November 2010

1 Dentist - what an awful a way to start the new month.
Sales:  4 jars of preserves
2 Fourth successful outing on my trike, this one 6.25 miles  accompanying Crow on his run.
Preserving:  10 jars of apple & blackberry jam
3 Harvest:  lots of beetroot, carrots and red peppers
4 I'm now trying to get a stall at the Maldon Victorian evenings in December to sell preserves, cards and knitted items.
5 Ron has been helping me in the veggie garden and tunnel again.  Both runner beans wigwams have been removed, all of the strawberries pruned, weeds pulled up, jerusalem artichoke foliage removed and leaf mould spread in the tunnel.
Harvest:  last 2 small butternut squash
6 A new fan of my Sweet Zucchini Relish called today to see if I had any more (nice compliment) and bought 4 other jars too.  Then when I went out later there had also been 3 other sales.  A bumper day!
Sales:  8 jars of preserves
7 Oh dear - been out on my trike today and I fell off it.  Actually that's not right, I didn't fall off, the whole trike with me on it tipped over.  I landed most inelegantly on the grass verge with a face full of nettles.  It must have looked like a scene out of a sitcom.  A car immediately stopped and three people emerged from it to help me up, then Crow arrived on the scene as he was running a little way behind me.  I was very brave and got back on to finish the 7 mile route (this point was only about 1.5 miles from home).  As I write, my arms and chin are tingling from the nettle stings but I landed so evenly all down my left side that I don't seem to have bruises as the weight of the fall was spread evenly, if you see what I mean.  I know, I know, I'm a danger to myself and everyone around me.
8 Yikes, the Maldon Victorian evenings are now organised by a new committee and they want a minimum of £50 per stall, per night and there are no longer any indoor stalls.  That rules it out for me on two counts: first, if the weather is bad my cards and woollen items would be spoilt and my jar labels would all run; second, I'd make a loss.
9 I've listed my 3D Christmas cards on eBay today to see if there are any takers.
Harvest:  red, green and yellow peppers (25 oz), 2 aubergines (13 oz)
Preserving:  2 jars sweet pickled peppers
10 Here's a funny story...  when the letters DTCEIASHF came up in Countdown, for a Cambridge University student the eight-letter answer came in a flash of inspiration. "Shitface?" he offered.  That round was scrapped by the prudish Channel 4 censors and no-one knows why he didn't add the D to the end for a nine-letter SHITFACED.  Read the full article here.