“Well, we’re still pork-less! Hopefully, we’ll get it this week coming. We have one joint left from last year, so it’s being eaten this weekend. Yummy! The pigpen still looks like a quagmire. It’s been so wet here and it’s tipping it down today.

However, that’s a good excuse to snuggle indoors and do some planning for next year. It’s a process of continuous improvement – a journey! At least that’s the idea.
This is Christmas pudding/cake/mincemeat weekend anyway. So far, I’ve made 6lb mincemeat, a 2lb Christmas pudding is steaming, enough mix for another 2lb pudding is made and resting (I’m going to make some individual puddings), the fruit for the cake is soaking in brandy for baking tomorrow and the fruit for the Creole Christmas Cake is cooked in alcohol and maturing in the fridge. I MAY bake a cake today – I have a good recipe using mincemeat – just to get us in the mood. Dan loves fruitcake and puddings, so he’s happy to eat them over an extended period. I’m not the greatest cook or baker, but I do enjoy it. All my Christmas recipes are from Delia’s Christmas book, and they all work well.

A few years ago, we made about four puddings and gave three away as gifts. On Christmas morning – our first in this house and with my in-laws coming for Christmas lunch – we discovered that OUR Christmas pudding was covered in green mould. Not just a little bit of mould that could be cut off, but completely covered. We made a “store cupboard trifle’ but I was horrified that our friends would be in the same position. But no! Their puddings were delicious. Turned out that Dan had changed the greaseproof paper and tinfoil on all the puddings except ours, following the initial steaming – hence our powdery green coating!

Yesterday was quite nice, so we tidied up bits of the flower garden. It tends to be the most neglected part of the garden – it’s always at the end of the To Do list. Dan strimmed and trimmed the hedges and I did some pruning and sweeping up. Actually, calling it pruning glorifies my method, which is a bit more haphazard than most books recommend. The courtyard looks much better without the nettles. There was much evidence of nests in the hedge, which pleased us and there were lots of bugs in the leaf litter, so we just piled that up in a corner and left them to get on with it. It’s nice to think that we’re doing a little bit to help Mother Nature.

Ruby is better than she was last week, but not yet fully recovered. She’s very thin, so I’ve been giving her some supplementary feeding. And I washed her face yesterday. She won’t need washing today, though.

Anyway, I’m going to bake that cake, so I don’t have to look at the rain!

Happy Hallowe’en!”