Rain!

My Pirate and I dug up several old glass bottles from our back yard in Cooktown when we started a veg garden there. This is one of three which have managed to stay with me as I’ve crisscrossed Earth since then. It lives on the bathroom windowsill, and the whirls caught my eye this morning as I brushed my teeth. How has it taken me 25 years to notice them?!

Contrary to expectations - and to the weather forecasts - the gales stopped before 9pm last night and we have had calm conditions all of today. 

And rain began sometime in the night, and carried on until 3.30pm. It has given us around 12mm which is better than a slap around the face with a wet fish.

As a result of the weather it has been a rare indoors day. I decided to use the time wisely and have been following a rather fiddly, complex recipe to make a traditional Cheddar cheese. 

It has entailed all sorts of different stages of 15 minutes here, and 10 minutes there. From warming the milk to putting the cheese it into the press for the final time, it has taken 10.5 hours. I started early, thank goodness. 

It is not a cheese to make on a sunny day when I’m popping in and out from the garden. 

Bean has been supervising from Pink: a terribly boring day for her. But when I offered her a walk a couple of times, she looked at the lashing rain and politely declined. We’ve managed two quick dashes out into the garden for a quick romp, then back inside to the warm and dry.

Tomorrow looks sunnier, but possibly windy again…