Putting to bed, potting up and preserving

It's just as well I've been keeping myself very busy, otherwise I'd have settled down in a cosy armchair and read my way through the aforementioned book (The Morville Hours) until I'd reached the end. I suppose I could compare it with a box of good chocolates - to be opened and enjoyed as an occasional treat rather than devoured in one sitting. Mike has just read this, over my shoulder, laughing and remarking (in a rather sarcastic manner) "Who are you kidding?" Actually, I could quite enjoy working my way through a few chocs at this moment - if I had the chance!

Sandwiched between two dire days, Wednesday turned out to be pretty good for the weekly walk, this time in the No Man's Heath/Austrey area, and led by Brian and Jill. It's a real bonus, at this time of the year, to be able to sit eating our lunch in the warm sunshine, and this day was no exception. Despite being quite a flat area, there were panoramic views of the surrounding countryside, with numerous church steeples reaching into the blue sky. Here are two shots of Austrey church, one as we approached it across the fields, and the other as we entered the churchyard at the end of our walk.

We'd talked about a final trip away with the caravan, but having changed our minds, we took the opportunity of some fine, dry weather yesterday, to put the van to bed for the winter. Cupboards were emptied, water drained off, and the van tucked in tightly to the side of the drive. On dreary, winter days we can plan where we hope to take it next year, once the weather is reasonable enough.

This was followed by leaf clearing, bulb planting, and emptying the remaining summer pots. Then, finally, I got around to harvesting the grapes from the second vine, which grows along the side of the garage. These have never looked so good - large, heavy bunches of plump fruit but, unfortunately, rather a sharp taste. Had things been going well with the wine making, which it is not, I could have been tempted to try it with these grapes, but I opted instead to follow Hazel's suggestion and to make some grape jelly. After stripping and washing the grapes I put 2K in each of two large pans over a low heat, mashing them down when they were soft, finally leaving the fruit to strain overnight into a large bowl. This morning I added preserving sugar (almost 1K) and the juice of 2 small lemons to the juice and brought to a rolling boil until the liquid began to set on a cold plate. Then the liquid jelly was poured into small glass pots (ex creme caramel containers), labelled up, covered and put on one side for little pressies at Christmas. Next came pickled onion prep, which will be completed at some time tomorrow.

Last night we looked after our grandchildren as The Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the North went off to a fancy dress party. Let's just say that we've never seen our eldest son wearing nail varnish before! The green face and black moles weren't too flattering either. Quite a contrast to our d-in-l, pretty in pink, with long, curly locks.

The plan was to have put in some broad bean seeds, down on the plot, and to have set my sweetpeas in the greenhouse, but it is now nearly 5pm and the next thing is the evening meal. It will have to be left-overs bulked up with things out of tins because I'm k.......d!