Since it's now the 1st of December - and where did this year go - I think it's OK to share a couple of Christmas creations as well as a few other favourites.
I thought I had a lovely picture of a few lone leaves still clinging to a cherry tree, but I took it with my phone in very strong light, and it's not worth uploading. But I did spot this "apple tree" as I walked to the shopping centre one day last week. I think someone must be hoping to attract some birds. I know the blackbirds love it when I peg apples to our lawn - well secured with two long kebab skewers so that magpies or squirrels don't take them.
I appear not to have taken any photos last December other than of the mandatory Buche de Noel, so my header comes from the Wild Lights at the zoo in 2018. This year's event, like so many other things, was cancelled.
Yesterday was quite good weather-wise, so in the morning I walked down to the local shops when they opened, and then C came on down in the car and we went to the park. It made for a different walk for him, as normally he just departs from the house on foot and walks around the immediate area these days. And it was nice for me to get away from the main road straight through it, pleasant a commute as it is. It turned cloudy as we drove there and parked, but it brightened up again and there was real warmth in the sun.
Last weekend I made a big pot of minestrone, which did three meals for the two of us and lunch for me. By the time we got to the third meal, I was on a day off and made Parker House rolls to have with it. Normally I have used the recipe from The Joy of Cooking, which requires rolling the dough out and cutting circles. This recipe, which I found on the King Arthur Flour website, was much easier, and they turned out beautifully. I'm ashamed to say I ate four of them while they were fresh from the oven. I thought the addition of potato flour was interesting - one of the recipes I use for the nearest one can get to baguettes without French flour calls for the addition of cornflour to the regular white flour.
I must have felt I accomplished more than I actually did, which I suppose is a good thing. I didn't find as many cards as I expected.
I also realise that November must be a very bad month for photos - I know that two years ago I was still struggling with my sore shoulder, but I don't appear to have any photos from last year either. My header this month is a 2017 picture of a crow in the Phoenix Park. I'm also enclosing a carpet of leaves. We've had a lot of wet and windy weather, so most of the leaves are down. This happened to be a crisp dry morning when I was walking down to the local shops, so the leaves didn't look all wet and soggy.
I was reading one of Gerald Durrell's books, about a collecting expedition in Guiana. One of the animals he talked about was a species of crab-eating raccoon. I did in fact also make a card with this little raccoon carrying a crab - but it probably wouldn't make sense to anybody except me.
This one is meant to depict me cycling to work through the park throughout the changing seasons. I must admit that at the end of March I didn't expect to be still doing it now.
Since we were unable to leave Dublin county in September (or at least, after we were both free to take a day off), we were unable to go sloe gathering in our normal location this year, and the one place I knew to try nearer home was fruitless. So we are trying raspberry gin this year instead of sloe gin. Today was the day for straining and bottling it - we had a pavlova with some of the gin-infused berries. I don't think it's a patch on sloe gin, and I'm glad I found one last jar of that hiding away so we are not totally destitute, but I'm sure we'll enjoy drinking it. I was surprised to see how much colour the lemon slices had picked up.
C went for his more or less customary walk after work on Thursday, and came back saying he had something to show me. He had seen a little hedgehog while walking across the green area near us - he had a couple of photos on his camera and he asked me did I want to go and see if it was still there. With perfect timing, I had about twenty minutes before it was time to add the eggs on top of my layered tomato, pepper and onion dish, so we went back. He was still there - an odd time for him to be out. Apparently he lives in one of the houses across the road. As he was being very slow crossing, and it was a moderately busy time of day, someone put on some work gloves and gave him a helping hand. It was certainly an unusual time of day for him to be out, so I hope he wasn't ill. It's a few years since we last saw a live one. From the size, I think it was a young one. It's probably almost hibernation time - temperatures last night fell to near freezing.
