Lemon Balm Lip Balm

This is a recipe I make every year around this time, when my lemon balm is nice and green and lush, it's a lovely lip balm that is supposed to cure cold sores, not that I ever get them, but I made this for the first time for a friend who does.

It's a bit of a faff, but worth it for the goodness it has.

Firstly grab a load of lemon balm, you really only need the leaves,

so strip them from the stalks and and then finely chop, I have one of those brill little choppy gadgets that you just bash up and down and it chops everything up.

Put into a pan and heat gently with 100ml of olive oil, not virgin, just a nice light one, along with a couple of tablespoons of wheat germ oil.you want it to sizzle a little but not boil or fry. Simmer really gently for around 15 mins.

Then strain the whole lot through a muslin lined sieve, you need to squeeze every last drop out , so I usually put on a pair of rubber gloves and squeeze and wring the stuff in the muslin, wipe out the pan, then put the 'juice' back into the pan. Add 2 tbsp of honey and 1oz beeswax and melt gently in the pan,

keep stirring to amalgamate it all, once melted, add 10 drops of tea tree oil, stir through and then pot up, I use those little pots that you get jam in at little cafes and tea shops.

Rain and wind again and banana jam

really getting sick of the amount of wind there has been lately, don't mind the rain, we need it in the gardens, but the wind is stopping me from having the garden done, it's a double edged problem, as I can't get the troughs out on the wall, as the flowers will get bashed about and ruined, they are in the greenhouse, getting lusher and bigger every day, but the growth is soft from the warmth and light in the greenhouse, which makes them more prone to wind damage...Grrr.
While  sorting through the freezer yesterday I found several bags and tubs of sliced up bananas, these are usually ones that have gone to the point of too ripe that no one will eat them, so I chop them up and freeze them ready to make a banana cake or something.
so today I'm making banana Jam, it's a pretty simple recipe, and not really a jam.
To begin with, mix 320g sugar with 5oz water and heat in a jam pan,,stirring until it's all dissolved, sorry for the mixture of metric and imperial measures, tip in 650g of chopped ripe bananas and 2.5 oz of lime juice, bring to a boil and then simmer for around 30 mins. About half way through, add 1.5 tsp of cinnamon and stir in.

Pot up, you're not looking for a setting point or anything here, but provided you have simmered for 30 mins and everything is sterile, the it should keep fine.

Three fruits marmalade

Having a bit of a clear out today, we had some oranges that no one has eaten, a couple of grapefruits and 3 old lemons, so making up some marmalade. This is a recipe I do quite often. I always freeze citrus fruit shells if I've used them for anything, so got a few bags of shreds out of the freezer along with the chopped up fruit and 4 pints of water. Simmer away with the lid on for a couple of hours.

 I then have to do this in two batches as our cooker is rubbish and if the pan is too full, I never get a good rolling boil. Anyway add the sugar, bear in mind this ain't no diet recipe...450g sugar to every 600ml liquid. 

Bring to a good rolling boil and get to setting point, using a sugar thermometer is the best way, but there other tests, such as a rolling boil which won't stir down, or doing the wrinkle test on a saucer ever few minutes after about a good 10 mins boiling.

In the meanwhile I 'sterilise' washed jars in the oven for 10 mins at 150 degrees,  once it's at setting point, by whichever method you choose to check, take jars out of oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes, then Pot up and seal. I use cellophane discs dipped in brandy and original lids.

             And the final product.

Simple chocolate pots

I've just rung up on a bit of a whim to invite a couple of friends over for tea and to play cards, they said yes, and now I'm panicking about what to do, I don't want to go shopping, I went yesterday and we must have stuff in I can make, so have had a search through the freezer and found some smoked salmon, some mozerella and some good crusty bread, so I'll just make a plain tomato and mozerella salad with smoked salmon and warmed bread. I have a piece of beef I took out of the freezer yesterday, so it'll be a roast dinner, and then for pudding I've decided on some chocolate pots, easy and safe. I also happen to have a tub of marscapone in the fridge that I need to use up. So perfect.

Start off by melting 100g of good quality dark chocolate.

Next, add 90g sugar,and 3 eggs, with a hand held mixer, beat, still over the heat for around 5 mins. Then whisk in 50ml of your chosen alcohol (optional, of course)- I used some famous grouse liqueur, as I'd used a dark chocolate with orange oil added.

