Monday 15th September - not much of a blog today...

 At 11pm, after BB was fast asleep,  and when I was nearly asleep, I was suddenly perked into wakefulness by a tentative 'beep' noise. I lay there, alert, wondering 'what now?'.

The battery on the smoke detector, mounted just outside our bedroom, had finally died. It continued to beep every ten minutes (I timed it) and apparently growing in confidence. BB stayed asleep, and I was grateful that one of us might be functional come the daytime. 

I must have dozed off eventually, after a couple of hours listening to audiobooks on my headphones, only to be gently shaken awake by BB.

'Did you hear that alarm?', he asked. 

'Yes, the battery on the smoke alarm has died.'

'Ah'. He appeared to roll over and go back to sleep. Actually he lay there for a while working out how long we had had the detectors, he told me this morning. Not knowing this, I tossed and turned, wishing I was asleep...

BB nipped round to Screw fix and bought replacements, which are now fitted, tested and working.

It's around 7pm, and I'm ready for an early night. 

So, no blog post tonight, hang on, what is this if not a post? I

Sunday 14th September - Apples

Stir up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent, isn't until 23rd November, but I have  kitchen full of apples now.

The Christmas story all began with an apple, when Eve was beguiled by the snake into eating the apple, and sharing it with Adam.

Terrible joke alert; skip the sentence in parentheses is you are allergic...

(Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the snake,  and the snake didn't have a leg to stand on.)

There's always Eve's Pudding, basically a 2-egg sponge mixture* spread over a base of stewed apples and baked for 30-35 mins at 160C.

(Weigh the eggs in their shells, or assume they are 2oz each, mix with same weight of caster sugar, SR flour, softened butter or marg and maybe a splash of milk)

And Apple crumble and apple brown betty and any number of recipes...

And then there is mincemeat.

 If I wait until stir up Sunday I won't have any apples left so I shall get started now.

(I spotted a jar dated 2023 at the back of the cupboard; that needs investigation. It might be okay... or not. It all depends on how well it sealed, and what it smells and looks and tastes like.)

Delia Smith makes mincemeat 'ravioli' which look intriguing 

I've made rough puff pastry before using her method.

 I've spent some time researching recipes for mincemeat as I will definitely need more before Christmas. 

I remember making Freezer Mincemeat from my Home and Freezer Digest Christmas booklet.

Once again farmersgirlkitchen.co.uk came up trumps, so that's back on my Christmas cooking list. It's not a great 'keeper', just three months in the freezer, but I don't think that will prove to be a problem 😉 

On this post she mentions her recipe for slow cooker mincemeat with ginger 

I'm not too sure about ginger mincemeat but I reckon the method will work for my favourite recipe from Delia Smith's Christmas Book. This is the one I have (sort of) followed for the last couple of decades!

Delia melts the suet in a slow oven with all the other ingredients, and then, CRUCIALLY, stirs the mixture several times as it cools before packing it into sterilised jars. The melted fat creates a protective layer around the fruits and nuts, helping to preserve them. If you don't stir it, the fat will form lumps, or even a sort of layer over the top of everything. 

So, back to stir up Sunday...

The collect is worth saying more than just once a year;

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I need stirring up at regular intervals in order to stay actively involved in the Christian way...

Maybe, as I munch my apples, I'll remember the stir - up Sunday collect.

Saturday 13th September - what have I been doing?

 Yesterday, Friday, I was busy...

No, the busyness goes back to goes back to Thursday...

Although,  come to think of it, did I mention the weird weather on Wednesday? It was such a dreary dark morning, and then I noticed how it seemed to be lightening up a bit. I looked out of the front window and saw that the sun had come out and there was a heavy shower of rain at the same time. I was actually sitting in the dining half, at the back of the house (it's all one long room from the front to the back of the house) and, lo and behold, no rain, no sun. This situation lasted a few minutes, before the rain stopped completely. 

Right, that was Wednesday's notable moment.

Our next door neighbour is a passionate gardener, but his garden in pretty much a scene of devastation surrounded by large pots of salvaged plants. They are having a downstairs extension built at the back. So, he has turned his attentions to ours, partly to show his appreciation that we are happy to have his wheely bins in our driveway, and to havec5he access to the back of his house through our garden. They took a fence panel out so that they could get the old garage out, and we've said we don't mind waiting for it to ge put back. Besides, it gives a grandstand view of the progress!

Anyway, he's had a wonderful time with BB's cordless hedge trimmers sorting out our hedge and shrubs. Then he appeared with a rake and set about the fallen apples under the tree... we went down to join in. At leat, BB did;  I stood on the sidelines cheering them on.

We got a good haul; we took some round to neighbours and he took some home and some friends will be collecting bags too. There are still a good number left on the tree.

I've been making apple pureé and freezing it in the little pots. We have dozens of them; back in 2019 my godmother was very ill with oesophagus cancer, and finding it hard to eat. Every week I would fill pots with apple pureé or a mixture of puréed potatoes and carrots enriched with eggs. We would put them in her freezer, and collect the empties...

