montjoye

-have two newly re-filled teeth. Which would be sore now if it weren't for the power of nurofen. I was out at the dentist for 2 hours but that included 30min drifting about waiting for the anaethetic to kick in.  It was far less traumatic though than the last time one of those teeth was filled and will hopefully make them last me lots more years- oh and stop the intermittent tooth ache. There is more to have done- but nothing is urgent so next appointment is not until August.

-am very pleased. The English Ale I bottled last October has matured- I didn't much like it at the time but I do now! I'm actually running a bit low on homebrew beers. I have <1box each of the English Ale and the slightly different British Ale,  <1doz of the American pale and I can't find any lager at all. So what next? another go at a black lager I expect. I'm still not set up for full grain brewing. I think if I haven't got creative in the meantime, I might buy myself the appropriate urn for my birthday.

-need to make a plum tree decision. I have basically one spot to fill. The ruddy nursery man reckoned damsons can't be any good because people don't buy the trees - so he hasn't ordered any the last few years. Sigh with the non-standard interests- like I buy much at all that is mainstream?  So... I could hopefully get a Damson still if I order one. The other option I am toying with is a Greengage and a D'Agen coplanted. The Damsons are supposed to brilliant for cooking, damson gin etc. Both Peter Cundell and Louis Glowinski think Greengage's are da bomb*. D'Agen is the old french prune plum but also good eating and needed to pollinate the Greengage. Oh dear. I want all three! And other trees.... Any opinions out there? I need to decide soon. I wonder how small one could keep them by judicious pruning? If I got clever, and sacrificed another bush, could I manage all three?

-have committed 425g of raspberries(fresh picked by 'prentice girl but frozen since) to the first stage of making raspberry vinegar- using home made cider vinegar no less. It now needs to sit for 2 days before the next stage. Easy.

-have filled myself up on snacks, bother. I wonder if I'll have room for proper dinner a bit later.

*for eating fresh- but they apparently cook up well too, though without the lovely purple colour of the damson.

Last night I was feeling increasingly worked up as the time went on. Eventually I realized I was panicking a bit about going to bed! I was subconsciously afraid of having another sleepless night. Thankfully I did in fact manage to sleep, whew. I have greater sympathy now with the chronic insomniacs amongst us.

So what did I do differently? Well, no migraine, no red wine, not hosting a dozen people for the evening (I’m not blaming that), adding in an hour with a novel just before retiring.



Today I found my old collection of quotes from several years of desk calendars. There are rather a lot! And again several had been saved twice. Here are a few of the more amusing ones:

Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out
It’s pretty hard to be efficient without being obnoxious
I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.