LOOSE ENDS,LIDS AND LABELS

Most of today has been spent doing odd jobs such a finally labelling all the preserves,pottering about in the garden which in our house is known as tatting about;and beating Pa's room full of junk in to submission. Spurred on by the imminent arrival of a six panel screen the old boy has been tidying up and has actually thrown out a load of junk of his own accord!




His is a lovely room with a fire place, a huge desk, the biggest most comfy easy chair you ever sat on,book cases which match his desk; in fact everything has been done to make him comfortable .

Thus far we have failed to maintain any semblance of order there in spite of the fact that he has more storage for his personal used than my son and I have collectively.



Half way through the afternoon the screen arrived and I was surprised at how excited Pa was on it's arrival. I had chosen it with care so that it should be sturdy without being too heavy, attractive,of course and very large,Close examination proved its suitability and Pa was delighted with it. It's early arrival seemed to spur Pa on and he put in a great deal of effort tidying his room while the cat looked on in amazement.

After such a busy day there had been no time for preparing an elaborate evening meal and so we agreed that scrambled eggs and sausages on toast would fit the bill nicely, as an apology promised the boys a feast day tomorrow...why oh why did I do that?



Pa's sleeping area is now beautifully screened from the rest of the room,his railway cupboard is easier to accesses,in fact the whole room is now more functional and a great deal more attractive.................IF it stays that way for more than a couple of days I may not survive the shock!



I spent a little time out of doors today collecting camomile, the wild variety which I dry in large quantities and use as a hair rinse,as a tea,and as a wonderful foot soak. I used to use it in the bath,but now that we have a shower instead that is no longer possible. English Marigold petals too have many cosmetic uses as well as culinary ones and we grow lots of these vibrant beauties each year.



With the weather dry I last I am making haste to dry as many herbs as possible of the summer kind,such herbs as rosemary and sage stay green all winter so tarragon ,marjoram,and lemon thyme are dried each summer and stored away for winter use. I detest dried Parsley and would prefer to do without when fresh is unobtainable,chives to are not very pleasant as a dried herb, fortunately we have plenty of early wild garlic, the leaves of which are wonderfully fresh even in the depths of January in our sheltered orchard.



With the kitchen resembling a Mages cave at the moment and with preserving in full swing there are cauldrons full of bubbling brews and baskets of fruit everywhere,this makes navigating the kitchen a little awkward;yet it is a time of the year we all love,as we squirrel away our winter stores,and look forward the eating of all these lovely goodies.

SWEET STAFFORDSHIRE PICKLE

I was today obliged to spend a great deal of time pasting labels on to jam,jelly and chutney jars,the kitchen being so full that until they were stored away no more preserves could be made.


In theory it is Pa who does the labelling but this year all entreaties threats and promises have e fallen upon deaf ears so it is a case of do it yourself Avie!



Ages passed and I had done only half the bottles,time was passing so I shelved (no pun intended) the rest of the job and began to prepare another batch of chutney which,unlike the Christmas chutney which needs three moths to mature is ready within three weeks.

SWEET STAFFFORDSHIRE CHUTNEY

1lb onions pee;de and chopped

2 lb dates stoned and chopped

2 lb apples peeled and cored

4oz walnuts chopped

1pint of vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1lb sugar

Place the onions in to a large heavy based pan with a little water,bring to the boil and simmer until soft. Add the apples and continue to cook for fifteen minutes then put in the walnuts,dates,salt and spice and half the vinegar. Cook until the mixture thickens then add the sugar and the rest of the vinegar. Boil until the mixture becomes really thick then bottle in sterile jars.



Matured in three weeks this is a great Autumn pickle and is a must if the Christmas pickle is to survive long enough to mature. Try this with a real vintage Cheddar or a good red Leicester.

Time for a change

Pa's room,as I may have mentioned before is never tidy,and as I am sure I have mentioned before this is exacerbated by the fact that Pa is a hoarder. Left to his own devices he would have the room stacked from floor to ceiling with railway magazines, memorabilia and model railway parts.




Pa's model railway operates on the Robert Louis Stevenson principle “it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.” It has been under construction for over thirty years and so far all that has run on the track are spiders,and plenty of them. Pa's railway is rather like a government project in that it costs a fortune and may never be finished



Now anyone will tell you that I am a patient soul so far as Pa's little weakness is concerned but the amount of tat stuck about in any available corner or crevice has reached such a proportion that we are literally reduced to a corridor to walk through when entering his room and I and certain that the fire risk would be sufficient to void our insurance should the worst befall.



