Quince, Life, and Puppy Dog Tales

The season of mellow mists inevitably means that I suddenly have a deep desire to store food in the form of jams, pickles and syrups.  It also means that I feel the need to create, whether that be food storage, crafting, or blogging.  

I am not sure how long it will last. 

It has been one year since my last post, something which I discovered, yesterday, when I was looking for an old photograph which I knew was on the blog.  Suddenly I found myself wondering - could I?  Should I?  We shall see.

My task for today is to make another double batch of quince jam/preserve.  It is not a sickly sweet jam.  Quince is very sharp anyway, but I also add lemon juice and plenty of lemon peel, which helps to balance out the necessary sugar.

Our quince trees are still fairly young, but this year they have both produced many hundreds of quince.  I gave away wheelbarrow-loads of them to a local jam-maker - so many that she eventually cried for mercy.  

The pantry shelves are filled with lots of jars of quince jam and quince syrup and there are several bags of frozen quince in the freezer.  Today I will make some more quince jam, possibly some pickled quince slices and then I will call it a day on the quince.

Summer this year was a little different, as we had our 'Shanghai family' staying with us for a couple of months.  It was wonderful.  We hosted a first birthday party for young William which was enormous fun.  

My back let me down, so I wasn't able to carry William as much as I would have liked, but it was so much fun to be able to share in his daily life for all that time.  He quickly learned that Granny and Grandpa are a pushover compared to his mummy and daddy! 

Life is very quiet now that they are back in China.

Two days post surgery.  Well medicated and very sleepy.

Winston has grown and matured into a wonderful companion.  That naughty little puppy who was hell-bent on poisoning himself has survived, thrived.  I still have to watch him like a hawk, especially now that it is the season of fungi.  Owl Wood grows a wide variety, not all of them are toxic but Winston seems drawn to those which are as he is a 'hungry' Labrador who will eat anything he comes across.  I have had to prise dead rats, frogs and unspeakably disgusting things out of his jaws.   Just as well I love him so much.

Two or three months ago I had him neutered.  It didn't go smoothly and ended up being a much more serious operation, as they had to hunt for one of the bits to be removed.  We knew this was a possibility as there hadn't been any sign of them dropping, but we had hoped for the best.   It had to be done, things couldn't be left hidden as it could lead to serious problems later in life.

Poor boy, he was in a sorry state for a few weeks.  Lots of quiet,  painkillers and time have eventually got him back to full fitness.   He is a happy boy, even if he still wees like a girl!

The cats are both still with us.  Old Sparky may be in her late teens and frail but she still has her feral cat skills and brought home a live weasel which screamed as she pursued it around the porch.  The cat won.  

Millie has turned into a fat and placid cat.  She only hunts occasionally, going for small and unwise birds.  Anything else would require too much effort.

William.

Life is very busy right now, not enough time to do all that I want to do, so I cannot promise to answer any comments, sorry.

Elaine