A fairly quiet few days

... with no visiting Australians.  Unless you count Tabitha who is indisputably Australian but doesn't really count as a visitor as such. She, Gareth and Cally are Family Who Visit rather than actual visitors in my mind.

The Builder didn't have an entirely delightful week, it must be said.  In addition to executing his sideways rolls in Richmond on Tuesday, he was also stung not once but TWICE by a wasp which objected to him picking all the eating apples off our tree.  Then the consequences of rolling around at his age became apparent as his knee swelled up and became quite an interesting colour.  Then he discovered that his hand was also now objecting quite loudly.  I think things are looking up a bit now, though.

The consequence of him picking all the apples from the eating apple tree meant that something had to be done with them.  So I cleared out the freezer (again!) repacked it VERY carefully (again!) and created a bit of space.  Then I spent all of Sunday morning peeling and chopping apples, both eating and Bramley and mixing them together and putting them in plastic boxes for the freezer, ready for making apple pies and crumbles and cakes during the winter.  It was something of a relief when Tabitha, Gareth and Cally called in on their way home from the Chatsworth Country Fair later on Sunday afternoon for a late lunch or early dinner, depending on how you look at it.  I fear, though, that I am going to have to spend quite a bit of time this coming weekend dealing with apples.  There is still a tray load of the eating apples left - and they won't store as fresh apples for long.  Plus we have hardly made a dent in the apples on the Bramley tree.  I must acquire some jars from somewhere for making apple sauce.  There definitely won't be room in the freezer for all of that lot!

So things are trundling fairly quietly along for the moment.  The Builder has been amusing himself with concrete.  He's concreted over the bit of the drive which used to have that overgrown garden mound on it.  He's also concreted over a tatty bit of ground by the garden door.  And, in a change from that, he has lifted the carpet on the staircase ready to paint up there.  We have been considering putting in a "runner" of carpet up the middle of the stairs (a very old fashioned thing to do!) but I think for the moment we have decided not to.  The landing floor (in our view) looks beautiful just painted - and it's very much lighter on the landing without the carpet.

Another week or two of peace and quiet.  And then we hit October.  And we all know what October is like in the world of British Universities!

Still waiting to be eaten.  Or processed. And there are more to come