My son and I made a start,you will remember last June since when the accumulation has increased alarmingly. Today with the riot act read I set about tackling this mass of trash,this may sound harsh but really I want to make Pa as comfortable as possible so in order to do this space needed to be made.



With the room striped and the cupboards and shelves emptied I set about rearranging the furniture which was to test my cure for arachnophobia to the utmost. Behind the Railway cabinet I discovered the fairest crop of spiders I have ever encountered,huge, hairy and bloody annoyed at have been disturbed. Rash fool that I am I had, due to the heat of the day elected to work in a long flowing kaftan,as the dark corners were exposed to sunlight for the first time in ages the whole tribe made a dash for my trailing skirt;it was like watching the tide coming in!



Horrified I was about to flee the scene when I remembered my talisman and instead I carefully swept them in to a dustpan and evicted the whole kit and caboodle!



It will ,of course take a day or two to complete the job but the room now looks light and airy and more spacious. I have ordered a lovely screen for Pa to put around his bed for a touch of luxury and with soft chair,cushions and a variety of lighting he will be snug this coming autumn.

Of course Pa will never keep the room nice without an occasional boot up the backside but the poor old love deserves a bit of comfort.....weather he wants it or not!!!!!

THE DISTANCE OF A YEAR

Where did the year go? Suddenly I am again plunged again into to quarts of vinegar,baskets of fresh fruit,raisins and spices. Some times it almost seems as if I can measure my life by these seasonal chores.


With the house to myself I fell to thinking about some of the many other years when this seasonal job was in hand,for once a sadness settled upon me as I remembered all those dear ones who are no longer here to taste the results of my labours.
My Father ,who taught me to make the special Christmas chutney which I made again today and who died twenty nine years ago.

Grandfather,kind and patient, granny bustling and not at all patient as far as children were concerned. My cousin,just a year older than myself who died last year,and so many friends,now gone. Of course new friends come ,but there are some special  people in ones life who cannot be spared and whose loss is felt for ever.



Mourning takes many forms and there are some griefs from which I am sure there is no recovery, Not every day is marred by loss, one forgets for a time and then the pain returns with such a force of devastation that it seems the grief is new,raw,agonising. The mind shies away from the bleak emptiness,the huge hole in ones life that gapes like a wound and is terrible to contemplate.



When my work was done I took a ride to one of my quite places to have my cry out before returning home to prepare our meal. My grief is my own, it is all that is left of something so absorbing and intense and  which cannot be shared,it lives within my secret self,and yet today the ache is so dreadful that I long to talk to some one;but it won’t do.



I shall regret this blog the moment it is posted and so to make some use of this out pouring of mawkishness let me say this,savour every moment, treasure every memory, enjoy all that is precious to you while it is in your power to do so. These things do not last for ever,the sadness they leave behind, often does.

BUSY IN THE KITCHEN ,LAZY BY THE RIVER

I needed and early start this morning as there was the bread to bake before breakfast, and today we were entertaining.


Granary bread was requested ,which happens to be my favourite and today's requirements consisted of two split tin loaves three baguettes and a bloomer which I rolled in sunflower kernels,;the later to be eaten tomorrow with ham and cheese omelettes for dinner.



The loaves had just gone in to the oven as our breakfast guest arrived for a feast of pancakes and lemon,I love making pancakes and there are so many things to do with any left overs.

We have become quite famous for our varies breakfast menu and we have many guests these days.

Our guest today was an old friend who often takes breakfast or afternoon tea in out kitchen, he and his wife have been so very kind and helpful to us over the years that we have a special arrangement that if he is working close by he eats with us. He is such fun, a mine of amusing stories and exactly the sort of company Pa needs,so these two chatted and laughed like school boys while I kept their plates full and their tea cups brimming.



Twelve noon saw the washing up done and the jam pan bubbling away merrily and full of the blackberry and apple juice I made yesterday,this glorious confection will grace the Christmas table as an accompaniment to cold ham,turkey and game. Many jars will find their way in to the store cupboards of friends as a jar of something home made make a great Christmas gift and is always liked.



By the time the jelly was made and the kitchen,which was smeared with red jelly had been cleared I was very tired and hot ,but still having the beef burgers to make I pressed on.

I have ,I believe given this recipe before so suffice it to say that once the six juicy little patties were ensconced in the refrigerator I decided to escape for an hour so off I went.



Footling about on the scooter with no where particular to go is an unusual occupation ,so that on the odd occasion that it happens I make the most of the chance.

