The christmas pudding hidden at the back

I’m not mad. Keen, yes, but not mad. So with a maximum of 10 Celsius and the most tremendous storm battering the farm, I hastily changed my plans.

The wall stays unbuilt.

And I did a whole day of indoor chores. Half of that was spent inside a car racing around builders’ merchants down at Valence looking for granite paving. Don’t ask. I didn’t find any.  But I did put in a few hours searching.

And then there was the useful stuff. My pantry has been cleared, cleaned and rearranged. And I sorted the hidden pantry that works it way down the stairs to the basement.

And glory be, there is a reward for toil; I found a mini christmas pudding on the top shelf.  Way to the back, and not even beyond its use by date.

That made up for the emptying of two fridges, defrosting, cleaning; sorting my office, making up bouquets of flowers, cleaning shelves, vacuuming, tidying, potting up bulbs for Elodie, and painting the basement steps. Add in paying bills, letter writing and nipping down to the letter box down the mountain, and you can see that it has been a full on first autumn day.

It was only when I was lying on the floor scrubbing away at the oven door, trying to get the marks off that I decided this frantic activity had to stop.

Tomorrow it’s back out to the garden with a bang. And a beanie and layers and layers of fleece. All I have to do is try and find my warm work gloves. I’m going to need them.