Then take off the heat, whisk for a minute or two, to help it cool then whisk in a tub of marscapone, I used low fat, but don't know why, I suppose ever little helps on the road to dieting!

Anyway, finally pot up, allow to cool, don't need to put in fridge if eating same day, but can be chilled if you like. That's it..enjoy.

Holiday booked

So, I spent last night at my sister's  and we have managed to get our holiday booked, we will be going on a cruise on Norwegian Epic in September. The itinerary is not the most exciting and it's only 6 days, but a good friend said to me the other day that I should be selfless and let my sister choose what she wanted, as she is stuck in an office 5 days a week and I have a much more enjoyable lifestyle. I have taken his advice to heart and could tell she wanted to do this, so we've gone ahead and booked. The ship, I'm sure will be wonderful, we have booked a balcony and included in the price is an all inclusive upgrade. I now have some incentive to cast some weight, 15 weeks to go.

And just to ring the changes...a yellow Iris from the garden

Olives bottled up

Another job finished off this morning, I bottled the olives this morning in a final solution of vinegar,salt and water. They taste divine, I think it probably has taken longer for them to get to this point due to me not slitting each olive as the recipes suggested, but I got there in the end. I'm just worried now that they will ferment or something in the jar, but it's not been a costly experiment if I have to throw them away, so will give it a few weeks and see. Have added a few slivers of lemon rind, not sure if this will add much, but we can see.

 Rushing to get ready now as going to my sisters today and staying overnight, we hope to get our holiday booked. So will be drinking wine and browsing the Internet tonight.

And more purple

Hmm, didn't realise just HOW purple my garden has become, went out for a Lily beetle check this morning and more gorgeous Iris in flower, including the siberians just starting to come out. Love it.

Love my garden

I got up this morning and looked out the window and it made me so happy, so I thought I'd share the view.

So much for a holiday weekend

I just don't know where this weekend has gone, it's now Sunday evening and I've got to work tomorrow to catch up on a few people I had to postpone last week, and to allow myself time off later in the week to visit my sister.

I've had a lovely weekend though and had a visit from my older brother whom I've not seen for God only knows how long, he's just the same, but with white hair and wrinkles! He brought his long standing girlfriend, Caz, with him and their most gorgeous little dog, a little terrier called socks, due to its white paws..made me realise how much I do miss Jessie.

I made 3 curries for tea on Saturday, a rather simple prawn dupiaza, a lamb rogan Josh and a Chicken Tikka Masala. I had intended to make a pudding, but rather lost the will to live in the supermarket and ended up buying a ready made cherry pie.

I'm looking forward to seeing my sister on Wednesday, and hopefully while with her, we are going to book our holiday.

Family trees

I've never been all that interested in family history, never really been sure that this is because I'm adopted and so it's not really MY history, or what, just never bothered me at all. However my younger brother, who IS my adopted parents real son, is very interested and has had several attempts to trace our family back. He recently met someone who does this as a hobby and they have linked up to do some work on our family.

Mark ( my younger brother, not the one who is coming up this weekend, who by the way is also adopted, but not a blood brother of mine either) has been asking me for a while to scan some paperwork and photos I have so he can start looking, so I finally got round to it this evening, and with the power of the Internet behind me, I can understand how it can be interesting, I've been researching all sorts of things this evening. My Dad was in the army and we know he was stationed in Ghana at some point, but we know little of both Mum, or Dad's early lives and they are no longer with us to ask.

Anyway. Here's a picture I've always loved of Dad. He's the one on the left by the way.

Eggs and eggs and eggs

Not sure if I've said before but we are disappearing under an egg mountain, we sell a few to friends and family, and sometimes even give them away but the eggs keep coming, I'm not complaining, the eggs we get are the most beautiful dark yellow yolks and good firm whites ( when cooked) and in the past we've had some lovely hens but they laid rubbish eggs.

Today I boiled up a large pan full and have pickled them tonight, it's not hard work and I love pickled eggs. 

Just boil the eggs for 10 minutes, or for however long before you remember they are on!

Then run them under cold water and leave to stand in cold water, cracking the shells as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Peel, rinse and dry off on a clean tea towel

Sterilise a few jars ( for pickled eggs I do this in the microwave, just because it's only a few jars, for preserves I tend to do it in trays in the oven)

Pack in the eggs, add a couple of peppercorns, top up with vinegar - today I used white vinegar a that's all I had in, but I usually use brown, seal and stick away in a cupboard for a couple of months. 

