Merry Christmas to you all

If you look in the "links" column on the right of the screen there is a new addition. The blog belongs to the Butcher and the Baker. He's the Butcher and she is the Baker. There are some smashing recipes. They are people after my own heart.

Christmas is upon us. H has done a splendid job of getting everything ready. The weather is crispy white and helping the festive spirit. I have a few things to finish tonight and tomorrow I finish work at 2pm, then it is down to the lottie to gather in Christmas dinner...well the veggie bit.

Merry Christmas from Me, H and Miss L. We hope Santa brings you your heart's delight.

It is nice to be home

This week I have mainly been eating out. I have been lucky enough to have a Christmas do to go to every evening, Wednesday to Saturday. I even had two on Wednesday! I can highly recommend The Hurcules at Sutton Cheney [click HERE for the website] and The Gelsmore at Griffydam [click HERE for the website. Beware the site is slow to load.]. This has curtailed my festive preparation. I did, however, get a chance to taste my air dried Ham. It is best cut wafer thin. It is melt in the mouth moist and salty.

Saturday morning was the only time I had for the lottie this week because I was going up to Manchester. I did the trailer early. Degsy started quite easily even being stood for a week in the cold. There was ice on the inside of the roof and it never melted whilst I was out and about. The car said the air temperature was -2 at 10am. Cold then. I went back to the lottie. The place was crispy white with the air Gin clear. I cut down a couple of stalks of Sprouts, dug up half a dozen Parsnips and a dozen Leeks. All the veg were frozen solid. The surface of the soil was frozen about an inch and half deep. It just broke like a crust on a pie. Even dressed for the weather, hat included, I could still feel Jack Frost nipping my ears. Whilst I was fettling about I opened the compo bin to accept the trimmings off the veg. When my back was turned the Robin's moved in. They were like brown and red tennis balls hopping around. When I left the bin they were in that. When I left the soil to clean off the veg they were in there. The Dunnock and Wren were also rummaging about. I did not have much time to spend so packed up Degsy with the goodies, wished the lottie and birds a Merry Christmas and came away.

I ran H up to the cheese shop/bakers at Staunton Harold. It is a new addition to the courtyard. The owner is best suited to baking but his cheeses and bread are smashing.

It was an uneventful drive up to Manchester but that cannot be said for the drive back. It snowed overnight in the city. Just a couple of inches but on top of the previous days thaw which had then frozen it was a slippy combination. I had to run across to the other side of the city to collect H and Miss L. It was just a series of really heavy snow showers for about twenty minutes then a little respite and then another white-out snow shower. Not fun on the motorway. We set off from Manchester a little after 1pm and got caught in an extended snow shower. Within minutes the snow was a couple of inches thick on the motorway. Luckily folks kept moving which kept the lanes clear-ish. There are some folks that have no business being out in poor driving conditions. There were lots of terrified faces peering out of the windshields. When we got as far as mid Cheshire the clouds parted, the Sun shone and the roads cleared of snow and cars and it was a clear run home. As we picked up the Ashby sign H said "its nice to be home".

Christmas prep

This evening after work and a nice tea and a walk to Jazz's and back in the rain. I commandeered the kitchen. I had to peel and juice six lemons and put the results in a demi-john. In with the peel went a litre of Vodka. Guess what it is yet? You'll find out at Christmas.

I got the air dried ham down and cut into it for the first time. It weighs in at 12 lbs [6 kilos] so it has lost nearly half it's weight since it was made in the New Year of 2009. The colour is good and it is still quite moist. It always looks suspect from the outside but the inside is what counts. I cut a third off the Ham and it looks even better in the middle. I will have to get the slicer out for thin, prosciutto style wafers.

I made a start on the Bacon. I just put the frozen sides in a plastic box and smothered them in dry cure and put the lot in the shed fridge. I will turn the sides over later in the week. The sides will have dried out and the cure will be doing its thing.

Pot of Gold

I was happy to find that my back was fine even after yesterday's digging. I had to collect the trailer but did find time to have a nice fried breakfast. Just a couple of rashers of Bacon, Egg, a couple of Toms, couple of rounds of lightly toasted....er um..toast and a hot mug of tea. That put me a good order for being out in the cold. Degsy complained about starting up whilst it was so cold but once cranked he ran without further ado. I ran out to the stables, bagged the trailer took to the lottie to find Dave G had the same idea and had his trailer i the way so I could not get mine down to the heap. I let him finish. Rather I let his friend finish whilst Dave stood chatting to his friends missus. When he had gone I back ed the trailer up to the bin and emptied it out. I ran the trailer straight back to the stables then on to get some petrol for Degsy and to give him a bit of a spin to charge the battery.

By the time I got to the lottie the second time the day was not so bright. I was determined to get some Lime on the ground this year. After putting a finger in the air to judge the wind direction I flung handfuls of Lime about Bed2. Bed2 will be the Cabbage patch for next year. The soil being damp grabbed the powdered Lime on contact. I have had a couple of small trays of Seedling cabbages plonked at the lottie for a few weeks. As soon as I got the plank I use for a straight edge the rain came on. Just a vicious shower to catch me at the far end of the plot with my hands full. I had a ten minute shut eye whilst the rain bounced off the roof of Degsy and dripped in here and there. Degsy is not comfortable for snoozing. I will have to do something about that. When the shower was over the soil was wetter than ever. I could not bring myself to start digging spuds so I finished off planting the seedlings. No need to water these in. Having tidied up, I pondered the idea of forcing Rhubarb for next year. I think I have to get some straw. I have a tall bucket to cover them. Whatever I do I better get a move on. Since Degsy was cold again and on a level bit of ground I dipped the oil. The dip stick was long enough so ther is plenty of the black stuff inside the motor.

