Pie, Wine and Jams

The weather, as expected, broke last night: we've now got horizontal rain and much lower temperatures. No bed digging! Instead, we (well, actually, Liz) turned the contents of yesterday's Pumpkin Cat into pie. Much more successful than last year, attributed to microwaving the pumpkin first, and adding the spices last. Apparently. Whatever the cause, it's extremely tasty.

While she did that, I topped up the blackberry & elderberry wine that's fermenting: it was a little energetic when first mixed, and the airlock's been a bit gungy. I added water to top off the demi-john, and cleaned up the airlock. It's smelling good, and starting to clear. It's much more red than the blackberry that's next to it (which is very dark), which is to be expected. Still bubbling gently. I also sorted out some previous batches of jam (variants of blackberry, elderberry, and apple) which needed re-bottling (issues with sealing). Having done that, we realized that we still had some rosehips that needed a destiny, so they were topped, tailed, chopped and cooked, and are now dripping juice into a jug.

I must also confess a moment (well, several moments) of weakness, which led to ordering more goodies. Some narcissi 'Cheerfulness' (pale yellow, double cup: Liz was rather taken by them), quite a few Puschkinia libanotica (reminiscent of a hyacinth: white with blue streaks, which I think will go rather nicely with the S. siberica), mixed Anemone blanda, some Camassia esculenta (blue sprays of flowers on longish stems), some botanical tulips, and some assorted alliums (variety of colours, all small). Lastly, a dozen Christmas Roses (H. niger) for marking the first cat grave.