What a Day

What does Withy most dislike? and what does she dislike next most? Shopping and clearing out cupboards etc (her New Year's Reslolution)

Up be-times this morning because I had decided that I was going to make my yearly visit to Newcastle to shop. I had a voucher for Marks & Spencer so I was headed there to try to find an evening top for a new skirt. I set off in reasonable time - I do NOT like to shop when everyone else is - and found Newcastle fairly free of cars and the chosen car-park (a circular climb with cars parked on the outside and then onto the roof of Bainbridges to leave my car and descend by lift) almost empty on the way up and on the roof. Still cost me £2 plus though.
Descended to ground level and walked round to Marks & Spencer, arriving on the ladies clothing floor. Went all the way round the outside, except where they had things like underwear, gifts, shoes etc etc and then went round again on the inner circuit. Did I find what I was looking for? No, of course not - I never do! I did find 2 or 3 things that might do and a couple of pairs of trousers, so headed off for the fitting rooms and tried them all on. Both pairs of trousers turned out to be designed to go round the hips and this DOES NOT SUIT ME! Kept the 3 tops and found that I did not have to pay too much, having cashed in my voucher.

Decided to visit a few other shops, as I was there, but Next and others in the vicinity had absolutely nothing that resembled what I wanted. By then I had walked a long way and my legs were weary, so I worked my way back to Bainbridges omitting Fenwicks - they might have had something but I had no more energy. Here I must explain that Bainbridges is an old store that has been in Newcastle since the year dot. A long time ago they were taken over by John Lewis but JL had the sense to leave the name alone and thus kept the clientelle. A few years ago they decided that the old guard had either died out or been outnumbered, so changed it to JL. I am the Old Guard - nuff said.

Once back in Bainbridges I visited the Ladies and did the rounds of the ladies clothing franchises - still nothing I wanted. On the next floor up I went to the bed linen department. I am certain that they used to have duvet covers and sheets for large single beds. (Between a single and a double). They swore blind it was Fenwicks who had had them. I am equally certain it was not!!! Anyway, it made no difference because they don't do them now. They sell the beds but not the linen. They claim that double bed linen will do as well. It will not.

By this time I had definitely had it, so up another floor to the car park, and set off for home - my legs aching and very hungry. Guess what! When I got home, G was out and if I wanted the crossword to do with my lunch, I had to walk down the Green to get the papers!

Now for the next worst thing that Withy has to do. I set about the space under the stairs that is part of the kitchen - no door. I gradually worked my way in, getting rid of old boxes (there is a limit to the number you need to keep), masses of bubble wrap - you don't need all that amount for future use - and other junk that had built up over the last few years. I had not got very far when the fabulous builder/plumber rang to say that he would like to come and put in the new immersion heater we were waiting for. Fab! Come at once! He did! And of course that meant moving a whole lot of stuff from the airing cupboard to let the dog see the rabbit. And when he had finished, it had to be sorted etc.... At the end of it all Withy was tired and had had quite enough. What did she do? Came to see what her friends on Purple Coo were up to - and felt better immediately!

Wet snow

The picture to the left is of a path!

Below is a picture of a beech tree that was planted to celebrate the marriage of Prince Charles with Dianna.

Part of the back garden to the left.

A tree brought from a long-ago garden to here.

And here we have himself, having collected the paper.

I am by the gazebo. Do you like my boots? Left over from my skiing days!

A holly and the Seneccio greyii.

Looking in from the front gate.

So there you are! It is turning to rain now. Sorry for the poor layout. I could improve it because I have learnt quite a lot doing this. The trouble, I find, is that what you see is NOT what you get!!!

Garden ramblings

I have been looking out of the bedroom window and thinking how colourful a winter garden can be. The picture on the left is not good at all. There is much more colour than shows in it. In the far bed, there is a silver rubus and a deep purple cornus as well as the other things. Also there are some gold box plants mixed with green at the far end. The picture on the right is better and shows some of the greens and browns and the gold in the front. The third picture is the other side ot the "drive" and shows colour more too.
Pictures apart - there are a wide range of greens from dark to yellowy light. The browns go from deep brown to beige. And then there are golds too. And greys as well. As yet there are virtually no flowers. The snow drops are showing a little white, still well protected by the leaves. there is a Mahonia which is nearly over. Elsewhere in the garden there is Viburnum bodnantense. Last year at this time there were a great many plants still in bloom. The frosty, snowy spell we had before Christmas put paid to them all this year.



G gave me a new bird table for Christmas - a gazebo. Thought I would show it to you tonight. It also shows colours behind it, so is not out of context.

Today, I got out in the garden again. I cut all the old leaves off the Helibores and tidied up the area, removing a good deal of moss at the same time. Two barrow loads went to the bonfire heap.

I think that is it for tonight. The article on Winter gardens in the Telegraph Magazine set me off on this line, though I had been enjoying the colours for some time.

