Random day off

Well, if you are going to take a random flexiday, yesterday was the day to do it. It was a stunningly glorious day. Nice and still, light breezes only. Around 32d or so, which, in England is unusual and very nearly always accompanied by one million per cent humidity. Not yesterday. Was a lovely dry heat. Lots of sunshine. A lovely, lovely day.

So we did useful things. We went to the sorting office in Chesterfield and picked up a parcel. I don't know quite why it was sent there. Normally the postie drops things off at the local post office where it is much easier to pick them up. We dropped into the Chesterfield library so I could join up. We lobbed into the church with the twisty spire so I could look at post cards. Then we went home again to have a nice cold drink and a bit of a potter.

Great excitement then ensued. I was hanging out the washing when The Builder came out to tell me something. Suddenly he stopped telling me whatever it was and exclaimed "Look! There's a hedgehog!!" For some reason, I assumed he meant a concrete hedgehog. The garden was absolutely stuffed with charming concrete animals, mermaids, gnomes, fairies and wotsits when we arrived but I thought we had winkled them all out. Mind you, odd, small ones do still occasionally reveal themselves. So I looked around for a hedgehog. Couldn’t see one. And anyway, that bed has been thoroughly cleared of almost everything. So where is this hedgehog? Oh look. It's a real one. Quite a small one. Lying on the pennyroyal, which is in a pot on a ledge inside the pond. Hmm. Can't leave it there. Might be nice and cool and lovely, all curled up in the mint, but how will it get back out of the pond. So we hoiked it out on the fish net and I dropped it (gently!) under one of the large ferns. Then it spent a merry hour or so snuffling its way around the garden, fossicking for things in the lawn. I've never seen a real, live hedgehog before (or, I have, but not since I was a tiny child). Dead ones, yes, but not live ones.

I hope it's stayed in the garden. Hedgehogs are a good form of slug control. Although I'm told frogs are too and it is certainly the case that slugs are not eating the cabbage plants.

But I don't know where it went, for we went out again. In the van this time. And had a wonderful time at the Chesterfield tip emptying the van of all the rubbish we had gathered up at the house and dumped in there. Including all the concrete artefacts from the garden, and the laminated flooring we took out of the kitchen and all sorts of things. You will notice from this that the van is now operational again. £58 for a new fuel gizmo about *this* long! And now it needs three new paws as well. Sigh. It's a money pit is that van. I did enjoy throwing all those things away, though. And it's very useful to know where the tip is as well. Never did find the Sheffield one! Next visit will be to take all the tree bodies :)

Then we went home, swapped the van for the car and went to the allotment. And picked: the whole next row of peas, about 2/3rds of a carrier bag of pods; all the broad beans, about ½ a bag; all the cherries from the morello cherry tree, about half a bag; all the remaining raspberries, a large tupperware box full, a trug full of onions and shallots and a gadzillion blackcurrants. We watered while chatting to Martin Next Door (I’m going to miss Martin when we give the allotment up; he’s been a real treasure while I’ve had it) and then we went home.

Sat outside in the garden, wine glass at the ready, The Builder podded all the peas and the broad beans. He then podded the beans and peas I bought at the supermarket at the end of last week and which we hadn’t finished eating. And I did the blackcurrants. Do you know how long it takes to destalk and pick over a gadzillion blackcurrants? It’s a long, long time, I can tell you. There are six margarine containers full of blackcurrants loitering in the freezer as we speak. And that’s just what was ripe from one bush. There are two more bushes and loads of not quite ripe currants from the first bush still to go!!! And the freezer is now full. Of peas and beans and raspberries and cooking cherries and red currant juice and blackcurrants and gooseberries. Not to mention the stocks and soups I have made extra of. And, of course, stuff from the meat boxes and things. I may need another freezer! The larder is now coming into use as well. The Builder has made three of the four veg drawers, one of which now houses the onions and shallots. I’ve also started putting the new preserves down there, but not yet in their proper place. I think The Builder is hoping to finish the last drawer and putting the rest of the first coat of paint on today. Then one more coat to go and the larder will be properly up and running. Good. It will soon be time to start pulling the potatoes. The Builder’s new ones first, when we’ve finished the ones we bought at Chatsworth last visit.

So dinner was late, by the time we’d sorted all of that out. We had pork and apple sausages with new potatoes, the beans and peas from the supermarket, shallots from the allotment and also some of the beetroot thinings, leaves and stalks. We ate it outside and watched the sun set. A lovely day all told.

The Builder still doesn’t have any work. The man who rang on Sunday evening didn’t ring back yesterday. Hope something comes up soon. As I said, our finances are beginning to look slightly tattered. On the other hand – we are not short of food!