Now that the summer is well and truly passed and autumn is upon us, I have a somewhat new venture before me. Most of the weekdays are filled with activities of one sort or another with Pilates, Tai Chi and visits to some of my favourite coffee drinking venues such as the Methodist Centre. The weekends are another matter altogether, though, as apart from a regular attendance at church early on Sunday mornings, there is no other evident highlights to the weekends. Most of my friends and acquaintances are off seeing their family at weekends in any case so I felt the need to see what local attractions were open to me during the Autumn. So I a determined to make the best of my National Trust membership which always be relied upon to have a cafe generally with a good heart-warming home made soup to sustain one in the middle of the day. So I am developing some new routines to occupy myself at the weekends during the forthcoming weeks and already have a little programme of events mapped out for myself. Firstly, though, I intend to make Saturday afternoons my ‘soup making’ day and I am going to try and make these in variety, not least because if I am stuck for a meal during the week, I always have something to hand. This weekend, for example, I am preparing a curried parsnip soup which I am sure I will really enjoy and have already ensured I have the parsnips to hand. Next weekend, though, I will probably devote to making pumpkin soup as the severe drought has caused the pumpkins to mature early this year so we may start to see pumpkins in the supermarkets a little earlier than the traditional month of October. So Saturdays being taken care of, we still have Sundays to negotiate but I have a little programme mapped out for myself. I intend to visit a very local National trust property this weekend whereas next weekend, my son and I are going to traverse the length of the Severn Valley railway. The weekend after that happens to be the weekend upon which Meg’s 80th birthday would have fallen but I have arranged to see some of our very oldest friends from Leicestershire on that occasion for a ‘catch-up’ meal which is fortuitous. For the following two weekends, I have National Trust properties lined up to visit one of which is Edward Elgar’s birthplace only acquired a couple of years ago by the National Trust (which perhaps explains why it hasn’t come into my purview before) Once October is out of the way, the Christmas markets start and I have discovered that the one in Birmingham starts in early November so this might be one for my futures calendar. Although it is not a day out, the political news from the mid-term elections to be held on Tuesday, November 3rd is bound to capture my attention as some of us have been following these potential developments avidly for months. But November will hold some other attractions for me. International rugby’s new competitive cross hemisphere tournament features the twelve strongest nations in the sport, and stars the best players in the world, all competing to win rugby’s newest silverware and titles. The Nations Championship commenced in July 2026, having been created by Six Nations Rugby and SANZAAR through a landmark joint venture, transforming the July and November international rugby windows into a single competitive tournament every two years. I read that ITV has secured the terrestrial viewing rights to this so that, too, can be added to my calendar of interesting forthcoming events.
This morning had its share of frustration because after I had received a letter from my doctor requesting me to make a further monitoring appointment, I was stuck on the end of a phone for 40 minutes whilst advanced from No. 5 to No. 1 in the queue. But this got done eventually and I ventured forth to fill up the car with petrol and to acquire a copy of my daily newspaper. I then visited the ‘Gifts of Love’ cafe where chatted awhile with the volunteer helper and some other regulars and then set forth on the High Street with the aim of discovering some glass jugs in which to store the soups I intend to make. I was fortunate with one of my choices of shops because they regularly have donations of kitchen ware and I acquired three large jugs which would hold over a litre of soup each and then a Kilner jay from another store. Although my house is overflowing with books, I did find a ‘must have’ book which I acquired for only £2.00 but which originally sold for £30 some years ago. It was commissioned by the AA and is entitled ‘Walks Through Britain’s History’ and is organised thematically, for example History, Science, Industrial Archaeology and so on. There are descriptions of 108 attractions and then a coloured map with detailed instructions of how to access the guided walk. This will probably make for some fascinating reading but of course whets the appetite for venues in the locality. For example, the book was probably worth buying just for the description of the environs of Edward Elgar’s birthplace which is on my ‘to visit’ list in any case. So I think I am going to really enjoy poring over this book not only to inform myself but also to look out other venues to make a trip. After I got home and made myself a delayed lunch of a prawn omelette, I consulted the web for some advice how to clean up the water jugs I had just acquired. I found a very homely American website where the author explained how to resurrect and make good dozens of old storage jars that she had acquired. I followed her instructions and after a quick swirl of washing up water inside each one then followed her advice to soak them all in a bowlful of warm water laced with some cider vinegar for half an hour. Then they are cleaned using washing-up liquid in the normal way before being well rinsed, dried and put away for future use. Putting together recent purchases and acquisitions from charity shops, I now have about eight capacious and sparkling glass containers ready for the onslaught. Last week, I deployed the Tefal soup maker on a ‘trial and error’ basis but I have located and printed off the English pages pf the relevant manual to ensure that I am doing things correctly. A few days ago, my kindly neighbour gave me some of the apples that had practically fallen off the apple tree in his garden so I am going to stew some of these and have these with some custard as a warming tea this evening.