Listy listing, again.
I am feeling very pleased with my efforts.
I woke up early. I mean really early. Practically the middle of the night. It was half past eight, and I had already joined the day.
I am not quite sure why that was, but it was very handy.
I had such a lot of day to do things after that. I dashed up the fells, with a slight detour to go around the Galloway herd, who were being decidedly frolicsome, bounding about and bashing into one another. It looked like an entertaining game, but I had no wish to join in.
The morning was splendid. I have attached a picture taken from the first fell-top, of the lake, completely swathed in mist. I was pleased that I do not live next to it. Oak Street was in the sunshine all day.
It was not a terribly high-speed walk, because of poor, waddling Rosie. She has not got many days left now, and everything is a huge effort. She can keep up with me, but only just, and Roger has decided that this is contemptible. He is treating her with the greatest disdain on walks, occasionally coming back to bite her ears to encourage her to run after him, but to no avail, so he rolls his eyes and charges off, grumpily.
Somebody dumped a pallet in the alley last night, so I stole it and when I got home I sawed it up and refilled the log pile. Now that it has become so very cold I am belting through firewood at an alarming pace. We do not know when Mark will be coming home, and with him the trailer for log-hauling, and so I am eyeing the dwindling log store with caution. Snow is forecast for next week, and in that event we would not be able to get to the farm even if Mark and the trailer were to be in residence.
If he is not going to be home soon then I will have to add Go To The Farm And Get Some Wood to my list, after which I will also have to add Clean Out My Taxi.
When I had finished I had an exciting job to do.
I made my Christmas cake.
Of course I know perfectly well that we are nowhere near Christmas just yet. This is a very good time to make your cake, because it needs to sit, stolidly, on the dresser for a few weeks, having brandy poured over it at intervals, until it has absorbed as much as it can bear. This is a very lot, you would be quite surprised how much of Asda’s Bargain Brandy a cake can soak up if you are patient.
It is not even a sponge cake.
As it happened, I have tried a new recipe this year, and I have very high hopes of it. It was all of the usual stuff, molasses and cinnamon and brandy-soaked fruit, but it suggested that I added lemon to the mix as well, so I did. I grated the rind into the mixture, and then heated the juice with some syrup until it was thoroughly mixed, after which I poured in about half a pint of brandy.
I have already poured the first measure all over the baked cake, and although I do not actually know what it will be like, I can assure you that when I licked the bowl it was truly magnificent. Obviously it is difficult not to like something that is filled with brandy-soaked fruit and sugar, but I can promise you that the lemon gave it an extra zing.
Whilst I was waiting for it to cook I occupied myself cleaning out the kitchen drawers. These were horrid. Indeed, I do not know that I have ever cleaned them, and we have had the kitchen for years and years.
Something scurried away out of the back of one, but I did not pursue it. There are some things that one prefers not to know.
Once I was washed up and finished with cake I had my picnic dinners for the week to prepare, and I occupied an hour making cottage cheese pancakes and sushi, after which I had to belt hastily up the stairs for some more calendaring. Most of the day had fled by then, and I only had an hour left before work, which is really not enough, I will have to do better tomorrow.
Still I was very pleased. I have crossed loads more things off my list now.
I am becoming a High Achiever.
