Tuesday

Good morning to a cool, fresh, sunny day here in the South East.  There's a bit of a breeze and I shut the French window fairly quickly as the heating was clicking on!  I wonder if it will warm up much before the end of the holiday or whether we will have to wait for the usual Indian summer at the end of September.  I love them.  Refreshing, cool mornings and evenings and warmth during the day.  The children are happy and the cloakroom area is not cluttered up.

What a busy day it was yesterday.  All spent in school surrounded by decreasing piles of clutter and an ever growing list of Things To Do - but minor things, not great big things like cleaning out cupboards, etc.

The Cupboard over the Pegs is now all turned out and there is actually some space in there.  I can't remember the last time I had space in that cupboard, I really can't.  It feels very good.  There was also space in the Cupboards over the Sink (yes, I'm now thinking of them in capital letters!) so I was able to move often needed stock from the first cupboard to the second so that it is easier to get to.

At a pinch, the Cupboards under the Sink could be left but I don't want to.  Again, there's stuff in there that hasn't been used for ages and I want to either throw it  away or make it more visible so that the children can use it during their Golden Time.  I reckon there's a lot of space just waiting to be discovered in there.

The Cupboards under the Window were only built less than a year ago so I know that they are tidy and orderly.

Around a week ago I bought a little filter coffee maker on one of our local Facebook selling pages.  I only started using it at the weekend and yesterday I bought some decaf filter coffee so now I can use it every day.  It makes just two mugs (four cups) of coffee which is perfect for me and it's an easily made treat!  I'm drinking some as I type this and it is very good.

When, oh, when will those black tomatoes ripen?  They are taking for ever, they're half black but the bottoms are still green and they feel too hard to be ripe.  It's frustrating.
Where the tomatoes are concerned I'm really delighted with the cherry tomato plant, it's been cropping for a while now.  Although the big plum tomato plant is fairly slow to ripen, the fruit is wonderful.  But the rest - I'm not overly impressed really.  I shall have to think carefully about next year's supplies and not be too seduced by the more interesting shapes and colours, I think.  With my small space, I have to be more sensible.

Now I am off into the kitchen to make a Jamie Oliver recipe from the Times magazine.  It's for drinking chocolate and the recipe makes the chocolate powder that you then make into the drink.  I will let you know (or not)!