A few of my Favourite Things...

There is nothing finer than to spend a morning cooking up a storm. Spinach and Bacon pasta for tea, Leek and Potato Soup for lunch and finishing off the Spiced Plum and Nectarine Jam which has been macerating overnight. I am trying hard not to open a jar and spread it thickly on some bread. I am trying hard to save it for nearer Christmas as the spices are evocative of the season. That's a lot of time to try.....

With all those smells rushing through the house the only thing to do is to get out in the fresh air, away from the temptation to eat it all before 11 am! The allotment is extra special in the Autumn. There is a lot of soil to be weeded and dug over. There are fewer people around and the solitude is very welcome. I was so involved in my own digging and thoughts that I nearly missed my date with my sister.

My sister absolutely detests, detests, detests having her photograph taken, but it was a necessary evil today. She viewed the screen, though her fingers, as if it were open heart surgery she was watching, wincing and moaning covering her face at every image. None made her happy but none ever would and I know that.

Throughout our lives she is always mistaken for the younger sister and given that there is 5 years between us it has often upset me. Her daughter has that same youthful appearance. We talked today about how at 28 my niece objects to still being I.D.'d and how at a similar age my sister, whilst working as a teacher, was balled at by the 'Headie' to walk - he had mistaken her for a pupil.

Needless to say to post any image of my sister today would result in my being ex-communicated, and so I post the Jam that made me so happy and has filled the house with a heady, warming autumn scent.