Trundling along the river bank,watching the water-birds, cormorants fishing off the head of the island and hanging their wings out to dry in the sun.

Silly geese rolling over and over in the water as they bathed and fish rising to snap up the dancing insects on the surface of the water.



Finding a quiet place in London can be tricky but I have, over the years discovered a few lonely spots and it is to these that I fly when ever I have the opportunity. Time to be quite is rare for me as is time to just sit and gaze at the river and I always feel the better for it.



Home to dinner and the arrival of my new boots,,a gorgeous pair of “Blowfish”denim ankle boots, brand new which I acquired for just sixteen pounds, a terrific bargain as the next cheapest price for these boots was forty five pounds.



Dinner was a success and the boots a perfect fit and for me it was almost the end of a perfect day,a day of renewed friend ship, a day on which I felt that I had accomplished all that I had set out to do and the arrival of the boots crowned the evening.



My only worry is my son who will I hope soon be leaving his slave driver of an employer,for me it cannot be too soon...........................!

BLACKBERRY AND APPLE JELLY

3 lb blackberries

3lb cooking apples

3 pints water

sugar

Wash the apples and chop roughly then rinse the blackberries and put them in to a large maslin pan with the apples and 3 pints of water

Bring to the boil and simmer until the fruit is tender, check that the fruit is pulped .

Line a large bowl with a scalded jelly bag then pour in the fruit pulp.

Tie the top of the jelly bag with string and suspend over the bowl. I use an old camera tripod for this but a stool will do. Leave to strain over night.

Discard the pulp in the bag then measure the liquid in to a large jam pan and add 1il of sugar for each pint of liquid.

Heat the liquid but do not boil .once the liquid is warm add the sugar and bring to the boil stirring constantly until the sugar has all dissolved.

Boil until setting point is reached then skim if necessary and bottle quickly in sterile jars.

I sterilise jam jars by putting them on a tray in to a cold oven then bringing the temperature up to 100oC. The lids I places on a metal tray and pour on boiling water , leave for five minutes them dry on clean kitchen paper.

The hot jam and the hat jars will, when the lids are tightened cool and cause a vacuum to form thus preserving the jam far more effectively than wax disks and cellophane toppers.

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

Today the price turned out to be a very late evening meal and the reason for this strange occurrence? I was gallivanting about in the lanes and by the canal picking blackberries, chatting to bargemen and, oh joy, watching rabbits playing on the pathways and among the bushes.




Magical does not do justice to the wonder of just rambling about in the comparative countryside among the water birds and small creatures who inhabit these rare and precious places. On my travel I passed a canal boat named “piper at the gates of dawn” it could not have been more in keeping with the strange calm and the mystical wonder of the place.



The further I rambled the fewer people I encountered and soon I was quite alone ,this is when the rabbits appeared on a grassy rise just in front of me as I rounded a bend. I have not encountered a rabbit for many years,well not a live one ; and my surprise and complete happiness almost made me forget my camera, which for once I had with me.

The bunnies posed prettily and showed little fear, I was entranced.



Blackberries had been my excuse for a run and so I set about picking some of the largest ,ripest beauties I have seen since I left my Northern home. These with some apples will make a delicious jelly to accompany our cold meats or to add to winter stews. But,oh dear, I quite forgot the time.



I had made white bread in the morning especially as I was also making Cawl for dinner and white bread does go well with this dish. Next we had a visitor for breakfast and then....hip.hip. Hoorah. My scooter arrived back from the repair shop after an absence of six weeks Blackberies

The identical moment that the chores were done I grabbed my coat and camera, a few bags for the blackberries and off I went.



Never mind the thundery sky, bother the ironing and to blazes with cooking ,the day was mine and I found the freedom heady stuff.



So to shorten a long story I was over two hours late in beginning preparations for dinner,and further more I did not give a damn. My head and my heart were full of the lovely new places I had visited. A country park the existence of which I was in complete ignorance until stumbled across an over grown sing which I followed. So much to see I could not go back and kept promising myself that I would turn around at the next bend in the lane.



Oh, but at the next bend were moor hen chicks and  coots with young and I could just make out an old bridge which of course I must see. Finally, of course, I had to turn and return home.....late



Both the boys were understanding and I finally got the meal on the table at seven thirty,instead of five fifteen! The as my son needed to be leaving for work I was obliged to do the evening chores by myself ,and tidy the kitchen, and sort through the laundry ,as Pa was taking his bath.



Was it worth it? Oh yes, yes,yes, yes.