Grey.

Happy Solstice.

The shortest day of the year turned out to be unremittingly grey with frequent spells of steady drizzle but hey we can look forward to the days getting longer.

Much disappointment as the plasterers failed to appear. Half-way through the morning Peter got a text saying the plasterer's boys (assistants) were worried they might be breaking the lockdown rules and get in trouble with an officious neighbour. I found the relevant section in the Wales Gov guidelines that stated workmen could still come to your home to work so long as they took precautions. I copied and sent it to Peter who forwarded it to the plasterer. Maybe that'll put their minds at rest. In the grand scheme of things a few days/weeks of delay isn't a disaster but I was so looking forward to finally removing the dustsheets from the sofa and armchair and getting out the soft throws and being a couple of steps nearer moving stuff into the utility room and my study. Also it wasn't easy jumping out of bed at 7.00 to unlock the back doors and make ourselves presentable.

While I'm still in cooking mode I cooked up the two red cabbages. They filled my biggest saucepan to the brim before simmering for a couple of hours reduced the volume slightly. I now have 24 portions bagged and in the freezer. Somehow it didn't taste as good as usual even though I did check the recipe. Maybe I should have put more of the cooking bacon in or maybe it was because I tasted it after eating a bar of milk chocolate. (Not something I usually do but my sinuses and ribs were so bad I'd had to hit the painkillers in the middle of the day.) Being aware of the staining power of red cabbage I was quite paranoid about wiping up any bits that missed the chopping board. Can't see any nasty red marks thank goodness. Talking of 'red' I tried filling in a Lidl's form to complain about the orange/red food colouring but hit a wall when it came to putting in my phone number. It didn't like the land line number then when I put in my mobile number it didn't like that. I did the usual thing of making sure there were no spaces but it wanted a + and some other numbers at the start. I tried the + and the 4 they suggested but still no joy. Most of that was yesterday night and at 8.00 this morning I rang their help line to complain about the food colour and the form. A chap took all the details and their complaints dept. should send me an email. 

While the cabbage was cooking I tried a couple of things I'd seen on-line. It doesn't really show in the photo but the top half of the orange peel has a soft stalk inside. What you're supposed to do is pour in some olive oil and then light the stalk which acts as a wick and place the perforated half on top. I'll see if that works when we have our traditional Christmas Eve meal. I tried with a second orange but didn't get a stalk so I used a tiny cutter to make stars which I dried by putting them on the lid of the cabbage saucepan. The blog I saw them on had strung them up to go on a tree which I might try or have them simply scattered across the Christmas dinner table. I'm determined to make things special even if it is only the two of us.