Wednesday, October 03, 2007

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHGHGHGHGHGH!

You've probably guessed why I have taken so long to send out my latest weight-loss update! I'm afraid I've been slipping backwards for the last couple of months. I'm still a stone (14lb, 7kg) lighter than I was when I started but I've just not made any progress at all.

I could blame it on all our visitors, but that wouldn't be fair. The truth is that I've been eating larger amounts of things and going for the high-fat, high-calorie foods whenever I've had the chance. So, if I want to make lots of money I'm going to have to be a lot more self-disciplined in the next 3 months. Wish me luck!!!!!

Life here has gotten a bit quieter in the last few weeks. The visitor season is mainly over now and we're getting on and catching up with all the work we didn't do during the spring and summer. Our volunteering activities take up a lot of time - mailing lists, databases, web pages, etc. The garden has been terribly neglected, too and we're starting to work on that. Today's jobs include making a new stick pile and picking apples.

The heavy rains of June and July have resulted in a bumper apple crop. I've already picked one tree. We gave some away, ate a lot and made apple sauce from the rest, now we're ready to bring in the best of the eating apples which I'll try to store "as is". Our Bramley cooking apples are ripening slowly. The outsides look a bit scabby, but the flesh is crisp, tart and white and they freeze well. In addition we had a good crop of crab apples and flowering quinces and I've cooked them to pulp. I had to freeze them because I ran out of time, but I plan to defrost them and make jelly as soon as I have a few spare hours.

It all sounds very domestic, doesn't it?

Hopefully, I'll have better news next time I write.

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