Definitely Artisan

These past two days I have been busy in our kitchen chopping and stirring various pots and pans full of tomatoes, onions and peppers in what I thought were mega quantities. For all my hard work though we don't seem to have ended up with an awful lot of full jars.

A basket of freshly picked goodies...our peppers have been plagued by earwigs.

A whole 1.5kg of onions went into making these four small jars of spiced onion relish.

This is tomato jam...and a pound of tomatoes has fitted into each of these jars!

This was the beginning of the task of peeling shallots ready to soak in brine before pickling in sherry vinegar in two days time.

I have also made six tiny jars of tomato and pepper relish. 

Such a lot of work for the amount of food however I have warned hubby we will be using teaspoons to serve these preserves. I dread to think about the real cost of what I have made in labour. Definitely Artisan. I now take daily readings of our electricity meter and can see just how much electricity I used as well. They had better all taste exceedingly good!

Back to work tomorrow, then a week off. Really want to finish painting the bathroom.

Blessings, J. x

A Rumble

Today the rain came...not all day but it was a start. It was trying to rain when I left home at 6:30 this morning, but soon stopped. At work the thunder began just before 1pm...shortly followed by heavy rain. I had to dash in and out in it and became rather damp. Not complaining but it running down my face wasn't pretty! Driving home at around the halfway point I suddenly realised the road was no longer wet. At home we had full on sunshine and blistering heat. In the time it took me to drink a much needed cup of tea the rumbles began. The sky darkened. I was feeling brave so went up to the garden and picked the beans and pulled some beetroot. Go me...I used to be terrified of thunder...my Grandmother had been terrified, and justifiably so...a thunderbolt had fallen down their chimney when she was younger and bye bye house was the result. See justified fear. 

Anyway having given our neighbours some of the beetroot I popped in next door to daughter as she is also terrified of thunder. She was amazingly calm (for her) but we chatted whilst the storm raged above us. By tea time the storms had abated and this evening the sun has made a bashful reappearance. Having just checked the latest forecast it appears we could be in for a night of crashes and bangs...though tucked up in bed (well sprawled on top of the duvet) hopefully it won't be too bad.

Happy bits from the last few days were attending Hartland Carnival, spending an evening in the pub garden with friends, having family over to Sunday roast last evening, listening to distant rumbles of thunder and feeling relatively safe, having cuddles with Kitty and Wilbur, and youngest grandson telling me he loved me BIG! 

So another 6 of my 55 achieved. There are probably a few that have already occurred and hopefully I shall remember in due course.

But tonight I'll call it a day.

Blessings, J. x

Measuring Happiness

Last year although full of exciting things was rather a stressful time as anyone who has had major building work will understand. I was looking forward to my birthday immensely, however when that day came I was suffering from an ear infection so we renamed it Happy Barfday...not fun at all!

So this August I will be reaching the ripe figure of 55 and due to last years non event I have decided to make sure that during the month I do 55 things that I really enjoy.

So far...Fish & chip supper on the beach with hubby. A picnic by the canal at Bude with hubby. A visit to a very large car boot sale near Bude where we managed to source several glass bowls ready for the wedding desserts next year. Wedding dress shopping for youngest daughter. My first Hockings ice cream of the year. Sitting in the garden on a very warm Summers evening. Treating myself to a jigsaw from a charity shop. Reading the electric meter and realising that it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Delighting in line dried washing so dry that it didn't require airing at all. A cup of afternoon tea with eldest daughter who has never drunk tea apart from when she was pregnant with her eldest...but now realises that she does actually like it! Listening to the calls of the many wood pigeons who live in the neighbourhood. Loosing my first half a stone. Scoring at the same car boot as earlier a whole bag of Big Jigs and Brio wooden train track and lots of trains and bits for the boys for £6. Finding bread flour in my local Lidl. Finding a little time to just be in this hot weather. Going to work and enjoying being there. Making the first batch of runner bean chutney of the season.

So 17 out of 55...and the weekend is looking good!

My it is hot though. Too hot to garden until the evening. Too hot to do anything really. Yesterday I was paper working on my laptop in the shade and the poor thing overheated. I kind of did too. Even hanging out our bedding just now took more effort and energy than I really had to spare. Our windows desperately need cleaning inside and out...I'm not sure if today will be the day that happens and I'm just going to have to be ok with whatever I do manage. Tomorrow I have an early start avec mask so today I'm being easy on myself. A quick trip earlier to pick up whatever the local store had...which was not a lot but we'll manage. No butter, cream, burger relish, lemonade and I made lots of other substitutions to my list and several things have come home without. All shall be well if only we don't worry too much I hope anyway.

Ready to relax with a cup of tea...

This was a busy kind of day...

Hope you are all managing to keep cool somehow.

Blessings, J. x