Stale custom

Gah I'm bored.  Bored bored bored. 

Being unable to drive or move around much is really dull.  Who'd have imagined it, eh? 

Even my longstanding love affair with the Internet has worn thin...custom has staled its infinite variety, and laughing at cats with things on their heads no longer seems to be enough.  I never thought this day would come.

It's like the end of something beautiful, it really is.  Well, till tomorrow when I will find it all hilarious again.

The highlight of my day today?  Making some redcurrant jelly, using the entire crop from our garden.  Mr WithaY harvested the berries yesterday, I boiled them for about 20 minutes in water till they were all squishy, then we set up a complex arrangement of upturned chairs, elastic bands, muslin cloths and a huge bowl, and left them to drip overnight. 

I did my cooking bit whilst standing on one leg, leaning on the cooker or the kitchen counters, in case you were wondering. 

Today I carefully measured the amount of juice (half a pint), added the appropriate amount of sugar (half a pound) and boiled it till I got bored (about 12 minutes).   

Hey presto, a really small amount of redcurrant jelly. 

Other news:  Bugger all.  My ankle really hurts, I can't stand on it for any length of time, and getting up and down the stairs is a trial. 

We dog sat yesterday for some friends, well for their dog, really, who was charming and well behaved.  Other than the whole "stealing a shoe and running up the garden with it" incident, that is.  But, it was an isolated outbreak and we made him sit in the garden afterwards and think about what he'd done.  That'll learn him.

Bestest Mate is coming to visit tomorrow; he is threatening to take me to Casualty in Salisbury and make a scene until I get crutches and/or an X-ray.  I will distract him with tea and chit-chat. 

We have decided that we are officially old now.  We had a chat about the best places to buy walking sticks last time we spoke on the phone.  Maybe we'll go shopping tomorrow.  I can sit in the car while he checks out the best stick bargains.

I can't wait.

Harvest time

Mr WithaY was out in the back garden mowing the lawn this afternoon. I kept one ear cocked the entire time, like a terrier puppy in a 1960s children's film, listening out for the sound of catastrophic personal injury.

We had intended to have a constructive day doing some garden stuff, but we are hampered by the weather and our almost complete lack of interest in gardening.

We like hacking stuff down, laying waste, slashing and burning, decimating greenery and so on, but we both get very, very tired awfully quickly when it's time to clear up the mess.

Earlier, I gave the garden table and benches a coat of weatherproofing gunk, rubbing it well into the grain as ordered on the scary stern instructions on the tin. Sadly, during my efforts, it also managed to get rubbed well into the grain of my fingers. Despite washing with soap, three applications of Nivea and a good scrub with deep cleansing lotion, my fingers are still sticky and blackened in patches. Most appealing.

If I grip the mouse too tightly, it sticks to my fingers. Heh.

At least I should withstand the worst of the winter weather now.

Anyway, during the course of the gardenfest, Mr WithaY harvested more of Nature's Bounty...

Our tomato crop.


I also harvested some apples from our tree.

Please note the stoic form of Rosemary the sheep over in the corner. Our apple tree is on its last legs, as warty and knobbly as a Dr Who monster, but the apples are incredible.

And there are plenty more to go, still.

I am planning to do something exciting with them and some pork chops later.

Mr WithaY gave the dog/log shed a coat of green wood-preserver as well, hopefully proofing it from the worst of the winter for another few years. We built it when we had our bonkers dog, and it comes in handy for storing the annual log delivery, and also housing any visiting dogs. I keep wondering if it would better to demolish it, but the slab it sits on took 3 tons of concrete, mostly mixed by hand and transported by wheelbarrow by Mr WithaY and Bestest Mate. Happy days. Boy were they both knackered and grumpy when they finished.

It looks a lot like Autumn out there now, we've put the little solar lights away in the shed and I pruned the buddleia right back.  Hopefully it will be as lovely next summer - the butterflies were all over it this year, it was gorgeous to watch.  I have pulled up the Mystery Plants, which had developed huge numbers of golden flowers.  We never did establish what they were, or if they were of any use in the kitchen.  I know it wasn't Fat Hen, as the flowers were completely different.

Other news:  I was inspired to pick up some of my dressmaking that I hadn't even taken out of the box for 18 months this weekend.  A very positive sign, I think. 

And tomorrow, up to London for another week of high-powered stuff.    Whatever it is I do.  I forget over the weekend.