Herve's Marvellous Medicine

I've recently made 4 bottles of moonshine from a French recipe using unripen green walnuts as its key ingredient to give this aperitif its distinct flavour. When I was passed the recipe from family (an ex-nun) living in the North East of France, I was told rather firmly that it was best to make the drink by the 14th July. However, the carefully packed stash of walnuts got a bit delayed in the post from France to the UK, but fingers crossed this is not going to affect the flavour too much. The only problem now is that I have to store the bottles, give them a shake every couple of weeks to encourage the fermentation, and keep this up for an agonising 12 months until it is ready to quaff. Hopefully at the end of this process I should have some rather pucker aperitif to warm the cockles on a chilly autumnal eve...2011!

You're Awful, but I Like You...

I couldn't resist buying this little oddity from one of the shops in George Street; they sell a good selection of old fabrics, some second hand books with beautiful covers and a crop of old games. They have an old haberdashers cabinet crammed to the gills with old worn odd-bod

toys. However, when I got this home, I decided to remove it from the temporary resting place in the bedroom as I felt its sombre thousand-yard stare was not really complimentary to a good nights sleep. I can't decide if this is original or it's an old doll's head which has been carefully sewn onto a body which appears to be in some style of Dutch costume. It has super large feet, which I think is trying to denote a pair of wooden clogs! .

Through the Keyhole

Again, the sun prompted me to go on walkabout with my camera and snoop about when I should have been working. I hereby award myself 2 out of 10 for work completed or an equivalent of a D+.

View From Up in Suze's Room

Slow, slow progress in the house but the sun is out and I snuck off for a long walk along the beach to celebrate, purchasing a copy of J L Carr's 'A Month in the Country' along the way. I was in that kind of mood. Having to take the sewing machine in this car this weekend to fathom out how I sew up the heavy jute curtains with a calico lining. Unfortunately, I've noticed the jute starts to pong a bit; not in a bad way I may add, but there is a definite waft of 'eau de shredded wheat' permeating the air once the sun shines directly on the material. I should have been watching the chaps don their tweed on The Tweed Run this coming weekend with Mr Sutton, but since I've been a tad slack at the old DIY malarkey, I'm just going to have to pull my socks up, take the paint brush between the teeth, and jolly well get cracking and put all thoughts of being in Barcelona out of my head until at least Monday. Oddly enough, Mr Sutton's friends have a place in Hastings too.