Weekend etc.

[inulro]

The Great (Hamster) Escape

Or, George The Hamster's Awfully Big Adventure.
Went to take George out on Saturday night to discover he was not in his cage, but all the doors were still closed. Either I didn't shut the lid to his bed pod properly on Friday, or he's learned how to open it, and it fell shut when he got out. There is now a pile of books on top of it. Cue a frantic 5 minutes searching for him. We had just about exhausted all the easy places to search when I found him in the mop bucket. There's a lot of junk piled up around the mop bucket, so it's not that hard to see how he got in. There is, however, no junk in the mop bucket, so he was stuck. There is also a step up to the area where we keep the mop bucket, which is a more impressive feat. He screamed and hissed loudly when I picked him up. There don't appear to be any lasting ill effects from his ordeal, but he's noticeably less fluffy around his back end than he was before (long haired hamster).

Fruit Picking

Thanks to the generosity of aoakley and red_mel and Baby Bel, who allowed us to raid their orchard, I now have a freezer full of blackberries, cooking apples and tiny little plum-like things. The latter are very yummy but mostly stone, so I'm not quite sure what we'll do with them.

There is photographic evidence of me holding the baby. Jason is threatening to send it to my mother to wind her up. I could just threaten to send it to his mother to wind her up, but I think she is less bothered by the fact that we aren't the parenting type than my mother is.

Stuff
Dyed my own hair today for the first time in a couple of years. It's easier than I remembered, but my hair is also considerably shorter now.

The tiny gerbil is definitely a boy. Looking healthier, but not any bigger.

I'm sure there was more, but I'm falling over now. I didn't know it was possible to feel this lousy for this long and still function. For really low values of function, obviously.

Comments

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

Take the stones out; put them in a heat-proof pot with an equal weight of sugar (or less) a slug of brandy and stick them in a moderate oven, bake, stirring oxccasionally until thick. Wizz in a food processor and put on toast.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

*Food processor*?! Oven?! I've never heard of doing jam that way. How many months will it store for in a cupboard?

We put them with an equal weight of sugar and a tiny bit of water in a preserving pan on top of the stove (things like spices can be put in at this point), then boil them until a setting point is reached. As they cook, they soften and we can just pick the stones out with a slotted spoon as you remove impurities (froth) from the top. The jam needs constant stirring, though, because otherwise it'll catch on the bottom of the pan, and burned sugar kills the flavour.

While that's doing, we wash the the jars and lids and get them properly dry by heating them in the oven. Put jam in jars, put jam covers on, put lids on, and as the jam cools the lids contact and form an airtight seal. I've known jam done this way keep for at least a year.