Doing It Ourselves

We are on the taxi rank.

Tonight it is very quiet, which is all right. We are enjoying the tranquillity. I am reading my book and writing to you, and Mark is working out how to make an apple press.

We have been given a large bag of apples from our next door neighbour’s mother’s tree. Obviously we do not want to waste these, but because of the magnificence of the grape harvest we have already got as much jam as anybody could possibly want, we have not eaten all of last year’s chutney yet, and we don’t really eat the apple pie sort of puddings. This last abstemiousness is probably the only thing that keeps us from being completely wobbly and weeble-shaped. We do like eating. 

Hence we thought that perhaps we would make some cider, because alcohol is not at all like jam. It is our experience that you can never have as much alcohol as you can possibly want. 

We looked cider making up on the mighty Internet, and it turns out that you need a press to squish all of the juice out of your apples.

We looked apple presses up on the mighty Internet, and it turns out that apple presses come in at about eighty quid on eBay.

Hence we thought that we would make our own. 

We looked carefully at pictures of them, and they appear to be a construction made of an inner bucket with holes, inside an outer bucket, with something like a car jack sticking out of the top. 

What could be simpler?

Mark is considering it now. 

I will keep you posted. 

Talking of DIY solutions, you will be pleased to hear that so far, the puncture repair kit seems to be working on the washing machine.

We are not expecting it to last for any length of time, but every day in which we do not have to splash out five hundred quid for a new washing machine is a bonus at the moment.

Today I washed all the towels whilst my luck was in. Mark was in the garden doing something to the drains. This was handy because it meant that he could keep an eye out for rain once I had pegged the towels outside. 

Once the washing was safely pegged in the garden I could turn my hand to my own project of the day, which was to manufacture a pirate shirt for Oliver.

You will recall that he has got to dress up as something nautical for the tiresome Book Week project beloved of schools. He is going to be a pirate, possibly a drowned one, depending on the exact brief, which I have not actually read. 

His own trousers will do fine for this, he can probably wear some of Lucy’s boots, and we have got lots of coloured scarves and a leather jerkin, left over from some serious piratical activities in a previous life.

However we have no suitably piratical shirts. 

I am sure that a real pirate in this situation would probably just do without, salty sea-dogs that they were, however it is chilly in Yorkshire in October and I doubt that Matron would permit it.

I found out the other day that Matron has been Matron for twenty five years. No wonder she is good at it. 

Hence I thought I would make one.

I had an old sheet that had worn thin in the middle and today’s job was to hack it up and manufacture a roister-doistery pirate shirt in which Oliver can cut a swaggering pirate dash.

I am not terribly good at sewing.

Especially I am not very good at sewing in a hurry. I need a lot of time for chewing my bottom lip and squinting thoughtfully at the sewing machine. It is not easy to work out which way bits of fabric are best stitched together, and today’s project stretched my minimalist skills to the limit.

I thought that I would make a smock-style shirt. I made the chest and shoulder pieces out of double fabric to make sure it would all hang together reasonably well without too many irritating seams. 

Goodness me, I had to think carefully to work out how to piece it all together. It took me ages, and I had to unpick it all at least once when. realised that I had messed up the neck, and that probably it would not go over his head.

I have not finished yet. I had to abandon it when Mark shouted that it was starting to rain, and then once the washing was in we remembered that we needed some sleep before work. 

I am going to get it finished tomorrow. We are going to see him on Tuesday.

I am sure it will be fine.