Really nice hot day today. We were too busy to be sunbathing though…… Our pool room electrician arrived with his brother at 9am and set to, replacing the delapidated electrical control panel in our pool room with a brand new one he’d built.

At 930 Wilma and John, our house managers came up for a catch up and check before the season gets underway. We went through each room and made a note of any jobs in the pipeline for now or for the end of the season. The house is in very good shape so there isn’t a lot. A couple of things we will do when we come out in the autumn. Before the pandemic, we were just about to completely remodel our downstairs cloakroom so we can now get back on track with that in October. We also plan to repaint two of the guest bedrooms then and get new soft furnishings for the master bedroom. It’s nice to have a change every few years. Anyway, we are delighted with all their efforts so far and they are a thorougly lovely, nice couple. Our guests are in good hands this year.

After a quick lunch Bob and I ran down to China Bazaar and bought some jam preserving jars so that I could make a batch of loquat jam this afternoon. I shall have to find some labels. They didn’t have any. Came home and prepped the loquats. You top and tail them, cut them in half to remove the stones and then proceed as normal. I am always a bit wary of putting too muich sugar in. I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth so I put it in a cup at a time. This batch also has a little bit of fresh lemon joice and a half teaspoon or ground green cardamon in it.

Well… I don’t know what happened but this batch ended up more like a compote than a jam….. hmmmm. Anyway… I turned it into a chutney and it is delicious. Will cook up the other batch tomorrow as jam and if the same result….. it’ll be more chutney!!!!!!!

Tonight we had our first bbq of the trip. Delish burgers, wedges, bulger wheat, onion, pine nut and coriander salad, scorched peppers. A lovely start to the warm weather and summer…..