Tuesday 14th October - Proper Autumn Weather

By which I mean not the lovely bright sunny days we had earlier, but the cold, drear, grey, colder days... that's what today was like. Luckily I didn't have to rely on sunshine to find some happinesses through the day.

I made bread in the bread machine - oh, the appetising aroma as it nears the end of the bake! 

Vicky, the gardener, came this morning and she can brighten any day. Plus the garden looks all spruced up. I've found somewhere to keep all my geraniums (I still can't think of them as pelargoniums) over the winter; a friend has a sun room and has agreed to look after them. I suggested we split the survivors between us as there are so many. Vicky has dug out the ones in planters and put them into pots for the winter.

I cleared masses of the most irritating little bitty admin tasks off my list.

Finally, I made soup;

It was surprisingly delicious, considering it was made from such simple ingredients; three small potatoes, a large carrot and a reasonably sized parsnip and an onion all prepped and chopped and gently cooked in a mixture of olive oil and butter with a little salt, pepper and dried herbs. Once the onion was transparent I added a vegetable stock cube and a squirt of tomato pureé from a tube. That was it!

With a little more stock, a few drops of Lea and Perrins, and a bit of a mash with a potato masher I had four bowls of warm winter soup for our supper, two for tonight and two for another time.

A good day, then, whatever the weather.