Yesterday I had the intention of doing my fruit liqueurs, then having a dose of Night Nurse and getting an early night. With the intention of lying-in till midday, should I be so fortunate!
Well, best-laid plans of mice and men, and all that...
M. Waeber showed up about 6-6.30pm, just as I was squishing the defrosted sloes, so I stopped doing that whilst we chatted. Next thing I know, it's gone 8pm and I still have a pile of fruit that shouldn't go back in the freezer. Neither was I happy with the idea of just leaving it in a warm kitchen.
So, I squished away, and filled jars with sugar and gin, and shook them, and wrote labels [before I could forget what I'd done; the sleeplessness is really causing memory issues!], and put the results in the (newly-branded) "fruit-liqueur-cupboard" [sounds so much better than "secret-gin-cupboard", don't you think?].
By which time is was nearly 11pm, so after a snatched supper and calling David and reading a bit in front of the woodburning stove to relax, it was 12.30am by the time I was starting to doze off.
Luckily I hadn't had something to make me sleep, for I woke up just after 9am feeling like a human being and was opening up the shutters [whilst ignoring the gate; pouring rain can do that to a person] thinking "Mmm, I'll light the fire, and finish the liqueurs I put off last night, and then laze on the sofa reading".
I was just about to find a waterproof coat to go and get some more logs/kindling and do just that, when M. Roussey showed up. His first question: "have you lit the fire yet?" should have alerted me to the fact that the ramoneur was due today.
Apparently, the other guy had just messed him around too long, and after waiting for the chimney sweep for over a month, he'd called someone else last week. Who got back to him at 8pm last night to say they'd be here today between 10 and 12!
Given how much mess there was last time we had the chimney swept, I didn't start with the "quarante quatre" just put some dust sheets on the sofas and made access to both of the fires.
Quick, painless, and very reasonable!
Johnnie said the reason the open fire smokes is that there isn't enough air flow; hmmm, given the hassle from J-M about that, there should be sufficient. There should also be an elbow on the outside to enoucarge air to pass into the pipes that flow to the fireplace; another thing that needs fixing...
Also, the zinc flashing around the chimney has lifted, so we need to get that fixed. I took their business card, but as we've used Charpenterie Auboise twice before (and want them to come and work here again next time we've saved up some money), I think we might contact M. Mazij first.
Obviously if he really is booked up till Christmas we'll give Angelo & Johnnie a call, but we believe that here it's best to continue professional relationships that work.
It's now turned nice (so I should be pulling out those weeds), but I think I'm going to resume my alcohol-transforming activities, and maybe will weed later if the soil dries out a bit.
One thing I did notice: I tried a small jar of non-squished sloes to see what happens, as several people had said freezing the fruit causes it to break open and thus avoids the tedious business of pricking each one with a pin. Well, I know it's only been just over twelve hours, but there's no sign of that happening yet, so I may be decanting that batch sooner than expected to flatten the fruit!
Just off to get some logs for this evening, then I'm going to get all domestic.
Oh, and the soot? About a third of a dustpan full, no mess and Johnnie vacuumed out the stove; tall, dark, handsome, uses a vacuum cleaner - I'm guessing he'd make a fantastic husband for someone!
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