weather was so dreadful they needed all the support that they could get. Pa told ne that as he left the barbeque was going well in spite of the rain
During
the late morning I decided to label the jars of apple and thyme jelly which I made a couple of days ago. I managed to down load some nice ones on a web site called preservingyourharvest.com they have all sorts of nice odds and ends to down load for jams and dries herbs etc. I should really have made another batch by now but I have not felt well enough to be bothered, oh dear, still I expect that a few days will not make too much difference, providing the parakeets do not scoff all the apples!

The damsons are beginning to turn purple already and at the bottom of the orchard I picked the first blackberries of the year yesterday, just a handful but it is a sign that there will soon be lots more ready, I love blackberries, the flavour, the colour, everything about them is glorious. This year I hope to make blackberry and rose hip jelly, a wonderful preserve for eating with any kind of game and equally delicious on a hot buttered scone, it makes a perfect gift.

This is the time of year when I am obliged to begin moving things around in the kitchen and the cupboards to make room for the new seasons preserves. Every inch of space will be filled before September is out, I hate to think what one of those de-cluttering types from the television would make of my kitchen, she would probably go in to shock and have to have therapy for months.

The boys call this urge to fill the cupboards my squirrelling tendency and I suppose it is true to a degree,in my defence I would say that we are never short of preserves throughout the whole of the year and I always have plenty to give as gifts or to make up hampers for charity auctions .While the fruit is there and I have the strength I shall continue to squirrel away goodies in the late summer and Autumn against the long harsh winter months and besides there is nothing quite like having cupboards an shelves full of good things, call it security if you will. Children in my village were brought up to make and brew and bake so I suppose that it is in my blood. With fruit fro my garden I can make a dozen jars of jam for the cost of one jar of decent stuff brought in a shop, I saw a tiny jar of Duchy Original blueberry jam priced at almost four pounds last year, that is ludicrous!

This year it will be a real race against time to get things done as my health has not been the best this year,each new batch brings me closer to the self sufficiency at which I aim, and frequently achieve.
The afternoon was dark and we had the lamps on in the living room from around two in he afternoon. My little cat curled up on my bed and slept through the storm, she is fascinated by the canopy and from time to time gazes up at it wonderingly before drifting off to sleep again.

The one thing she dislikes is the fan, she has taken umbrage against it and if I am foolish enough to turn it on when she is present she leaves at once with a snarl, I have observed her, back arched threatening the fan on ,ore that one occasion, perhaps it ruffles her fur the wrong way, who can say.

Hoe glad I shall be to see my son come home tomorrow he needs to think about something other than work for a while but that will, I know be too much to expect, I shall spoil him all I can by cooking his favourite dishes but this time I think that he may be beyond any comfort that I can give. It was so much easier when he was a tiny boy to kiss better all his small griefs, the less I can do the more I worry....Oh dear....such I am afraid is life.