That's it, simple!

Jewellery making

This morning I had a bracelet to make up for an order, just a fun little elasticated Childs bracelet, I've been selling them on eBay, and each one is personalised, so they can only really be made to order rather than on my craft stall.

But in doing so, it meant getting all my beads and findings out, so while doing so, I made up a few more pairs of earrings, as I have been selling these at craft fairs and they seem popular.

This afternoon I had my voluntary work to do, which is delivering library books for elderly and disabled people who can't get out, it only takes a couple of hours every fortnight and some of these people rarely see anyone else.

After that I decided to take Mrs H her TV, I picked it up from her bungalow on Tuesday and I think I've persuaded her to give it a try and see if it helps relieve the boredom. She was pleased to see me, but we couldn't plug the TV in until it has been tested by their electricians, I was relieved about that, as I can't remember how to retune it!

Here's a few of the earrings I made.

Wild garlic purée

Finally got round to processing the wild garlic last night, then tonight I've strained it and poured it into an ice cube bag, didn't make as much as I'd hoped, but we had some of it tonight ( unstrained) with pork steaks cooked in the oven covered with foil, then tipped a tin of tomatoes in and let it heat up for 20 mins.

We had it with plain green beans and broccoli and jacket potatoes and it was absolutely delicious.

I've planted the rest of the wild garlic clumps in spots around the place, so hopefully in years to come, there will be plenty more.

I'd like to go back and get some more from where I found it, just to process, rather than plant, but it's a 50 mile round journey.

Visitors this weekend

I got a phone call on Friday to my voicemail from my older brother, we are not regularly in touch, he lives a rather hippy like lifestyle and he doesn't conform to the view of needing to be in touch on a regular basis, unlike my other brother who likes to keep up to date with family life.

Anyway, the call said he was coming up this was, he lives on the Isle of Wight, as does my other brother, and he's coming to some camping/music event at Doncaster on Saturday or Sunday.

It will be lovely to see him, but not really sure what to expect, I think the last time I saw him was around 10 years ago when all 4 of us children went to visit and Aunty in London. When I think about it I've probably seen him less than half a dozen times in the last 30 years, twice of those six time were at family weddings.

The chickens have survived the night, and Mike is at home all day today, but I'm rather nervous and really don't want to lose them, if it weren't for the chicks, I think I'd keep them all cooped up in the enclosure.

Got gardening plans all day today, but don't think the weather will hold, thunder and lightening forecast, so must get on. 

Another Iris picture today, don't know the name of this one either.

Fox patrol

Right so, we have Lily beetle patrol, dandelion patrol ( nearly over) and now we have fox patrol. While on the phone tonight I was stood looking over the fields and I saw what I thought was a hare or deer (sitting down) in the field down by the corner of the horses field. 

We have binoculars on the window sill, so picked them up and had a look, it was a very large fox, bloody hell, I nearly dropped the phone, and I'm sure I swore  to the person I was talking to. Told them I'd ring them back and went outside and herded all the hens up and coaxed them in to the enclosure,  (with corn as the bait) I've spent a nervous evening waiting for Mike to get back from his Monday night bridge match.

We've then been outside for the last hour and have surrounded the hen enclosure and hut with electric tape linked in to the tape we have around the horses fields. Hoping if we get the fox coming sniffing, it'll get one hell of a shock and should send it packing. Fingers crossed

Sunday evening update

I got the broad beans and French beans planted, went back half an hour later and one broad bean plant had been uprooted and two of the green beans, my favourites, the blauhilde, had been snapped off, now I'm not sure if it was the chickens or bloody pigeons, but very annoying. I have some thick green netting fabric that I normally put around the allotment area to keep the chickens out and hopefully other creatures, so got that put up this afternoon too.

Split up all of Frank's begonias that he gave me to look after, over 100 plants all in small plug plants, they were quite badly damaged in the post and some of them were being swamped by others, so I've taken out every alternate plant and potted them up. Also potted on all the geranium seedlings, most seem to be doing ok.

I've potted up all the courgettes that survived the frosts and I think I still have 4 cucumber plants, but they could be courgettes, I'm terrible at labelling things.😁

Anyway, some more Iris are in bloom, some pretty yellow ones, I'm not a fancy of yellow flowers, but can't dig these up. But this one has the most amazing scent.

