Another very difficult night for me. Stressful wakefulness interrupted by short periods of stressful dreaming about Green Mount – the sale of which is due to complete today. I suppose that for me the house has always represented “continuity” and “rootedness”, so it’s understandably traumatic. The first arial photo I have (March 1963) and the most recent (May 2025): it’s not unchanging, but I’ve been part of its evolution for the last six+ decades …
Alarm clock set for horribly early tomorrow! Fuel delivery due “between 7.15 and 9” – they usually turn up just before 8. As there’s a risk of rain, and generally damp conditions, I don’t want to risk these being left on the front path … the recyclable paper packs dislike being made soggy! And no – this isn’t just a way of sneaking extra coffee into my life!
I was over at Green Mount on Tuesday, for the final clearance before we complete on the sale. The quince tree was absolutely laden (after a rather poor last couple of years). That called for picking enough to make a small batch of dulce de membrillo, and some quince jelly. Wednesday I was too shattered to do anything, so yesterday saw the peeling, coring and boiling up, with things left overnight to gently drip. The paste is for membrillo, the liquid for jelly. This morning has been a rather hot and steamy session of boiling things up … but the results look OK.
Yesterday, I went over to supervise the final clearance of what has been the family home for over 63 years. We went there in 1962, when I was a nervous 7-year-old, and there’s something obscurely satisfying in being 70 when we finally say goodbye to it. Much stuff had gone to family members, or to charity shops, but there was two very full van loads of stuff from house, garage, and garden.
The day itself went OK: I was up at 0415 to get there for about 8am, having had a very bad night hovering on the edge of panic attacks and periods of really struggling for breath. However, once we got stuck in to the “doing things” I was fine. My dear friend Clare nobly volunteered to drive over to collect me, and I am extremely grateful for her support! Getting home around 6pm, almost straight to sleep, though I did get up briefly around 8 to have supper and a hot bath (muscles for the unknotting of). Even once I’d knocked off the times I was on trains and in cars, the pedometer showed well over 15 thousand steps – way above my usual “aim for 5 thousand, limit is 10 thousand” steps. So today I am recovering from physical and emotional stresses: the most strenuous thing planned is filling in the Waitrose order.
Back to the 1970s! I’ve finally got around to organising milk deliveries (pasteurised, non-homogenised) from a local farm, in proper glass bottles. It’s part of my continuing efforts to reduce my plastic use, albeit by infinitesimal increments …
On the Allotment and Gardening group I’m in, someone said they’d heard “Malvern Pudding” mentioned on a trade podcast, and it wasn’t something they’d previously come across. Neither had I, so I looked it up on my favourite non-Google search engine. There was a recipe ( https://www.littlesugarsnaps.com/malvern-pudding/ ), which I followed (dividing everything by 3, as there’s only one of me) – basically a layer of coooked apples, with an egg custard on top, and a burnt sugar topping.
It tasted fine, and I’ll certainly make it again, but reducing the cornflour so the custard has an “only just set” consistency … I’ll probably use the same proportions as I use for Crema Catalana. I’ll also reduce the sugar a fair bit!
The seasons seem to be all over the place at the moment! The Black Pear of Worcester has deeply-red falling leaves, which normally happens in late October or early November. The Glastonbury Thorn, supposed to flower aound Christmas (and again in May) has numerous fully-opened blossoms alongside the haws.
Ten days ago was over to Malvern to meet up with my old schoolmates – 60 years to the week since many of us started at MCS in the Second Form. Unusually, the meetup started on Thursday night, as the tour of the Morgan factory had been organised for Friday morning (it doesn’t run at weekends). As Malvern is so close, I cauht a cab to the Premier Inn where we were all staying – about the same price as a cab into town, two stops on the train, and a cab to the hotel.
It was great to meet up, and there were a fair number of partners, some of whom I hadn’t previously met. About 20 of the ex-MCS mob attended – not bad from a 6th form of only about 60. The tour of the Morgan Cars factory was fascinating – the mix of old craftspersonship and new tech for the bought-in aluminium main chassis (bonded, not welded).
Friday afternoon was tea at Tony and Sue’s house, which was great, with vast quantities of cake.
Then home on Sunday late afternoon, and all day Monday, leaving at 0600h for our annual trip on the Norfolk Broads. We’ve moved back to September this year, after three years of trying midsummer, so it was fairly cool in the mornings.We’d booked a larger boat, as we’d hoped that Phoebe could come, but in the end it was felt better that she stay at Oak Cottage to look after her mother.
As in the past, the thermal underwear came out for the trip … and will probably now be in use until April. I had a good first night and following morning, several perch up to about 3/4 lb, and a couple of dozen roach varying from minuscule to medium. Sim didn’t catch anything there, though Geoff had a couple of decent fish. The second evening, Sim was jigging a lure for large perch, and the bait was taken by a reasonable pike! Otherwise, not all that productive, fish-wise.
Simon sadly fell in on Thursday! The first time we’ve had “man overboard” in 29 years of boating on the Broads. Geoff and I managed to haul him back on board – quite an effort, as the back of the boat is quite hight above the water, and soaking clothes add a lot of weight. Fortunately, he didn’t seem too bad for the experience. Sadly, in his fall he managed to break my ledger rod, and to lose his glasses. That all meant a trip to Wroxham on Friday. We were happy to pay for mooring in a very congested part of the Bure. Angling Direct was within a hundred yards, for a new rod, and better maggots, and Sim got the off-the-peg reading glasses he needed. A stocking-up trip to Roy’s supermarket for essential milk, and we were were tempted by bacon baps (Geoff had sausage). I’ve only visited Wroxham once befrore – an overnight stay when I was a day late joining the others on the boat, as I’d had Family Court stuff with Maurice about his kids … about ten years ago, I think. I’d forgotten how nearly everything is “Roy’s” … supermarket, hotel, and much else.
Back home late Saturday afternoon, and Sunday was a recovery day. Today (Monday) has been doing the backlog of Green Party printing – people didn’t exactly manage to get stuff to me before I went away. Folding will be tomorrow …
I did manage to make decent contact with UAL (Up A Level), and have fixed an appointment for Thursday morning for them to visit and talk about loft conversion. I’m behindhand on my target of 2 vegetarian days a week – down to an average of 1.96 – due to shared meals on my assorted holidays. Last night was mushroom and leek puff pastry parcels with spinach, and tonight will be mustardy cauliflower cheese with fried tofu. As tofu is tasteless, I marinaded it in Green Tomato Churney 2004 for five hours, which hopefully will do the job!
The chimney was swept last Tuesday (9th), so I’m OK to light the wood-burner. It’s as much to drive out the damp as it is to provide warmth: the central heating just doesn’t do the same kind of job. Getting dressed this morning was a bit of a struggle, due to assorted joints not wanting to play nicely, even though the heating had been on and it was 20C in the bedroom.
The stove only needs to be low, rather than a roaring blaze, so will largely be fed largely with briquettes made from recycled coffee grounds (a new introduction last year from Homefire, which work well for me).
I very nearly overlooked this picture when packing the last load of stuff to be taken from my late mother’s house over to Worcester! Thanks to my sister for pointing it out. Long hair is not a recent fad for me – this dates to the 1970s, drawn by my friend, the excellent Millary Hilne.
