Jam

The medlar fruit I collected a couple of weeks ago are now ripe and soft, so high time to make jam. I follow a recipe by Fratelli ai Fornelli (Italian for Brothers at the Ovens) which is quick and easy.

However, a time-consuming first task is inspecting the fruit because quite a few have unfortunately gone mouldy since being picked. The clean ones got a rinse and went into the pan; a few dozen salvageable ones I cut the tops off and squeezed pulp and pips into the pan, discarding the skins. Then squash the lot and simmer for a bit.

My late Mum's separator now proves its value. Spoon in some mash, turn handle and pulp comes out while skins and pips remain.

Jars had meanwhile been thoroughly cleaned in the dishwasher and the missus has this red funnel to help fill them. The pulp received sugar and a bit of vanilla and a pinch of salt and was bubbling away for an hour. I put the lid half-open on the pan because every so often the mixture shot up a blob much like a geyser in Iceland, leaving a sticky patch somewhere.

Tasty result: justabout exactly twelve jars of jam. Yum!

Recipe here for those interested.

medlar - nèfle - mispel 

Contrast

Having a lie-in this morning I noticed that the trees visible from the bedroom window are now completely bare, whereas I could still see clumps of leaves through the living room window. 

Upon closer inspection later in the day, it seems trees in front of the bush (which these are) still have leaves on them (also those on the hill in front of us). They get more sunlight I suppose so perhaps that makes a difference.

Saint Nick's Helper

Having found two chocolate initials last weekend, I finished the parcels for our youngsters today. The missus contributed marzipan sweets and I made up two little boxes containing some vintage toy figures that I hope they'll like. Luckily I still had a small piece of St Nicholas-themed gift paper left over that was exactly enough (or I could've gone back to Hema who are the only ones in Belgium to have that paper). Off to the post on Monday.

Optical Illusion

I was getting coffee in the kitchen while working from home today when I saw the sight above. Why is there some kind of bright white box sitting amongst the plants and how did it get there? I'm not expecting any parcels and the post people don't leave them behind the house either.

Turns out it's the reflection of the screen on my work laptop sitting on the dining table (two reflections in fact due to the double glazing). But it had me confused for a bit.

Light Show

After giving the kitchen island surface a wet wipe, I was rewarded with this rainbow reflection. A wall cabinet has a glass door with a bevelled edge that acts as a prism on the Autumn sunlight coming in low. No pot of gold at the end of it alas, but a treat to see nonetheless. The same glass door has lost a slight chip off the other, inside edge, and that produced this squiggly projection on the wall.

Festive Fare

The missus has tried a recipe from a magazine for possible use during the upcoming festive season. A casserole of mushrooms, leek, chicken chunks and curry seasoning sauce topped with a layer of pastry with extra stars cut out for decoration. With her usual magic the result is delicious - photo shows me going back for seconds!

mushroom - champignon
leek - poireau - prei

Broken Brolly

I have an English combination umbrella/shooting stick, bought towards the end of the 70s from Laboyrie in the Passage arcade in The Hague. Who closed their doors a decade ago so I can't go back for repairs. There's a small hole worn through the canopy at the top and half the ribs had twisted in a very strong wind.  There appears to be no way of disassembling the top to remove or exchange the canopy so all I can do is try to patch it up. So I've cut a pice of canvas (left in image above) to glue to the inside of the canopy with special textile glue.

Next I've cut heads and points off some nails to use as reinforcements for where the ribs were twisted. These have been glued down with epoxy glue and pressed inside the ribs with a pair of pliers (the complete nail is to mix up the two glue components). Left to do is sand off the excess glue, possibly touch up the silver paint on the ribs and then reassemble in hopes of using this brolly again.

Prunes to Ashes, Ashes to Dust

We're having tea by the fire, and now burning what remains of the prune tree that was cut up last May (front left). It does need a going fire (of oakwood, at right)) but then burns very well.

prune - pruneau - pruim
oak - chêne - eik

Errand

Being St Nicholas's helper I needed two chocolate initials (something typically Dutch) for the youngsters but ringing round a number of Albert Heijn shops within driving distance told me they either never had any or were sold out already. Thankfully the Hema in Wavre still had some. Finding a lucky parking spot I was happy to see their sign through the trees. Hema stands for Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam (Dutch Unitary prices Company Amsterdam) and is a bazaar similar to Woolworths. A bit of Holland close by and a place to get Dutch treats as well (except their famous smoked sausages unfortunately).

It actually was a very nice day for a drive (after defrosting the old Alfa). Bright and sunny and surprisingly light traffic for a Saturday. Another couple of stops for breakfast cereal and a bag-in-box of plonk and then back home. Where the sun caught the frost on the grass on the front lawn.

Mission accomplished!

End of Week

It's Friday evening - the best moment of the week. Dusk is early but again looks lovely. There's hardly any leaves left on the trees so there's more visible behind them now. And the sky is reflecting off the water basin as well.

