Norton Conyers Apple Chutney

The apple harvest at Norton Conyers has been huge this year and despite large quantities going into the making of Norton Conyers apple juice, they are still abundant so in order to help out a bit and despite not having a clue what I'm doing, I've decided to make some apple and sultana chutney. This, I discover, entails an inordinate amount of peeling and chopping; not only of apples but onions too and my......don't you need a big pot! My enthusiasm to get started means that I had failed to consider the subject of containers for all this chutney and half-way through the process I realise I'm going to need some jam-jars; but where to get them; and the recipe says 'cover as usual', what does that mean? I'm going to have to do some unexpected Googling and no doubt, another trip to the shops. This could turn out to be very expensive chutney!

The finished product.

Indian Summer

A beautiful autumn day with warm sunshine and a chill in the shade; Mrs S. and I wandered the garden and sat watching insect industry:

Hedge Cutting

I spent the day with Giles, cutting the huge yew hedges in the garden. I grew up part of a farming family and spent my early, and teenage years involved in agriculture so I'd been looking forward to a day of physical work but my.....these are big hedges and somehow I ended up doing the upper storey. It was a full day, up and down the ladder brandishing my, not so light, sabre and as the blisters on my hands ballooned the last few meters seemed to go on forever but it was finally finished (in record time according to Giles) and I did get an enormous sense of satisfaction from the day.

 Lunch with Giles and the garden girls in the orangery.