This has been another week of sunny weekdays and (mostly) a wet weekend – why does that seem to happen when you have big outdoor jobs to complete!!
On the sunnier days John managed the (hopefully) final mow of the season. All the lawns and grassy areas are looking tidy and manageable – if not a little saturated. And he completed the changeover between guests and the subsequent 2 days of washing and ironing (with the latter I swear he’s started a game to see how many of my conference calls he can appear in the back of to receive positive comments from my work colleagues about him doing the ironing!!)
We had another cooking day on Saturday – this time we mixed fruit with vegetables (we both agreed that constant jam making wasn’t much fun the other week!). So instead we harvested and cooked some of our vegetables in the kitchen garden. While we picked the biggest vegetables and still have a lot that are too small to bother with, we’re pretty pleased with how well some of our crop has turned out. Especially as everything went into the ground far later than it should have done. Having said that, our kalettes are still thinking about growing and our brussels sprout florets are non-existent… Maybe they’ll appear by spring!!
We still managed two batches of medlar jelly this week (which we had to recook a couple of times as we couldn’t get it to solidify), damson jam, quince paste and quince jelly. We’re now working through the quinces and medlars before they’re past their best. We’re finding that our jellies and chutneys don’t sell as well as the jam so are trying to focus on making jam – we trialled a new flavour of quince and apple jam a few weeks ago so may add that to our product lines rather than making too much quince jelly that we end up eating ourselves.
The rest of the weekend was filled with random jobs and a lovely walk to Otterhead Lakes in Churchinford just ten minutes’ drive away to meet a friend of ours. It was a great excuse to get out and walk. Because we have so much to do and the evenings are dark now it’s not uncommon for me not to get out for a couple of weeks at a time. So any excuse to have a morning off is fabulous! Sunday was warm and sunny and it was great to tramp through the fallen autumn leaves (less so the mud).
After a lovely lunch at The York Inn in Churchinford, we went home to do a few jobs that have been hanging around for almost a year. The first was to put in another shelf in our service/airing cupboard – mainly for my shoes that are currently stuck in the garage (this is part of a bigger plan to get the garage under control!). It wasn’t easy to drill holes restricted by various bits of heating equipment but somehow we managed it – and the shelf is now in and ready to be filled.
The other jobs were to put up toilet roll and towel holders in our ensuite and in the bathroom – bought not long after we moved into our house 16 months ago and sat waiting firstly in the spare room and then in the service cupboard until we got round to it. It turns out the first tile drill bit was blunt so I managed to burn out one of our screwdriver drills in the process – I’m quite glad I noticed the burning smell before the thing actually burst into flames! And at least we have (well had) two drills – big thanks to my dad who was the one advocating for having a second one!
Ley Farm Cottages 