Windows, Robins and the constant need to process soft fruit

 The new windows should take 4-5 days to be installed in 3-4 weeks.  Two robins are frantically feeding young in a nest in a box cone outside the dining room window.  I understand from those in the know that this should not be a problem unless they have another clutch immediately after this lot have fledged.  It’s all very sweet but the current windows have been in since the late 70s, early 80s and double glazing is well overdue.  That particular topiary probably escapes the Derby Day trim this year though.

Another 4.45am start yesterday which is doing me no good at all.  I’m neither use nor ornament by 3-4pm on the day and it is messing with my sleep pattern and I already do not sleep as well as I used to.  Thankfully, I avoid this next week but the pay off is an additional night away from home and two full days of video platform meeting which, frankly, would probably be better done away from the office but 3 days in the office is the deal!  Still, even if the office necessitates headset irritation for hours on end, video platform formal equals comfy shoes and I will take my wins where I can find them.

On the freezer front it, well both, are still packed with large quantities of soft fruit.  With this year’s crop not that far away something needs to be done.  This last weekend’s attempt was to make a batch of red gooseberry ice cream.  Unsurprisingly, perhaps, this gets eaten more readily by S than bags of frozen gooseberries do.  Further processing is definitely essential.  Two bags of red currants turned into 4 largish jars of redcurrant jelly also.  They have the bonus of being eminently fly tip-able on the desks of a couple of my colleagues so I duly took advantage if only because there is no room in my cupboards for them.  This we will call a start but there is still not a lot of room in the freezer.