Sunday morning

Good morning, all.  It's still dark here and I was up pretty early but I really don't mind.  Yesterday evening I found it impossible to keep my eyes open and managed to sleep my way through most of Doctor Who (thank goodness they have it on iPlayer and repeat it this evening) and Poirot.  I gave up, went to bed and was asleep within 15 minutes.  Even with my early wakening, I must have slept for about ten hours and I wish I could say I feel better for it but, sadly, the reason for all the sleep is because I have been fighting the first cold of the new school year with the related aches and sniffles.  Two tablets down this morning and I'm feeling fine for now - and intend to stay that way!  Long live ibuprofen!

Yesterday wasn't quite as productive as I hoped.  I made some yellow plum jam which looks gorgeous - like bottled sunshine!  I went to Lathcoats only to find that their plum season is over (and I missed it - drat) but that the apple season is in full swing.  You can't pick their apples but they had about twenty varieties for sale in the shop and, a really nice touch, there was a table at the end with every apple on sale, labelled, plus a chopping board and a knife, with an invitation to slice off a sliver and taste.  So I did - and bought some Coxes, a couple of HUGE apples called Honey Crisp (which actually originally come from Minnesota according to the helpful apple calender on their web site) and a couple of Meridian apples, of Kentish origin.  It's definitely an apple a day for me this week - or more!





You can see the difference in size.  The apple on the left is a normal sized Cox, the one on the right is a normal sized Meridian and the one in the middle is a Honey Crisp - and I chose the smallest ones there.  Some were nearly twice the size of this one!  Apples for sharing, beyond a doubt!



Again according to their apple calender, it seems that they have forty three different varieties of apples growing at the farm, on sale freshly picked from August through to November.  I can see I will have to pay several more visits!

After that it was over to the garden centre for some bags of stuff, a sprayer thing, some more tomato food and some Bordeaux mixture of my own.  Then home, where I sorted a few things out, including finish off the plum jam, before going over to Lesley's for cake and bubbly to celebrate her husband's 6oth birthday!  By the time I got home the aches were beginning to bite hard so I rested and relaxed (and went to sleep)!  And that was it!  End of the day!

So today is flapjack day.  I've found the recipe I want to use which is in a wonderful old Good Housekeeping Cookery Compendium which was given to me (old) for a wedding present.  There's a story behind it, of course.  The lady who owned it was very ill and my mum regularly took the lady's husband to the hospital so he could visit her.  When she died, he gave me the Good Housekeeping book as a thank you wedding present, which was so very kind and so very useful.  I used it a lot in those early days of marriage before Delia's cookery course took over: not so much now but I still dig it out from time to time and today is one of those times.  It's a very simple recipe: marg (it will be butter), sugar, syrup, oats and a pinch of salt - and I will add a squeeze of lemon juice too.

Apart from that, I suspect I will be snoozing on and off, but that's OK.  After all, it's the weekend!  Yay!