Wet Weekend

It's been decidedly autumnal this weekend, making an end to the reversion to summer. It's drizzled or rained throughout, and the wind's waxed and waned.

However, it was still a very pleasant weekend, as we had Alan and Ann visiting. We played rather a lot of Settlers (Cities & Knights, which was new to them), and rewatched Serenity, warmed by our first fire in quite a while. The chimney drew better than I remembered, and half a dozen logs kept us nicely warmed. The plan to install a stove has been rekindled, as a result.

We also made a batch of elderberry vinegar, with the last of this year's berries. This was a simple affair: an inch of berries in a big pan, generously covered with distilled/spirit vinegar. This was simmered for twenty minutes, and then squished through a cheesecloth and rebottled. It's meant to be good for salad dressings, or for adding to casseroles or roast meats' glazes. We shall experiment.

We've almost finalized an order of fruit trees and hedging, which will be good. Also recently arrived was thirty 'Firecracker' primulas, which are now in the troughs outside the porch, and a dozen mixed heucheras (to pep up the front garden). We've also got some bulbs on order from Parkers that should be arriving soon...including a couple of hundred daffs, and about 50 tulips. We also need to start planting the Paperwhite narcissi, in order to have them flowering at Christmas. We meant to do some on Friday, but it didn't happen!