Just rambling

I am still cross about the conversation with my butcher and the fact that no-one was prepared to pay the extra for free range eggs. Trying to decide where I can access them without being too inconvenient.

Yesterday morning, when I got up, I found that there was only warm water available. The main supply is heated by an immersion heater on a timer plus whatever the AGA can contribute. It is a very old stove and also is too far away from the tank to do it properly. In the second bathroom, the basin is off the main hot water supply while there is another heater for the bath, which means that we can have a hot bath, using that one, but nowhere else can we get hot water. So it is kettles in the kitchen, or cold water. The three wash basins are cold, unless we run the water for quite a time, when we access the nearly hot stuff. So far this has not been much of a hardship but we have rather a long time looming. The electrician came this morning and checked it all and found it was the heater (new 4 years ago) that had failed, not the time clock or switch as we had hoped. The builder/plumber cannot get here till "sometime next week". He is a super chap but thoroughly over worked. I know he will get here as soon as he can. Compared to the water problems that Westerwitch has been having, ours are trivial - at least we have plenty of water - so really shouldn't grumble.

This morning, my eldest brother, who lives 1hr 10mins away, arrived to leave his car, while he and my sil go to India. I took them to the Airport, which was good for them and suited me as I was due an injection for Hepatitis B at a convenient time after they needed to get there. Their going to India is a great co-incidence because they come back from there on the same day as we go! The difference is that they are flying with Emerites, which means that they can fly straight out of Newcastle. Just as well, after the miracle crash which has meant flights from here to Heathrow have been cancelled! We have to go down to HR which is OK on the way out but on the way back, we get in too late to risk catching the last plane, so we have to stay in a hotel for the night. Also, we are going to Rajesthan, (Delhi, Udaipur, Jodphur, Jaipur and Agra). They are going further south.

Despite the fact that it has rained most of today and yesterday, it has not been heavy and although the ground is sodden, there is no danger of floods locally as far as I know. We are very lucky in the North East because we are in the rain-shaddow of the Pennines, at least up here. York and that part of Yorkshire are not so lucky, though OK at the moment, I think. I'm very sorry for all those in the south, south-west and west who are at risk or even flooded, and especially any Purple Cooers who are affected.

Well I said it was rambling and so it is. Just writing for my own benefit really. Good typing practice!!

Marmalade

Having completed the marathon which is my version of marmalade, here is an account of it.

I set to work with some trepidation, because the oranges were so much bigger than they were when my mother made it and I work on number of fruit, rather than weight. 12 Seville oranges to 3 sweet oranges to 3 lemons. It is a very tedious job removing pips, slicing etc. I entertain myself with the television (or radio). It took me about 2 1/2 hours. The bowl you see was fairly full and then I had to add the same amount of water. In the end I had to leave 1 1/2 pints to add when it was being cooked. I think it is possible that I had miscounted at some point despite writing down each time I emptied the jug.

The string was attached to the muslin bag of pips. It sat here over night and some of the next day. Then into the jam pan (forgot to take a pic of that) plus the extra water, and on the AGA to boil. Unfortunately the stuff cooked very quickly, in about 15 minutes, so very little water was evaporated off. I guessed I was in for trouble the next day. Back to the bowl - it fitted in this time - and left again over night and until about 3.0pm.

Although I had bought some more sugar, when I came to weigh it out, there was not enough, so as well as the usual granulated, I had to use a kilo of the pale yellow stuff and a lb of demerara. I wasn't worried about that - it is nice to have a different colour and there wasn't enough to change the flavour too much. Anyway, back to the jam pan, heated up abit and then sugar added. Stirred on the cooler plate until the sugar was dissolved - an awful lot so took a long time. Then onto the hot plate to come to the boil. Why is it that this always happens when one isn't looking? Because the jam pan was pretty full I knew I was at risk!. Suddenly a nasty noise behind me and it had boiled over. Have you any idea how sticky marmalade is? Or how it can get about once escaped from the pan?. At least it kept to the top of the AGA but a lot went on the hotplate where it quietly burned, despite my efforts to wipe it off. Also stuck to - or burnt onto - the bottom of the pan. Despite the wintry weather I had to open a window and the conservatory door to get a through draft, so's I could breath! The one advantage was that the stuff burnt on the bottom prevented the pan sitting properly on the hot plate so it never got back to a rolling boil which would have led to further disaster. The other side of it was that it took 2 1/2 hours to reach setting point instead of 30 minutes!!!!! The whole thing brought back memories of an Irish cook that my parents had before the war, who also overboiled the marmalade but she managed to get it all over the kitchen!

In the end the setting point was reached and I was able to bottle the stuff - 15 jars, mostly old honey jars but 2 big ones, so really 17 which was what I had calculated.

What a performance! But worth it!