I woke in the early hours of Sunday morning with the tell tale ‘thick’ throat that means a cold is on it’s way. Back in Sussex colds were an almost constant feature of life but after a chest infection requiring antibiotics and a nebuliser plus I’m fairly sure a cracked rib from coughing in our first autumn here I am really quite paranoid about them now. A cold damp caravan and a steep hill to walk up each day means my asthma is already a potential issue for me so I am super cautious, particularly at this time of year. The last cold the kids had I managed to avoid somehow but this time it’s me who has the germ, I must have picked it up on the mainland.
So I am being really kind to myself, lots of garlic and ginger, plenty of veg packed into dinners, soup for lunch etc, honey, lemon, ginger and whisky drinks and lots of rest, plenty of water and some gentle getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air each day without knocking myself out will hopefully mean I see it off in the traditional 9 days (3 days to come, 3 days here, 3 days to go – maybe an old wives tale but I find it about accurate mostly unless the cold develops into something more).
So on Sunday Ady and I went out in the sunshine bramble picking and chatting together, we picked an impressive 3kg between us which I split into 3 batches for jam making and Scarlett mostly made – bramble & apple, bramble & rose and bramble & vanilla. She did the jam making and jar filling while I made the labels. Ady cooked dinner – a rather salty piece of gammon from last years pigs – I think it was the last remaining joint of our pork in the freezer. Doctor Who and an early night.
Monday – A post office shift for me. Before I left for work I went down to the pigs with Ady and fed / distracted them while he killed the first of this years piglets. He dragged it out of the pen to bleed it and I left him to it to head to work. While I was gone he skinned it, cut off the head and took out all the insides, halved the carcase and then quartered each half into joints.
I had a nice morning at work chatting mostly to Neil who I have not properly caught up with in weeks. Two people came in (Debs and Stevie) both of whom I thought were not on island, one after the other which rather threw me. I finished PO and headed for home. Ady was doing really well with the pig so I did some rolling up and tying joints and then bagged and labelled the various cuts while he diced up some and separated the rest for mincing. We loaded it all into bags, I weighed it and kept back the stuff for wet and dry curing for bacon and hams. We had some lunch and then walked down to put the joints in the freezer. Scarlett came with us and we met up with Fliss at the croft gate so walked down to the village with her and the girls too.
We called at the shop to collect veg and Ady stayed chatting to Pete (Jinty’s dad) who is over while Jinty is off for a week. Scarlett and I got bored so went and picked some more brambles around the village, when we got back Ady had already left for home so we followed him back. He disposed of the pig waste, fed the animals and brought in firewood while I sorted out dinner – pork stir fry, naturally.
Peter (who wants to be the new saviour of Rum) brought us a signed copy of Hugh FW’s Cook on the Wild Side book which accompanied a really old TV series so we got that on DVD and have been watching an episode each evening.
Today – Ady was ghillie-ing so he was off and out just after 8am. He woke me leaving but I stayed in bed reading for another hour or so. Scarlett persuaded me to make soup for lunch and she made the dough for bread rolls, then took over the soup while I went out in the sunshine for a couple of hours bramble picking. I got back to soup ready for whizzing and rolls ready to go in the oven. We turned the brambles from yesterday and today into mulled spice jam while was delicious with added spices and orange, like Christmas in a jar!
After lunch I made pheasant and partridge pies for dinner and we all had showers, brought in firewood and fed the animals. Ady got home around 630 after a long but lovely day with the ponies. His party had not shot anything so it was effectively just a very long scenic walk but he had been much entertained by them all wanting their photos taken with him as ‘that chap off the telly’ (very posh toffs here stalking this week).
Delicious dinner, long day tomorrow including Davies and Scarlett heading off for a couple of nights for their first solo mainland trip – eek!