TWO SMALL SUCCESSES

I had two small successes today. The first is that my jam from all of the ex-freezer fruit has now set, and tastes pretty good.

The second is that with the help of my neighbour, I managed to fit the first section of new piping for the drain in the barn. This was not an easy task, partly because I had to dig under an outside wall, partly because the pipe we had to connect it to was not at right-angles to the wall, and partly because the water table was above the level of the pipe itself. But we managed it. I felt like a soldier in the trenches during the First World War. It must have been terrible to have lived in such conditions, even without people trying to kill you.

Walter Blotscher