Sunny.

What a glorious end to August and the school summer holiday. While there was a bit of an autumnal chill in the morning by the afternoon it was beautifully warm making all those miserable grey days seem but distant memories.

I've got a lot done today with a few small mishaps as well. Having put yesterday's washing back out on the line to finish drying off I filled the machine with the next load of sheets. But my aging machine made some unusual noises during the last spin and when I opened up the door there was a nasty smell of burning rubber. I've put the same amount in the machine before and it's coped well up till now but  Google told me I'd overloaded it. I'll have to keep the loads smaller from now on but at least I hadn't burnt out the motor which had been my concern.

Next on my list was the door frame. Starting with filling the remaining gaps and holes followed by sanding and painting with primer some hours later. My pleasure in getting this job done was marred by the sounds of loud music coming from the next street. And when I say loud I mean really loud. It sounded as if somebody had got in an entertainer for a children's party which due to the lovely weather was being held outside. It was that extreme level of volume you get with a fairground ride with the same overenthusiastic commentary that accompanies such things. As you can tell I was not a fan and breathed a massive sigh of relief when it all stopped. Later when I examined the door frame I could see a few holes that had somehow been missed earlier. That entailed mixing up a last lot of filler and now I'm sure everything has been filled ready for more painting. 

While the filler was hardening I was busy in the kitchen but still managed to get outside and do some gardening, mainly cutting things back or even down. 

Having that marrow sitting in the kitchen had spurred me on to find a suitable recipe to make use of it. Since I had most of the ingredients with just a few substitutes, Polish smoked bacon instead of pancetta and white wine vinegar instead of red (but no red wine ) I went for rings of marrow baked in the oven with a meaty tomato sauce topped with mozzarella cheese. It was all right but nothing special. The sauce was more or less the same as my usual tomato & onion sauce and lets face it marrows are far more exciting to grow than to eat. More successful was the cake I also made. Again another internet recipe which used yoghurt and vegetable oil. I changed the blueberries for cherries as I don't think that blueberries have enough taste in a cake and I threw in some mixed nuts for good measure. The cake turned out nice and soft but not a lot of flavour apart from the cherries. Maybe some jam and cream?

The day was so lovely I kept being tempted to sit outside but there was still the ironing to do. A chore but so lovely to have freshly ironed sheets.