The Start of another week

 and it has been raining on and off all day with periods of lovely bright sunshine in between everything else.

I have been pottering in the kitchen again and I also cooked tea, a full dinner with Toad in the Hole, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower and mashed potato with plenty of gravy.  It went down very nicely indeed.

I am also plodding on with the patching of the plaster doing a little at a time.  It is taking sometime, however I am not so bothered how long it will take, just that all the patching does the job and surface of the plaster looks a lot better than it has done.  This is especially in view of the fact that I am going to be painting with Damp proof paint on the walls, and then adding an emulsion coat afterwards to finish off the cupboard before re-organising what is going back in there.  

I do have lots of other things in-between to do as well as usual and if I cannot therefore progress with a matter for the time being, then I will switch to doing something else to make the most of the time that I do have available to me.

I have my constitutional telephone call with my cousin in the morning.  It is good to catch up with him and what he has been up to.  I haven't seen him for a while as he lives in Wales.

G is fishing tomorrow and I had planned on going shopping, however I think my time would be better served in getting some jobs done in the house, even though I am screaming to get out of the house. I can go shopping when the house is a bit more under control, either next week or the week after, especially with the work going on under the stairs and the work planned for the Fireside cupboard and the dining room itself. These specific jobs which I am planning to do tomorrow keep getting put off and need dealing with.  I therefore plan on doing some preserving tomorrow whilst G is out of the way.  The preserves once finished will have to go in the bathroom once done out of the way as the Cupboard under the stairs is not ready for them yet.  I have therefore planned to get up early with G tomorrow morning and start with some of the preserving I need to do to get it out of the way with.  Some items also need to be bought on Thursday for items to be accomplished and ticked off the check list.  There will in due course be a separate preserving post.

Fortunately I have plenty of jars available at the moment, plus some to clear and more waiting upstairs. More than enough to do what I need to, some of which is needed for Christmas itself. 

I have persuaded G to go fishing tomorrow as he was struggling to decide what he wanted to do.  He is also supposed to be fishing on Thursday but that is yet to be clarified.  If he does go then, then I will go into town and also to Waitrose.  There is some ingredient shopping I need to get in order to start some Christmas preparations and get them out of the way with.  More on that later on.

I am not quite sure where this year has gone already, and not far off Christmas at that. One minute we were at the start of a New Year, now we are nearing the end.  Daylight saving time (i.e. turning the clocks back, for the UK) starts this coming Sunday 26 October 2025.  Time is a precious commodity these days - well I am speaking personally as things seem to be speeding up a bit from my perspective.  Time is a most precious commodity these days.

Tomorrow night's tea is a Cottage Pie, with some kind of pudding afterwards.  Not sure what it will be yet.  I quite fancy an Apple Tarte Tatin as I have not had one for quite a while and I do have some puff pastry to hand in the fridge.  Will have to see how I pan out on the time front.  That "Old Chestnut" again.  I rest my case.

Here is hoping that life is treating you well.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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