Home alone follies.....

I must be insane- in fact I am convinced of it. I am home alone - Rosie in the UK and Tom now away flatting - and so what do I do - I buy 5 kg of apricots and make jars and jars of chutney and then more bottles of apricot sauce than anyone person can use.

Those January habits of pickle making are hard to break. I tell myself that pickle is just as worth making for myself to enjoy as for others but still it seemed absurd even to me to make that much - as delicious as it is. This is a recipe from the Stewart Island cook book. Easy and yielding good results.
Here it is if you care to try it.

2 kg apricots
360 g raisins
560 ml vinegar ( 1 pint)
2 tsp curry powder
500 g onions
2 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger.

make in usual way - simmer one and a half hours. Bottle.  ( enjoy - all year long if you are by yourself and perhaps for a month or two if there's more of you.)

Ah well - becoming accustomed to whatever stage of life you are at  takes a little getting used to and Im sure a little foolishness along the way does no harm.

Here's to week of summer fruits.

Marg

To market to market to buy a fat pig......

... home again, home again, jiggety jig. That is the start of the rhyme and an apt one for travelling cattle class in turbulence. Not pleasant but flying for me is always about the destination and never the journey.  And so it was we arrived in Los Angeles with no destination in mind but a whole journey ahead of us.

On our first night we walked along Hollywood boulevard

just out of Santa Monica on the way to Santa Barbara and already we needed a walk along the beach ... same ocean as the one back home but different beach. A strange feeling !

I really liked this place for no special reason. Monterey Bay. We had Christmas here

Dougs enthusiasm for Redwood trees took us to the tiny town of Felton 

from memory this tree is about 2000 years old - maybe older

a glimpse of a cable car in San Francisco

the grand canyon left me almost but not quite speechless

homeward bound. Our 3rd last day was spent in Palm Springs.  Holiday resort of many of the famous. 

Its hard to capture a holiday in words. Any attempts to explain the experience either seem lame or boring or both. So I wont try. Enough to say it was an amazing time in a country of great extremes. Good company, good fun, bad food, good bye. Here's to great holiday memories. Have a good week Marg