Holiday

Monday H and her Mum went to a spa near us for the day. I entertained Peter, t'father-in-law. We went over the hertiage railway at Loughbough. It was not open but we had a mooch about for an hour or so. We stopped off at the Gelsmoor Inn for lunch. Back at the house we picked up the landy, six jars of Honey and the cappings for the honey extraction. We drove over the apiary. Peter took the dog for a walk whilst I put the cappings in the hive feeders. The cappings are the wax and honey left over from the processing of the honey. I put it back on the hive for the bees to take back in the hive to build up their stores for the winter. The right hand hive is much stronger than the left hive. I collected Peter and drove over to the Farm office to drop off the year's rent for the apiary, the six jars of honey. I found out that the field that I usual drive down to the apiary is to be down the cereals for the next year two year's and that I cannot drive across the margins as it will disturb the wild life. we had a chat a found I could get without 100 yards of the apiary by another route. Peter, the dog and I took a trip to check out the new route. It has a gate and a field full of sheep to negotiate so that should be easy.

Tuesday, H and I went over to Melton Mowbray to the cattle market. The cattle market is in fact an auction for all sorts of beasts, cattle, sheep, pigs and my favorite fur and feather. There is always different things at auction. Fur and feather had thirty odds lots of ferrets and polecats. There were live and dead rabbits for auction was well as an impressive variety for poultry. H had her eye on a nice lot of Orpington's. They went for a tenner. On the way back we trundled through the hamlets of Leicestershire and ended up at the Gelsmoor again for something to eat.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, H and I went over the Manchester to do some work on my Mum's house. I fitted a new floor, a new sink unit and a couple of new radiators. I managed to get everything done by 4pm on Friday. The floor looks great, even it say so myself. The new radiators make the house nice a warm.

Saturday, I had a quiet morning, a nice breakfast then set off to the lottie with only one job in mind; to harvest the grapes. The vines were perfect. The frost had turned the leaves red and yellow. I snipped off the bunches of grapes. This was my first grape harvest. The vines yielded two gallons of grapes. When I got them home I stripped the grapes from the stems an crushed them in a barrel. So chateau McDowell vintage 2010 is begun. I also prepared the sugar syrup for the Limoncello and set it aside to cool. Next up was t0 clean the gutters on the garage and cut back the hedge in readiness for the winter. H made a nice tea of Haddock in a white sauce.

Sunday was easy. We just went to Lincoln to see Miss L. She has settled in, is enjoying the course and living the student life. It was good to see Miss L and it put an end to a busy week.