Last Jam?

Could be I still have one jar left among all the prune jam, but I finished this jar of medlar jam at lunch today. Good thing I'll be making this year's edition pretty soon!

medlar - nèfle - mispel

 

First Snow

The view from the toilet window in the night looked somewhat different so I lit an outside light in the kitchen and yes: snow. 

In daylight it was clear it wasn't much, and with the air warming up you could hear thawing snow dripping all over. Still a nice sight on the way to work.

Some of the little purple flowers at the gate are still going strong and look most fetching with a cover of white to offset them. 

What little there was on the old Alfa's windows was swiftly removed. Rush hour traffic was a bit of a mess though - snow does that to the average driver unfortunately. By the afternoon everything was gone so the drive home was back to normal at least.

Pigeon Congregation

While working from home today, I noticed at least half a dozen pigeons if not more gathered in the branches of the same bare tree, huddled up against the drizzle. Photo shows three of them large enough to see clearly. 

pigeon - duif

First Frost

Walking down the hill to go to work I noticed the grass of the front lawn was frozen; fallen leaves having an outline in white as well. Since the front lawn is on the shadow side it's always a bit colder than our main lawn higher up. 

The old Alfa is too large to climb the hill so is parked in the street where it's also a bit colder than higher up. Just a light coat of frost to scrape off which was quickly done while the engine warmed up a bit. The car's warning about ice on the street was still premature because the road was dry overnight so off we went through the rush hour.

Which Is Which

I tried to see how many jars of medlar jam I have left from last year but I can't distinguish it from some brown prune jam made by the missus. The red ones do stand out - they're made from different red prunes. But I'm still guessing!

medlar - nèfle - mispel
prune - pruneau - pruim

Harvest

Walking up the hill I noticed the medlar tree had dropped some of its fruit so it's time to harvest. I took a plastic basin and went to inspect. The tree was indeed full of fruit, most of which looked ripe for picking. A lot of the fruit that had dropped were split open so I put those to one side, in hopes of sowing their seeds and growing some new little trees. I've had a lazy try before which didn't work so this time I'll need to see how to properly do this.

There's a thick layer of moss underneath the tree, so quite a few fruit did survive the fall. Other ones came off their stems after a gentle pull and in the end I have a fruit crate full of useful fruit. These will need to "blet" for a week or two (becoming really soft) and then I can make jam. 

There's still plenty fruit left on the tree but either still firmly attached or on higher branches. I'll check again soon for more fallen fruit for a second harvest. 

And a ladybird for luck!

medlar - nèfle - mispel
ladybird - coccinelle - lieveheersbeestje

 

Crows

Crows are about as tricky to photograph as magpies, if not more. Plus my large zoom lens is showing its age and becoming more sluggish. But still, I managed to snap these two with reasonable results.

And with Autumn baring the trees, I saw that the crows did after all make a new nest in the maple trees opposite our living room window. (It wasn't there yet on 29 April as reported then.) Their third in that area so let's hope this tree will be spared and keep them sheltered again.

crow - corbeau - kraai

Mr Fluffy Sky

Snapped on the way to work this morning.

Change of Direction

With winter time providing earlier sunsets, these now appear through the trees on our left instead of over the horizon in front. Still a glorious sight where dramatic fiery reds dissolve into subtle yellows before going dark.

Lest We Forget

Today is Armistice Day. In the run-up the whole of Britain wears a poppy, having donated to the British Legion. So do I. Apart from the fact that where I live was liberated by the British, I wear it to commemorate two fallen relatives.
My grandmother's sister married an Englishman when their family was living in the Far East. She tragically lost her two oldest sons - one in a tank during the battle of Anzio and his older brother didn't return after parachuting into Arnhem. Both gave their lives for our freedom.

poppy - coquelicot - klaproos

Electric Pet

My brother gave me his used robot vacuum cleaner and the missus gave it a try this morning. It's a bit noisy but also quite amusing to see it trundle around and bump away from walls and furniture. The table in the hall had it trapped for a while before its random course took it out from underneath.

Birds in the Morning

Spotted a woodpecker in the distance while having breakfast. And a bit later a magpie didn't notice me before I could take its picture.

woodpecker - pic - specht
magpie - pie bavarde - ekster

 

Glow

The city of Eindhoven has long been associated with light, ever after Philips started their first light bulb factory there. For the past years they've staged an annual festival called 'Glow' and this evening we went and had a look.

This old bridge is apparently always lit up, but all through the inner city there were installations and projections of all kinds. Below are just some of them to give an impression.

An arch with light in changing colours moving around. Inside a passage around a local museum a paper cityscape was lit up.

One field sported a huge number of shining sunflowers; another a subtle array of little moving lights hovering above the ground.

A number of buildings had animated shows projected on the them, usually incorporating the building's features. Going from very abstract to very imaginative. We got home in the early hours, but worth it!

sunflower - tournesol - zonnebloem