Sunday jobs

Today I need to clear out the nesting boxes as the mothers have stopped sitting, always a bit of a gruesome task as some of the eggs could be close to fully developed but once the first batch have hatched they rarely continue to sit and hatch the rest, hopefully none of the eggs will break and I won't have to face the horrible truth.

All 5 chicks seem to be doing well and the mothers have taken them out into the enclosure this morning so once I'm up and dressed, I'll go and take some pictures. ( still slobing around in my dressing gown)

In the garden today I need to plant the rest of the broad beans and the green beans which are now sprouting at last. I'll have a closer look at the bargain fuschia that got from Aldi -  4 for £1.79. They were freshly in when I bought them so have not been subject to the usual lack of care that you find in most supermarket plants. I bought 5 packs as some could go in oneof my customers gardens whom I usually supply with bedding.

Yesterday's fair went surprisingly well, I didn't sell many preserves, but quite a bit of my handmade jewellery sold and a few other bits and pieces including all the of the sore joint oil, so need to get some more of that made up today too.

And then there were five

Just a quick note, this evening we now have 5 chicks, 3 black and 2 yellow, not going to get excited yet as its early days, got a fair to do all day tomorrow with an early start, so just need to do the essentials in the morning in the hope that the mums will take care of them. 

Rather concerned about one of the other hens though, she gets picked on by the other hens and I've even seen the cockerel standing over her and another hen pecking her, quite viciously.  Noticed tonight that her head has a large scab on it, I think I need to catch her and maybe see about re homing her at J's. 

J has several hens already, all very quiet and calm creatures and I'm sure they'd take kindly to the poor little thing. need to catch her first.

Update Sunday

And a photo of the newbies.

Knitted greyhound

A friend gave me a book for my birthday last year called 'Best in Show- knit your own dog'

I've knitted a couple out of the book, first I did a fox terrier, which is what Jessie was, Jessie was our dog whom we've recently had to put to sleep as she had a tumour in her throat and was slowly got to a point where she was unable to swallow.

 I then knit a little westie, as a couple of friends I know each have one, snowy & chalky...original names I know ( for a white dog)

Anyway the friend who gave me the book has a rescue greyhound called Tigger, he s a lovely brindled dog and so I'm trying to knit one for her, after searching all over for some wool that I thought might creat the right effect, I've given up and am knitting the dog with two different coloured balls of 4 ply together. It looks ok so far, just finished the 4th leg tonight and have started on the body.

Here's my little darling Jessie- RIP

Cheeping noises

There are cheeping noises coming from the hen hut, I've just had a quick glance inside the laying boxes where the two broody hens have been sitting and saw egg shell, thought initially that the hens had started eating the eggs, which has happened before, but then while staring down on the girls, I heard cheeping noises. So we have had at least one chick hatch, not getting too excited as the first few days are very touch and go, but fingers crossed.

Mike is working on sorting out the old dog kennel, which Sam ( son) had started making for their dog, but then gave it up as a bad job and brought it here for disposal. It's the remains of an old shed so we hope to have this as the crèche.

Craft fairs

I've had a busy few days lately and it's made me think about how much I do and what I enjoy, a friend who has been making and selling her homemade preserves for charity is downsizing, realising she was spending so much time and energy on what she was doing, and that she's really ought to be enjoying her retirement more, it made me think.

I'm sure it's because I'm busy that I'm not looking forward to the fair I am doing on Saturday and I really wish I wasn't doing it, I'd much rather be home and spending time in my garden, maybe it's just the time of year, there is lots to be done and I'm just not getting the time I want. It's busy fair season too, up until the end of June, then things tend to quieten off once the schools break up for summer. It picks up again in the autumn.

The thing is, I have lots of things I like to make, and you just need some sort of avenue for selling them otherwise you'd disappear under a mountain of jam jars and knitting.

I'm filling in two booking forms as I type this, one for the end of June and one for the bank holiday Monday in August and I feel like not sending them off. Maybe just need a bit more coffee this morning!
Just looked for a picture to perk me up and came across my knitted hedgehogs and it made me smile.

Wild garlic found - woo hoo!

The last few days have been really busy and I've not had time to do any diary entries, but I must just mention today's exciting ( for me) find.

