Now Wearing Purple

THINGS YOU DO FOR LOVE! The one thing M absolutely loves is liver, well he loves all offal really,  whereas I find it quite repulsive especially the smell when cooking it. It's one of those Marmite things, you either love it or hate it.  I have tried it many, many times cooked in many different ways, but I'm afraid it just makes we want to barf. I even have to wear rubber gloves when handling it! Cooking is one of M's favourite things too, he finds it relaxing but loves it when I cook him certain dishes, liver and bacon being one, so every  now and then I gird my loins and make it for him. This is a very good value meal, which makes about three portions, two of which I freeze (saves me having to cook it too often, so win, win).       In a large casserole fry two chopped onions with two crushed cloves of garlic together. I also add two of M's favourite additions to this recipe, 1 large fresh chilli chopped and 2 teaspoons of...

PUDDING TIME I'm ashamed to say I have been remiss with my store cupboard contents. I am laying blame with the Mr. as he is the packer and putter away of shopping. We are also in a state of chaos due to home improvements, and various purchases being put in some odd places. Anyhoo, I found a big jar of dried mixed fruit lurking in the depths of the cupboard of doom (named because every week he crams more in there and due to the height of it I cannot reach easily. We had a sort out and found said fruit, which was probably past its best. We tried it, and he said it was lovely (a bit crystalised) so it went into the big bowl with a generous slug of sherry and brandy, and the juice and zest of an orange and lemon.  I was going to throw everything else in too, but thought it would benefit from a bit of time to plump up. The fruit weighed in at just under 12oz, and I added a tablespoon of mixed peel (for him, not a fan myself) covered it with cling film and left it overnight. Thi...

My lovely man decided to service and light the Aga at the weekend and not a moment too soon as damp washing was backing up.  Also, I am starting to feel a bit chilly in the evenings. Talk about lying down on the job! We don't use an Aga engineer as it would be too darned expensive, but it is a palaver for him, and requires quite a lot of upper body strength to lift the inner barrel out through the hot plate. I know there are those who think that an Aga is not eco friendly because of the amount of fuel they use, but ours cooks our food, dries our clothes, and provides all our hot water.  It also keeps our house warm enough for us not to have to use any other heating until it gets bitterly cold outside. We do have oil fired central heating, but due to the cost of the oil, we choose not to use it at these times and rely on our multi-fuel burner.  In the last 10 years we have only paid for one delivery of logs as somehow every year someone wants a tree removed...

BLOOMING OCTOBER I don't know, because I haven't photographic evidence of the garden mid October last year, but I'm pretty sure it didn't look like this...               By the end of September last year all pelargoniums were removed to the greenhouse for frost free safe keeping, with bacopa, begonias, lobelia etc,  having died off and been pulled up and composted. This is the first year I've planted osteospermum, and I'll definitely be doing it next year, as it just goes on and on flowering. You would almost think that summer is still alive and well!

My lovely dad passed away unexpectedly in April, and just prior to this happening, he and my stepmum handed me a bag of old candy stripe sheets and Witney blankets. When I said they would come in handy as dust sheets, they both look aghast. I did a quick back  track and said I would love to have them as bed linen. They were then stuffed in a cupboard and forgotten for a bit. I remembered having sheets like this as a kid, and asked my stepmum recently where the sheets and blankets came from. To my utter surpise, she said from my old family home. These were the sheets I had slept on as a nipper.  Well, out of the cupboard they came yesterday and into the washing machine for a freshen up!     The multi-coloured ones are a bit faded and I think I will use them to line two of my couffin baskets. The brown aren't bad, but not my colour, so maybe cotton covers for dog beds.  The blue stripe are almost new and will be used in our carav...