Mild.

Although we were promised a day of blustery showers the rain held off until later in the evening. It was very mild and looking at the forecast the night temperature is set to stay at 10C/50F and will drop a degree or two tomorrow. It was lovely to see the sun lighting up the yellow leaves under the acer in the front lawn.

Waking up at 3.50 this morning wasn't the best start, nothing was aching so I didn't feel justified taking more tablets. I just popped in an ear plug and listened to World Service and then Radio 4 until 7.00 when I gave up and got up to do some back exercises. Peter wasn't sleeping well either but at least he was snoring at 5.30. Not surprisingly we're having an early evening. However to round off the day I got a nasty shock when I bit into a slice of Polish rye& wheat bread bought today from Tesco's. Closer examination revealed a couple of blue mould spots, unpleasant but not worrying but when I took the loaf out of the fridge I could see black specks along the side of the whole loaf. Panic, could this be rye ergot mould which is toxic? At least if I'm ill in the night Peter will know what's wrong, but I hope not. Actually I'm not surprised as it was extremely hot in Tesco's. I'm currently self medicating with some white chocolate bought for my Christmas baking. I took photos and have already emailed my complaint to Tesco saying that I'll be contacting environmental health in the morning. Hopefully that will stir them into some recompense.

I'd gone shopping to get the ingredients needed for my Christmas cake baking. Not for us but as presents for the boys. One thing that I needed was some ground cinnamon. Lidl's didn't have any and in Tesco's their own brand was sold out. Instead I could have bought a branded jar but was loathe to pay £1.60 instead of 90p for the same size own brand. Instead I swung by Asda and was soon filling my basket with reduced mangoes, grapes and passionfruit for me and a beef pie and some spicy chicken pieces for Peter. I found the ground cinnamon and it was 59p so I bought 2 jars.

I'm following the cake recipe in one of my cookery books, hopefully with a gas oven and an oven thermometer I should get a better result than with the Rayburn. This recipe doesn't say to soak the fruit overnight but all the other ones I've seen do so this afternoon the kitchen was filled with Christmassy smells as I mixed 2 lbs of various dried and candied fruit with lemon zest and juice. I'm already straying from the recipe by adding orange zest and using whiskey instead of brandy because that's what we have. Also I shall add pecans and extra almonds. 

I even managed a bit more sewing of the chair cushion cover. Nearly done and then there'll be the sofa cover to do.

I must be tired, my proofreading has revealed that 'I pooped in an earplug,'