First week of the holidays

It's oh, so quiet....

the boys are away at camp, the husband is in Moscow...there is just me and the girl left behind.

It's almost too quiet, although to not have the arguing is rather pleasing.

We have been pickling and preserving today. There are a LOT of courgettes coming at the moment and this year I am determined that I will not be turning more than one into marrow or feeding the excess to the chickens. I will be preserving them for the winter months to go alongside the pig and the lamb that will also be in the freezer.

We now have pickled courgettes, ratatouille, pickled beets and pickled eggs (sales to mums at the school gate go down in the summer, so I have to find ways to preserve these too.) Tomorrow we shall be making a couple of chocolate and courgette cakes to freeze as well.

We have also had an excellent crop of raspberries and redcurrants this year, so alongside the jam and icecream, I've now tray-frozen the excess. I always try to tray-freeze fruit because it prevents mushy fruit as it defrosts, it also means you can take a handful out when you want them or add extra to your bag as they come ripe during the season.

We have had a lot of stuff going on at home at the moment. Some of you may have read a post which has now disappeared. We feel that whilst this stuff is still ongoing, unresolved and very raw, it is perhaps best not to over share with the world wide web. However, in all this crap stuff happening there has also been some wonderful stuff too.

Master Beehive the younger ended his era at primary school last week. It has been a pretty awesome final run for him as I'm sure I've mentioned in previous posts. Still, he rounded off his innings with a merit in his grade two trumpet (only 3 marks off a distinction - clever boy!) and he then won the music trophy at the end of term at school. I think a certain African trumpet playing baboon that fell out of a tree on a brass residential has well and truly earned his stripes here.



For now though, he's climbing and rafting and tunnelling with his older brother and here it's just her and me and so peaceful until.......