Monday 16th November - Fresh New Week

 

Every so often in these lockdown days I find I lose the plot slightly and fall into a sort of lethargy. I'm sure I'm not the only one...

So went I went out this morning and there was a fresh, mild, if rather damp feel to the air, today's words formed themselves without much thought.

Taking the whole of the weekend as 'slobbing out' time - that is, once I finished teaching on Saturday morning caught up with me in a big way on Monday morning - three lessons to write up from Saturday, and one from 8am today (I do start EARLY on Monday - takes a bit of effort!). I got that lot done throughout the morning, as well as taking time to join a regular Monday morning online Journaling hour run by WritersHQ. That took me up to lunch time.

After lunch I messed about with a Christmas art project which is still in its very early stages, and made Delia Smith's mincemeat.  I'm quite glad to have looked up the online recipe s it says makes 6 jars - I was wondering how many jars I would need. If you do decide to have a go, be warned; when she says 'use a large bowl', she means it; I had to decant the mix into the biggest roasting tin part way through adding the ingredients. It was then that I remembered that I usually made half quantities...

Oh wow!. The aroma of fruit and spices and whisky, which we used instead of brandy, when I lifted the foil lid to take the photograph!

Tomorrow it will go into a moderately cool oven for a couple of hours for everything to melt into a delicious gloop. 

I just about got this finished before a chatty zoom with friends, and then lessons with three very different piano pupils.

Well, compared to Saturday and Sunday I reckon this was a more active day.

Oh, and did I mention the poodle that forced its way through the back gate and spent a happy ten minutes exploring every nook and cranny of our garden while ignoring frantic calls from its owner? Leo the cat was totally appalled.