It's been an odd week.
Tilda is looking better, but still spends time sitting quietly. She's also spends time sitting under the benches in the run, out of the way of the others. I caught Custard chasing her today. Chickens can be horrible sometimes. I brought Tilda into the kitchen for a while; she had a good look round, ate some cat food, pooed on the floor (we have a solid floor so it's poo proof) and eventually decided to go home.
DH made an enormous batch of chilli jam. He picked apples, then increased the recipe to cater for the number of apples he'd picked. He didn't notice that the original recipe made 4 pounds of jam, which would last us 4 years probably. He ended up making over 12 pounds. Tastes good, but isn't very hot. Think it would make a good sweet and sour type thing. I used a load with some tomato passata and cooked meatballs in it. Very good.
We think we'll have enough tomatoes to make 1 final batch of Passata. I'll count up how much we've made then, it's a lot. The cupboard is stuffed with it.
DH also strained and racked off (or racked off and strained, not sure which way round) my cherry brandy, and I bottled it today. It's a bit....young. Maybe it'll mature and smooth out a bit.
DH made some cheese. He's making a Cheshire-type cheese, and a brie type cheese. We're well out of the habit, and I hope these will coe out well as the last lot he made were delicious.
And then things start to get a bit surreal.
A few weeks ago I'd had some serious problems with my car. I don't use it very much now, and we had decided to delay getting it fixed as it was still driveable and we were thinking we'd replace it next year before the MOT was due. Why spend all that money replacing the gearbox when we're going to get rid of the car?
However, I needed to use it one day and I was unhappy driving it as it was. I either needed to bite the bullet and pay for the repair, or bring forward the replacing. We went to look at possible replacements, and I came home and worked out how we could afford to replace it now. Things like improved fuel economy, cheaper tax, cheaper insuranceetc, came into play. Fortunately I had been saving for the last 2 years towards it.
Although more expensive, I decided to buy from a garage rather than privately. This was mainly down to our experience when we replaced DH's car. The one he bought (from a garage) ended up leaking badly when it rained; because we'd bought it from a garage we took it back for them to sort out. If we'd bought privately, we would have had to sort it out. Buying from a garage also meant I could trade in my car, declared fault and all, and actually I got a bit more than I expected. So, I now have my new little car sitting on the drive. It all happened a bit quickly. There were 2 cars to choose from and I let my heart rule my head, which is a very rare occurence for me; as a result, I'm feeling a bit sheepish and hoping I've done the right thing. I'm sure I'll feel OK when I've driven her a bit more.
Meanwhile, an old friend emailed me out of the blue. We had originally been really good friends, bff type of thing. We had lost touch some years ago and then, a couple of years ago, I bumped into her at the dentist. We had a quick chat, said it would be good to meet, you know the sort of thing. It took me many months to contact her, we exchanged emails, and decided we'd meet up in the new year (as in new year 2011). Things happened. I didn't contact her, she didn't contact me. Time moved on, and I was embarrassed by the slippage - I had decided to wait until January and contact her then, as we could make a joke about not saying which new year.
She emailed me the other day. I was really surprised and happy to see an email from her. The news inside knocked me sideways. I tried to reply but couldn't, so I phoned her. She was just the same as ever, so warm and friendly. She really is one of the smiliest and warmest people I have ever known. We're planning to meet up in a few weeks - can't really do anything sooner as she's got a lot on her plate right now. She's amazing, she really is.
Tilda is looking better, but still spends time sitting quietly. She's also spends time sitting under the benches in the run, out of the way of the others. I caught Custard chasing her today. Chickens can be horrible sometimes. I brought Tilda into the kitchen for a while; she had a good look round, ate some cat food, pooed on the floor (we have a solid floor so it's poo proof) and eventually decided to go home.
DH made an enormous batch of chilli jam. He picked apples, then increased the recipe to cater for the number of apples he'd picked. He didn't notice that the original recipe made 4 pounds of jam, which would last us 4 years probably. He ended up making over 12 pounds. Tastes good, but isn't very hot. Think it would make a good sweet and sour type thing. I used a load with some tomato passata and cooked meatballs in it. Very good.
We think we'll have enough tomatoes to make 1 final batch of Passata. I'll count up how much we've made then, it's a lot. The cupboard is stuffed with it.
DH also strained and racked off (or racked off and strained, not sure which way round) my cherry brandy, and I bottled it today. It's a bit....young. Maybe it'll mature and smooth out a bit.
DH made some cheese. He's making a Cheshire-type cheese, and a brie type cheese. We're well out of the habit, and I hope these will coe out well as the last lot he made were delicious.
And then things start to get a bit surreal.
A few weeks ago I'd had some serious problems with my car. I don't use it very much now, and we had decided to delay getting it fixed as it was still driveable and we were thinking we'd replace it next year before the MOT was due. Why spend all that money replacing the gearbox when we're going to get rid of the car?
However, I needed to use it one day and I was unhappy driving it as it was. I either needed to bite the bullet and pay for the repair, or bring forward the replacing. We went to look at possible replacements, and I came home and worked out how we could afford to replace it now. Things like improved fuel economy, cheaper tax, cheaper insuranceetc, came into play. Fortunately I had been saving for the last 2 years towards it.
Although more expensive, I decided to buy from a garage rather than privately. This was mainly down to our experience when we replaced DH's car. The one he bought (from a garage) ended up leaking badly when it rained; because we'd bought it from a garage we took it back for them to sort out. If we'd bought privately, we would have had to sort it out. Buying from a garage also meant I could trade in my car, declared fault and all, and actually I got a bit more than I expected. So, I now have my new little car sitting on the drive. It all happened a bit quickly. There were 2 cars to choose from and I let my heart rule my head, which is a very rare occurence for me; as a result, I'm feeling a bit sheepish and hoping I've done the right thing. I'm sure I'll feel OK when I've driven her a bit more.
Meanwhile, an old friend emailed me out of the blue. We had originally been really good friends, bff type of thing. We had lost touch some years ago and then, a couple of years ago, I bumped into her at the dentist. We had a quick chat, said it would be good to meet, you know the sort of thing. It took me many months to contact her, we exchanged emails, and decided we'd meet up in the new year (as in new year 2011). Things happened. I didn't contact her, she didn't contact me. Time moved on, and I was embarrassed by the slippage - I had decided to wait until January and contact her then, as we could make a joke about not saying which new year.
She emailed me the other day. I was really surprised and happy to see an email from her. The news inside knocked me sideways. I tried to reply but couldn't, so I phoned her. She was just the same as ever, so warm and friendly. She really is one of the smiliest and warmest people I have ever known. We're planning to meet up in a few weeks - can't really do anything sooner as she's got a lot on her plate right now. She's amazing, she really is.
