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Well, it's taken me a couple of days to feel normal! Jet lag and a terrible coughy cold have been the pits really, but today I finally feel human.

I came home to flowers, a sparkling house, three totally ecstatic dogs oh and a lovely husband! It was just great to be home. Weather has been shocking, but today the sun came out and I got  into the garden to mow.

Lloyd has been busy while I was away. He made some pickled habanero and mandarins.

Recipe

Steep halved habaneros in whatever vinegar you prefer for 2 days

Warm the vinegar, with the habaneros to almost to boiling.

Pour into (sterilised) jars

Add the halved habaneros evenly to each jar.

Add several mandarin segments to each jar.

Voila!

Simple and lovely. (And I'm told madly hot)

Before I left we were watching a tv chef who, when he went into his larder to get something, had all his spices in identical jars. We thought this looked pretty nice, and also you could see easily what everything was. Our numerous spices were in mismatched boxes, containers, jars etc etc! and were just piled into the cupboard. When we needed anything it was pretty much impossible to find. We planned to sort ours out before I left but just ran out of time so Lloyd did it while I was away an the result is really good. Also very pretty in the larder.

We've now got 28 jars of various spices. Excellent.

He kindly wrote the names of everything on the bottom of the jars!

After almost three solid weeks of very warm weather with torrential rain the garden is terribly weedy. There are weeds in all the beds and also - oh the horror - in my veggie garden. It's no secret that I am anal about weeds in the veggie garden so tomorrow, if the weather is dry, I know where I'll be.
Oh it's good to be home!