After another night with no sleep this morning found me no better in fact if anything I seem to be getting worse every day. The pain from the cracked rib when I cough is acute and after a week of coughing my diaphragm and every muscle in my back and chest is protesting vigorously every time I have to move. Bending has become impossible and of course you never drop things on the floor so often as when you have a backache.
My son must have been really tired last night as he slept through my coughing and spluttering and did not wake till eight thirty. In spite of the fact that he slept for twelve hours he was still tired all day. As for me I felt disinclined to get up this morning but Knowing that I would fell much worse if I gave up I made us all a coffee and then set about making the bread which should have been done yesterday.
Five loaves were required this morning, it is as easy to make five as one but I had underestimated the effect that a cracked rib can have upon my kneading technique. While the bread baked I made a breakfast of poached eggs on toast, nice and simple and we sat about the breakfast table looking seedy in the extreme. My son decided to go in to Twickenham rather than spend the day writing, Pa had the bins to do and the birds to feed and as I had set six pounds of cooked apples to strain over night my day was already mapped out.
By two in the afternoon there were another fifteen jars of crystal clear apple and thyme jelly cooling on the work top, a good afternoons work. Only another twenty five jars to go and then I can start on the apple chutney and the damson jam! I had promised the boys a dinner of roast pork tonight so that was the next thing on my agenda.
The meat would be served on trenchers with a roasted garlic sauce and served with a selection of roast vegetables , jacket wedges, baked courgettes and a couple of creamy herb dips. I would not dare to serve pork any other way these days as this is the declared favourite of the boys.
I have cooked this meal so often that I could do it with my eyes shut which is just as well as I was not firing on all thrusters by any means, a week without sleep plays havoc with the concentration I find.
Through the afternoon the sky got blacker all the while and eventually I had to switch on all the lights and it felt, and looked more like October than July, it began to hail with a vengeance as I was serving our meal. Dinner was very well received and I was glad that I had made the effort, the boys are so appreciative always so I do my best to give them things they enjoy. We have finished dinner now and the kitchen is clean and tidy and ready for tomorrow, in a few moments I shall barricade myself in the bathroom for half an hour to soak my aching bones in lovely hot soapy water, some thing that I have been longing to do all day. Last of all I shall make hot chocolate all round and then to bed...hopefully to sleep...wish me luck.
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