Blast and double blast

Bugger, bugger, bugger. My brother comes for tea every Tuesday after he has visited my mum in the home. It's his birthday on Friday and we got his present three weeks ago. My husband put it in the study. We are very pleased with the presents and think my brother will be pleased and amused.  Every time I have seen them over the last two weeks I have thought how I must hide those presents; how I must wrap them up, how they seem a little too much on open display.

Bugger, bugger, bugger....my brother went into the study tonight to look something up on the internet with me and what did he darn well see.......'Oh this book looks interesting and is this a solar shower kit?'

If you think it's a good idea to do something, it probably is.

2014 vintage

Just set down this year's elderflower fizz. David and I had the production line going. I scalded the bottles, strained the soaked elderflower stew and he funnelled the soon-to-be-fizz into the bottles, pushed a cork in and then screwed on a wire. This year I have treated David to a £4.50 wire tool which twists the wire round without the use of sore fingers and secures that cork down, resisting the build-up of elderflower pressure.

I am a bit worried this year though. We made last year's vintage amidst the chaos and dust of the extension build and I have misplaced my recipe which has served me well for 4 years. Can't find it any where. Looking on the internet there are 100s of recipes, all slightly different but none that strike a chord. I tried one recipe last week and it started to go mouldy before we had chance to bottle! And some recipes, shame on them, suggest adding a little dried yeast when the whole miracle and wonder of drinking the elderflower bubbles is that the fizz is there naturally from the yeasts in the flowers. Anyway I plumped for another recipe and hope it serves well. I'll know and you'll know in about 2 weeks.