JUST A LOAD OF CHUTNEY

Time slows, winter comes, darkness creeps in, moss grows over the little boy up in the wood.

So, there I was, making a load of apple chutney, sneezing at the apple vinegar fumes, when R showed me a Facebook post of a man saying, re Brexit, that it will be could to get back to the British Empire! (He was with N Farage). Give me modern dental treatment any day. There is no going back, only heading off in a different direction to ????
Anyway, there has been a lot of compost spreading since last blog, (not verbal compost), pulling up of slug chewed beetroot, yet more apples off the Bramley, and the pond is overflowing. The sparrow hawk has taken to zooming through the garden causing mayhem with the pigeons and blackbirds and I have given up with the squirrels, they are too clever for me.


There are still flowers in the garden - the Michaelmas Daisies continue to burst from the shadows.

Leaf colour, not autumnal, still exists with the magnolia, poplar and eucalyptus to name but a few. I wonder if we have hedgehog in the bonfire and move it to make sure. Of course, having badgers nearby means, almost certainly, we do not have egodges.

Pruned a branch off the apple and found six more apples, took out the old wood from the blackcurrants, more chipping to paths, R weeding, General tidy.

There is still some late flowering and colour - 

Even the Astrantia Major (Masterwort) with its papery petals is doing well. The builder is coming soon so all the cosmos and poppies will disappear under concrete, paving and builders' boots.
The ash trees are mostly naked of foliage though  one or two cling on despite the blast of colder weather coming down from the Arctic.
  

In this photograph you can see the Bushnell camera on its stake, well a bit of an old bird feeder support. It is pointed at a crossing of the small stream off to the right to try and catch animals - but they seem to ignore these points and just jump over anywhere.

So -
Recipe for the apple chutney (which I think is a bit sweet) -

1.5 kg Apples chopped,
750g light muscovado sugar
500g raisins
2 med onions
2 teasp mustard seeds
2 teasp ground ginger
1 teasp salt
700 ml cider vinegar (I used our apple vinegar which might be sweeter so . . .)

Bung in big pan, boil then simmer uncovered 30-40 minutes till thick and pulpy - stir to stop it sticking. (I put it in the bottom oven of our range for 90 minutes but . . )
Leave to cool, put in jars.


Finally got two of my books onto Amazon.com, for some reason not on Amazon.co.uk. They don't half mark them up though. The Spontaneous Line is a mixture of line drawings and verse, Landscapes of Light photography and poetry.