I took IH to the airport late this afternoon and on my way back I took a diversion as I hit rush hour traffic, so glad I did, as I found a massive stand of wild garlic by the road side. It was so massive that someone had been along and strimmed it back, so fortunately I had all my gardening stuff in the car, and got the fork and spade out and dug up some big clumps. Just so pleased, I shall hopefully get it all planted and processed tomorrow.

I shall blitz all the top growth in the blender and then freeze it in ice cube trays, and plant all the bulb area. Just need to decide where to plant it.

Lily Beetle Drive

And the quest begins. Today whilst gardening for a lady, we spotted Lily beetles on her crown imperials!

I've been casually checking for the beetles over the past couple of weeks, but after seeing this, it's the first thing I did when I got home this evening, and sure enough there was one little bugger on one of my Turks Hat Lilies. I've squished in now, but will be on the look out now, they are horrid things, their babies cover themselves with their own poo, to disguise themselves, they look a bit like bird droppings and you don't realise until it's too late that they've eaten your whole plant. The adult beetle is very easy to see, it's a really bright red, they next one I see I will photograph and add to this entry. You have to be quite stealthy when you're hunting them, as if you shake the plant in anyway before you are ready, they drop off on to the floor and lie on their backs, which camouflages them. The hunt is on! 

Troughs finally planted up

I finally got the troughs planted up on Thursday, well all bar one, which I finished yesterday, I have put them out this morning as it's supposed to be a fine day and I'd like to keep a record on here of how they progress.

Sunday in the garden

Today I am enjoying my own garden for most of the day, I have a couple of people coming to collect some of my glut of tomato seedlings, so need to prick out a few more. 

I've been round this morning pulling up all the cow parsley that springs up under the oak trees, that's another good thing about all the rain we've had, the soil is nice and wet so I can get the whole root up with things like that with just a good sharp yank. 

I have sweetcorn to plant, as well as a few nasturtiums and sweet Williams for one of my customers.

This plant here is an unusual thing, it was very popular a few years ago, as new on the market, I bought seeds and planted it and since then it pops up all over the garden. I rather like it although it is a little ungainly. Cerinthe.

I noticed this morning while doing my lily beetle patrol that I have another Iris almost out, this is deep maroony purple one, not sure of its name, it's quite small but has the most gorgeous thick beards. If it comes out further as the day goes on, I'll take a picture, it will be nice to look back later in the year and make a note of things like this.

Head cold

Woke up on Thursday morning with the sniffles and can't work out where I've picked this cold up from, it's progressed now to a full head cold with blocked sinuses and neuralgia as well as the drippy nose. 

I was up at 5.30 this morning, unheard of for me, and did contemplate getting up as I was wide awake,   My nose was running and I didn't understand why my pillow wasn't absolutely sodden, or did it only start when I woke?? Strange.

Anyway, decided if I was up at that time, I'd not make it through the day, so went back to bed and did manage to drift in and out of sleep for another couple of hours. 

Not sure what I m doing today, wow, don't have many days where I've not got planned everything I have to do., but today is one of them. I have a hanging basket to make up for a friend, I bought the plants yesterday and need to get that done.

I also bought myself a small magnolia stellata and need to decide where I'm going to put that. I'm contemplating a spot in the middle of the lawn where I currently have a small bed with a standard rose in the middle, one of those supposed to be blue ones, but it has small rather uninteresting lilac coloured blooms on it.

Troughs and baskets day today

Got up and the rain was here, so not gone out on my gardening job this morning so we've had a nice leisurely breakfast and catch up on the Internet and I'm now going to sort out my hanging baskets and troughs. I moved over to wall mounted troughs rather than all hanging baskets a good few years ago as it gets so windy here, we look straight out over fields to the west and this is there the prevailing wind comes from around here.
I bought plants from a market garden in the area last week, plus I have many already planted up and so that's my job for today. I'm going to photograph when finished and then try and remember to keep a weekly log on them to see how they progress and when they actually reach peak.
They're nothing exciting and will be mainly fuschia, geranium and lobelia, but a few odds and ends too. I think someo of the tomatoes need repotting too and I'd really like to get the beans out, all this rain will help them settle in.
This is the view across the fields from the front of the house, pretty open.

The other picture is the current state of the wall troughs, ignore my finger at the top of the picture.