When I got home it was nice and warm. The contrast with outside made my cheeks burn. Miss L was up and looking expectant. I had promised to get the Christmas decs down from the attic. Before I could have a brew I was pestered into the attic. It is Miss L's job to dress the tree and H's job to tackle to house. We do not have many decs it is just something we do not go mad for. I still have to make the wreath for the door although I have cut Willow for the circular base of the wreath. Miss L extract full value of Christmas cheers setting up the tree. It took her ages. Everything had to be judged for artistic impact. Gawd 'elp me.

I had a little time on my hands from the cut short lottie expedition so set about assembling the staging I bought for the greenhouse. It was a bargain and that should have rung alarm bells. An hour and a bit later the staging was assembled but it must be for midgets. The legs are dead short. It looks like a trip to B&Q is required for proper length legs. The winter solstice is nearly here so the days are short and the sun, when it appears is low in the sky. In the shower the low sun lit up a full rainbow in the field next to the lottie. I was tempted to look for the pot of gold.

A Fine Day

Saturday dawned bright and clear. I had everything ready in Degsy so I had just had to sort breakfast and go to the the lottie. H got me some nice smoked bacon. I had a couple of bacon butties and a brew for breakfast and went a digging. Once again the lottie was all mine. I put my wellies and overalls on and rolled my barrow up the path. I stopped to check out the Brussels. They are coming on well. I decided to pull out a few Docks but got carries away and cleared the area between the Sprouts and Broccoli. It yielded a small barrow load of weeds and spent brassicas. The weeds went in the bins and the brassicas in the big compo bin. I rolled the barrow back up to the potato bed and set about spud harvesting. The soil was quite wet but again because of the raised bed the soil was in fine condition for digging. I dug and weeded two rows of spuds and made a good job of furttling through the soil to get all the spuds. The spuds in this bit of the patch are Cara. They have withstood the blight quite well so two rows yielded big tubers and lots of them. So much so I filled the trays I had brought with me.

Half way through the spud digging I stopped for a brew. It was lovely sitting in the back of Degsy, out of the wind with a scalding brew. I watched the Robin's checking out my work and bagging a few morsels. The Wren was keeping an eye on me whilst piping and ferreting about the hedgerow. I keep looking at he poo bin and wondering how I am going to stop the sides splaying out. I keep propping them up but the fix never lasts. The muck in the bin must be really heavy after all this rain. By the time a had filled the trays and did a bit of titivating I was knackered so I took myself home please with a job well done.

Diggin'

Saturday dawned clear although it had been raining on and off all week. I first drove over to Coalville and get a load of 2"square x 18" pegs. I will be using them later for securing the border round the lottie and the Strawberry patch at home. I eventually got to the lottie with the idea of digging up the spuds but before that a got the spade out. I cleared off the worst chickweed and dropped it in the compo bin. One small area gave me a full wheelbarrow of weed. I dug over the plot. The soil was a touch wet but not too bad. It made pulling out the weeds very easy and turned over without difficultly. I dug up a row of Cara spuds. It was a good crop and no blight. I did a bit of assorted weeding on the path. I got the Mattock out and cleared out the drain in front of the plot to clear the gathering pond. It was good to spend the day in the wind and sun. As we get closer to the winter solstice the sun does not get very far above the horizon. The sun was blazing but had no heat in it but it did shine in your eyes. I had my Trangie with me so I had a brew and a mince pie whilst sitting out of the wind in the back of Degsy, as a break, during the course of the day. The cue to go home was that the sky was getting dim and as soon as sun dropped the temperature dropped significantly.

I was woken up very early Sunday morning to sound a rain bouncing off the bedroom window. I still had the poo run to do, luckily it had stopped by then. When I got to the lottie I found, not surprisingly that the ground was sodden. I found the rain had washed a few spuds out of the face of the trench. I dug a few Leeks up as well. They went in the basket with spuds for Angie. I marked out the position for the new path. That will be a job for later in the winter. Since the lottie was sodden I went home and resolved to fettle the back garden.

The Willows that I planted a few years ago are about 20 foot high. The end Willow is a bit unruly so that got sawn down. I trimmed back the straggly Willow wands and hopefully they will root and provide more hedging for the lottie . Next off was the prune the Apple and Pear trees. I got down on the my hands and knees and weeded the paths between the fruit beds. The greenhouse needed tidying up. I got the trays out that have the onions drying. The binned the rotting and sprouting bulbs. The remainder were stored in the shed.

Whilst I was fettling Steve dropped by to show off his new landy [It is Lightweight or Airportable]. His girls are very excited. He gave me a box of his random home made wines. I figured I would try them. So stood by the table on the decking, having pulled the corks, I had a sip from each bottle. As I expected the Elderberry was, like mine, unpalatable. The Gooseberry and Pear wines were a triumph. I put away the re-corked bottles in the shed. The shed is ready for Christmas, wines, honey and preserves shelved, vegetables in trays and meats hanging. I have to admit that a few "sips" to the tasting slipped down my gullet. Feeling a growing warmth spreading into my limbs and the failing light signalled the end of the day and a very fine day it was too.

First frost

It was cold yesterday. The proper damp, winter cold. At bedtime the roofs of the cars were starting to twinkle in the lamp light. This morning everything was white and crispy. At 7.30am the temperature sensor on the car said it was -2 degrees C. That is will slow the weeds up. It is Tuesday today. What will the weather have in store for me a Saturday morning?