It's that time of the year ...

You can tell it's late November by my blip - no blue skies, no radiant views for me today. Instead, as the rain dripped intermittently into the chilly grey outside, I cleared up the breakfast dishes and set about weighing out the fruit for the Christmas cake. It is now soaking in the sherry you can see in the photo, alongside the bottle of vodka that keeps finding its way into any of my domestic goddess shots and the extra virgin olive oil that sits ready to be dripped onto anything that demands the good stuff. Also in the frame is the rather strange pottery jar (complete with mended top) in which my sultanas have sat for about 40 years (same jar; different sultanas) as well as the other more conventional receptacles for raisins and currants and the dried peel carton and a corner of the recipe I've used since 1973 ...

In the top left corner are several jars and boxes of salt: Cornish smoked salt flakes, Maldon salt and fleur de sel from Portugal in a little cork box - this last a present, almost empty, which I shall shortly refill with more of the same only from Montenegro. 

Today, then, was taken up by matters domestic and online: I completed a calendar of photos and sent off the order, only to discover fifteen minutes later that I had a 50% off voucher that I could have used. Happy outcome: a helpful agent at the other end of the chat line cancelled my original order for me, applied the discount, re-ordered and refunded the difference to my credit card, sent me all the necessary confirmatory emails and wished me a good evening. Hat-tip to Vistaprint for that; fair made my evening. 

Tomorrow evening, I discover, I have a meeting. I loathe evening meetings; they all happen at the time we usually have dinner. Dear blippers - when do you sit down to dinner?