A little of this and that

I keep hearing stories that the UK is supposed to have an Indian summer but I'm starting to think it's just that..a story. When I headed out of town this morning it was grey, very cool and raining. It looked and felt more like a winters day than late September. It was a little better on the way back home but not enough to get me excited.  I love trying to drag out summer for as long as possible but I also like to be warm so I hunted out my thinner jumpers and my sweatshirts in anticipation of cooler days. In the cooler days of autumn, particularly when driving I'd rather wear a jumper than turn the car heating up. Back in the spring as the weather was warming up I went through my wardrobe and got rid of a lot of skirts and tops that had been around a very long time. I told myself this would galvanise me into making some clothes over the summer in preparation for the winter. Well that didn't happen but I did start a green jacket. 

The jacket was made to the point where the lining needed to be added and since then it has sat around hoping eventually to be finished. When I bought the main fabric I didn't purchase the lining fabric and it was a while before I got to the shop. However the lining and the buttons were bought quite a time back but still the project hasn't moved forward so today I hunted out the lining and got it cut out. It didn't take long as there were only 4 pattern pieces. I couldn't go any further with that as Lucy was back at the dinning table working on her dissertation. She's in work on Wednesday and I'm on a day off so I'll stitch the lining together then.

At the weekend I made apple chutney and I forgot to show you the completed jars. It made about 4 pounds of chutney. There were two small jars but Richard has already given one to a friend. The chutney is perfect with pork and I love it on sandwiches with cheese.

It wasn't until I took the photo that I realised I hadn't wiped the drips off the one jar properly. The outside of the jar is now sticky free. As well as our two miniature apple trees we have a crab apple tree. John picked a lot of the apples yesterday and the plan is to make crab apple jelly. I've never made Crab apple jelly or any type of jelly preserves before and I'm not sure I've tasted it either. This will be an interesting experiment.

I sat and had a little nap with Scamp once I'd cut out the lining as last night was rather disturbed. When I lived in a more rural area of England I very rarely saw any foxes but here in London you often see them. They are right scavengers and argue amongst themselves quite loudly when trying to get scraps out of the bins. Last night they succeeded in getting into one of the rubbish bin across the road and made a huge mess and a lot of noise whilst they did it. The foxes woke up Picasso and Scamp who woke me and John up. I hate having a disturbed nights sleep, it leaves you feeling very dull the next day.

After my nap, I decided to work on Mathilda. I plan on finishing her handbag, stick and her hand this evening. I'm working again tomorrow and it will be a long day so I probably won't feel much like stitching tomorrow evening. Still haven't found the blue thread to finish her coat but I've got all the other threads I need.

It's also time I did some stitching on my Christmas tree cross stitch but I need to finish Mathilda first.

Lyndsey