So we have dozens of pots!

I consulted my trusty book; 'six months for apple pureé' it states. 

This book is wonderful! I think the magazine is longer being published, actually, I don't think I ever bought a copy. 'Will it Freeze' was published in 1976, and this copy is a reprint in 1979. Well worth every penny of 60p!

In the afternoon there was another sunny spell and I sowed some lambs lettuce. It took me a while to get to grips with the instructions but I eventually deciphered them;

See what you make of it! This was the only packet in the garden centre.

Finally, I found these on the Internet;

No, I didn't send off for them! BB wondered if they went off with a 'BANG' with every step...

Today... I had a bath. Oh, and made a fish pie. It was pretty good, which is just as well as the rest is in the freezer. Banana custard afterwards for BB, Greek yoghurt and... apple pureé for me. Mmmm.

I think that's ALL I'm doing today.

Thursday 11th September - it's officially Autumn

How do I know? 

I'm wearing woolly socks for the first time in months

These are the first socks I ever made. They took me ages, throughmost of 2021 and 2022. I ended up knitting most of them both twice over, as halfway up the leg of the second sock I realised I'd made a fundamental mistake in the mystical process of Turning The Heel. I now use a pattern which uses a simple afterthought heel which is basically the same as the toe, and I am NEVER going to knit ribbed socks EVER again. One lives and learns... let the yarn to the pattern making is my view!

In the garden

I sowed rainbow chard, pak choi and spinach at the beginning of the month and have deep rewarded by sweet little seedlings 

It's interesting to see how different they are. I'm slowly moving my vegetable garden to up near the house. It's all in a collection of large planters. I'll have to somehow make them more decorative if they are going to be where we sit out in dry weather. The advantage is that I can reach the plants more easily; currently I have to switch to an oxygen cylinder to get gown to the veg patch which is often just one layer of effort too much to look after them properly. 

Malapropisms 

One of my aunts always called the alphabet the 'A B I' instead of 'A B C'.

I can't remember when we started calling them the 'destructions' instead of the 'instructions'. It became very relevant once flat pack furniture became ubiquitous!

Wednesday 10th September - best typo ever?

 My post on Sunday about saying a Grace before meals has sparked a lot of interest; one day soon I want to collect everybody's comments with their Graces before meals into a single post. So do keep them coming! 

Meanwhile one comment which I deleted rather than publish was a wonderfully obvious spam, too good not to share...

.... has left a new comment on your post 'Monday 8th September - food fail, food win':

Your blog is wonderful. Thank you very much for sharing such a blog with us.

Also, visit to know more about the swimming poos and fountains

Followed by links to contact 'best fountain and swimming pool manufacturer in... Delhi'.

I know I'm the last person who should be casting nasturtiums* at blog commenters, but if I had any interest in these products perhaps I would be wary of theirs!

*Malapropisms are so called because a of a comical character, Mrs Malaprop, in the play 'The Rivals', written by Richard Sheridan in 1775. Other sayings by her include 

 " illustrate him quite from your memory" (instead of "obliterate")

"he is the very pineapple of politeness" (instead of pinnacle) 

"she's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile" (instead of alligator).

However the phrase 'casting nasturtiums' (instead of "aspersions") isn't, as I thought one of hers. A history of it can be found here.

Tuesday 9th September - today has been...

mostly about crochet...

In a mad moment I wondered what would happen if I used a very small hook and sock yarn...

I've a wallet full of teeny tiny hooks saved from my godmothers house when we cleared it. She was such a good needlewoman; embroidery, tapestry, dressmaking, knitting, crochet; she could do it all, and do it well. Born in around 1929 in Finland she was brought up by her grandmother. All the women and girls made all the clothes for the whole family at home. Her knitting needles and crochet hooks were all very fine, as she knitted her own sock and stocking, and also crocheted an endless stream of doilies and net curtains from fine cotton thread.

Here's one of her hooks in use, with the sock yarn granny square;

I've included my other crochet project, using a 6.5mm hook and chunky yarn to give an idea of scale.

It's going remarkably well, but it does take time to find the rhythm with fine wool and yarn. All the movements have to be so much smaller, but still with 'soft' relaxed hands and fingers to keep the tension reasonably loose.

I opened the fridge door to be greeted by souvenirs of other people's travels;

Our own local milk delivery doesn't use printed milk bottles so I assume these came back from people's holidays. I suppose one milk bottle is very like another as far as the bottle washing and filling machines are concerned.

A couple more Grace's for mealtimes for the collection;

Granny Marigold reminded me of 'For what we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful'. I have a feeling that we used to say 'For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful' which always sounded slightly threatening to me.

Martha contributed 'Rub-a-dub, thanks for the grub', from a trainee youth pastor, much to the surprise of the senior pastor.

I have just remembered 'ta, Pa'; which I think one of our Vicar's said when asked to say grace at a Sunday lunch we had been invited to. (It was a very very long time ago so it might have been a different child, and a different occasion!)