Damson Gin

The Happy Couple

Reception

Thanks to my good friend Derek we picked all the apples and even managed to prune and cut back the trees. Now I have more light getting into the garden and buckets full of apples, which are now cooked and frozen ready for apple pies and crumbles. I also collected damson for my famous Damson Gin. it’s a short season for Damsons and for a number of years I have missed them . Any way this year my friend Max mentioned he had a damson tree so he invited to pick as many as I needed. So I now have my damson gin slowly fizzing away in the cupboard .
My tried and tested method equal amounts of washed pricked damsons,sugar and gin in a lidded glass container and leave until all the sugar has dissolved. Stir once a week for 10 -12 weeks. Sieve out the damsons and decant liqueur into a nice bottle. Stone the damsons and use as puree over ice-cream or sponge cake delicious. I have also made some Damson Jam which is so delicious.
Had a brilliant evening at Gemma and Chris`s wedding reception. I am sure for a time everyone was thinking who is that silly fat old lady in purple pants dancing to Chain Reaction and taking up all the floor .I just love that tune it presses all my buttons,it was a good night. Friday Lynda and I took the train into Salford to a Poetry /Music event but it went on far to late and we had to hurry to catch the train home. Makes sense to drive there in future but I did enjoy the train and the walk as the evening was so warm and it felt good doing something different.
I have thought about joining the Historical Association for a while now so on Monday I attended their first lecture . It was an interesting lecture on “Captain Scot the Explorer as Hero” by Dr Max Jones senior lecturer in modern history at Manchester University. He has written a number of books on Scott and his current research project investigates the rise and fall of the hero. The next lecture is on The Peterloo Massacre which occurred in Manchester in 1819, I will be going .

The Leak

Moses Gate Country Park

My Hydrangea Bush has done well too this year

Apple trees last month

The Leak
have a had a rather a frustrating week catching up with various jobs that had been put on hold. One being a broken overflow pipe from my toilet cistern that sends the water back into the cavity wall which seeps through to soak my carpet. It happened two years ago when workmen replacing my damaged soil pipe that was falling away from the wall. They snapped the overflow pipe off level with the wall. All has been well until last year I had a leak in the toilet. My plumbing insurance covered the leak from a faulty ball cock that had caused the water in the cistern to overflow. But they refused to repair the pipe as it was not inside the house.- Since then I have not been able to get anyone to attend to it as its such a small insignificant job….so they say - Well the overflow has been running again this month and again flooded the toilet floor. So for a couple of weeks, until I could find time for a plumber I have been closing the stopcock after filling the toilet cistern with water. But due to some very obvious senior moment often forgot to close it and was forever finding the carpet wet again from the backflow of water through the wall. I booked a plumber on the 24th (you can expect them between 8am and 10pm.) The plumber came at 11am fixed the problem but then had to return the following day at 7pm, as after replacing a damaged washer on the ball cock valve he inadvertently disturbed a washer on the water intake valve and that started to leak wetting the carpet once more. Thankfully I now have a new overflow pipe to the outside. Kindly repaired by the son of a good friends who came out Bank Holiday Monday. He did a perfect job of replacing the pipe that was concreted into the wall !! in no time, leaving very little mess. Thank you Simon.
The relief !!
Had a chat with my daughter and my two grandchildren Saturday, they are off to Broome for a couple of weeks sunshine. It seems the Australian Winter has been exceptionally cold. I am sure it will hot up for my visit this winter, I usually can`t bear the heat but its going to feel so good to be in the sunshine . I am not going to mention the weather. Cold - Wet - Windy - Sunny & Hot all within a day its Weird. As a result my apples are big and rosy on the trees this year, as I have left them up longer.. So I have to get my head around picking ,blanching and freezing them soon. Any volunteers LOL.