Saturday 18th August 07

Another lie-in, til 9, then got up as today have to go to the allotment to speak to Frank about a compost toilet at the lottie, he's looking for a design.

Our 13 pots of jam have not set, which means that we cannot give any away, although it tastes lovely, it needs to be spooned out.

However, didn't do much til after lunch when I went via Martin's compost collection, and when I got to the lottie, Frank wasn't there, he'd already gone... this is the second time I've missed him.

However, did some bramble pruning and nettle pulling, a good layer for the compost heap, and put the fruit and veg on top of this. Then planted 9 rows of tiny leek seedlings, where the spuds came out of last week. Then cut more bramble, the stuff which is encroaching the allotment, and pulled nettles which are encroaching the path, and put this on top of the chopped fruit and veg layer. Picked a tray of blackberries for making blackberry and apple leather. This is a guaranteed way of preserving the harvest.

When I got back I made some flagolet bean and red pepper spread, the beans were out of date from Out Of This World, and I soaked the whole packet and cooked them over a couple of days on top of the stove. Whizzed them with the hand-held blender with a waste pepper and home-grown onions. Added some flavours, herbs, soy sauce, bouillon powder and home made paprika from last year, makes a beautiful spread, four pots worth, will freeze them.

Home to have an unusual tea, a Tesco's veg pie which was given to us, not sure why, but they were taking up space in the freezer, so they went in the oven and we had home grown potatoes and broccoli, plus the soup from yesterday which I whizzed so it was less of a stew and more of a soup. Lovely tea. Watched telly all together whilst eating, then the boys went to bed early as we've got a visitor at 8.30, for a game of Scrabble.

Will came at the appointed time, and we soon had a game of superscrabble underway. Will is not a particularly competitive player, infact he introduced us to co-operative scrabble, where the aim of the game is to make the highest combined score, the individual scores are not important. However tonight we didn't play co-operatively, as we are used to playing to win. We didn't finish the game, we stopped at 11.15pm and Gill had got the highest score. The main thing is that we all enjoyed the game and each others company. Will is good at conversation and has a creative mind, he's always entertaining and interesting. It was Will who suggested that I should write a blog... his is at http://mathsdancer.blogspot.com . I don't understand all that Will writes about, or nessessarily agree, but one doesn't have to agree with everything someone says to like them or even love them.

An excellent evening, also made some blackberry and apple leather.