Home made butter

Just after Christmas a friend who knows my propensity for trying out new ideas told me to watch out for the supermarkets selling off all the overstocked fresh cream, as you can make butter at home with it apparently. She didn't know how, but said it just involved your food mixer. So of course I had to try it out.

I bought 3 pints of cream for something like 35p a pint and had a go, it was interesting and very messy, but the end result sure enough, was butter.

After this weekends cake stall, I was left with a load of whipped cream and half a tub of clotted cream so I've just done a batch. Just added salt crystals.

This is stage one, after the initial mixing, it turns in to butter all of a sudden, you can hear the change in your machine as it has this large lump going round in it instead of the cream and lots of sloppy buttermilk, which goes everywhere. I've tried wrapping the while machine in cling film, but it still just slops everywhere, so I've given up now and just give the whole machine a good wash down afterwards.

And here is the end result. It doesn't keep quite as well as shop bought butter, especially as the weather gets warmer, so I'll make it into smaller pats, wrap in cling film and then freeze, and we can take it out as we need it.

Curing olives

A month or so ago a friend was telling me about her daughter olive trees and that they are laden with little black olives, but when they tried them they were disgusting. I told her that the had to be brined or cured before you could eat them, but didn't really know much more than that. While researching recipes for my CDWM a few weeks ago, I came across a recipe for brined olives and I mentioned it to her.

Today she presented me with a bag of tiny black olives, so of course I had to give it a go. It's mainly about soaking them in water for a while, then a brine solution for a while. However the recipes all said you needed to slit the olives to allow the brine and water to penetrate them and remove the oleuropein which is the bitter tasting compound in fresh olives.

What I didn't realise is that the process would stain my hands a lovely blacky purple colour, not an attractive look!😒

Rhubarb Schnapps

A while ago I said I wanted to have a go at a rhubarb vodka/ schnapps type recipe, having looked on the internet there are numerous versions, including all sorts of spices and seasonings. I've decided to go with a basic recipe, which is in Nigella Lawson's Domestic Goddess book under the title Rhubarb Schnapps.

 basic recipe is :

1 kg rhubarb, washed, dried and chopped

300g caster sugar- didn't bother using caster, just used granulated

1 ltr vodka

Put everything in clean jars, it says sterilised, but I've not bothered, they are perfectly clean, and the vodka can do the rest, seal, then keep somewhere cool and dark, shaking the jar whenever you remember, ideally every day for the first month or so...hmm, not going to remember that every day.

Anytime between 6 weeks and 6 months, strain and bottle up.

My recipe hasn't quite filled the jars, and I think I'll add a bit more rhubarb when it's grown a bit more, I've been using quite a lot of it lately, either that or I'll get a bit more vodka and top it up.

Nigella  stuff looks lovely and pink and I wonder if she used the early forced rhubarb rather than the rather large chunky stems I used, so may need to add a bit more sugar too. Anyway..here goes.

                  

And this is it on on day 3, love the colour

 A quick note to myself..and I. Suppose to anyone reading this. The vodka/schnapps finally got filtered and it's gorgeous. Definitely need to make more of this next year, beautiful rounded flavour, I had read somewhere about only leave it sitting steeping for a few weeks, otherwise it will go bitter, well that's definitely not the case, wonderful stuff, just stewing up the pickled rhubarb now and will see how that tastes, either for pie fillings or a jam, undecided yet.

Cottage annual seeds planted

Just a note to myself that I finally got round to scattering - planting is not quite the right word for chucking around a few handfuls of mixed seeds.

Heavy rain is forecast overnight, so I'm hoping they get a good soaking in.

Exhausted

Wow, what a day that was, I was up at 6 and filling macarons, whipping cream for the gateau and reheating scones before away for 8.30 to pick up pal and get away to the fair. Now 6am may not be early for many, but it is for me, I'm much more a night owl than an early bird, or so I thought, and have always said if asked.

However, I did enjoy being up early and on the rare occasions that I do rise early, always enjoy the feeling, however, at the other end of the day, I can never go to bed early, as it seems such a waste of the day when there are things I can still be doing.

I wish I were one of these people who could survive on 3 hours sleep a night, but I always need at least 6, relatively consistently anyway. Anyway I've run out of steam today and am having to get an early-ish night for me.

Got gardening jobs booked for tomorrow but there is heavy rain forecast, so won't be too disappointed if it arrives.