Things I have learned so far this week ( Read more... )

Have managed to almost (but not quite) lose my voice which is really annoying as I don't feel ill - it's just mechanical failure. It's gone on for too long now - I'd expected it to get better in a day or 2 ( Read more... )

Tired but enjoying the variety.
1940s music for a gig yesterday and back to 12th Century France today...

Alice caught a mouse today!
She's been here for 11 years and it's the first time she's managed it (though she did catch a bird once - or else it fell out of a tree into her mouth which is more likely)

I really don't understand the current obsession with pirates! I was playing on the Golden Hinde today and it's always filled with small boys dressed up as pirates, which I have no problems with ( Read more... )

I've just stewed up the last of last year's apples. They were quite wrinkled but still amazing that you can keep them for a year, and that we had such a heavy crop from 2 trees that there were enough to last this long (even after taking 2 basketfulls of wrinkled apples to Kentwell in June ( Read more... )

Alice has a new hobby of drain-watching. She's been guarding the drain by the back door for the past few days. I guess there must be a frog or something in there, but we couldn't see anything when we lifted the lid. Strange cat!

We have a glut of blackcurrants this year.
I've made 14 jars of jam so far and have about the same quantity still to deal with.
Possibly I might try making a Kentwell style jelly with some of them.

Last night's banquet was for a load of microbiologists, so the subtlety was a giant petri dish (made of marchpane of course) filled with various unpleasant microbes and tapeworms (marchpane, cherries, blueberries etc). I liked that.

Good music at the Oyster Fayre today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/7421051.stm