Perfect cook’s gift. This little ceramic garlic grater from Majorca is ideal: authentic, decorative and useful. Huge thanks to Louise for it.
Challenges of rail travel. Whether you took a train or not, give a thought to those of us who will struggle or find it impossible if the ticket offices are closed. I talked about some of the difficulties and you have your chance to comment too before 1 September: go to https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/train-station-ticket-office-consultation. You’ll find the form (may not be very accessible), the e-mail addresses of all the rail companies and Transport for London, the e-mail address for general responses schedule17@transportfocus.org.uk plus a postal address. Don’t be shy: share your concerns with every contact you can.
Honey harvest. Just completed the very sticky task of extracting the last of this year’s honey from the hives. Think of a wooden frame (like a hanging file) which contains a thick sheet of honeycomb. The bees have filled each cell with nectar, evaporated the water to create honey and capped the cells with wax. We remove those cappings and place the frames in an extractor. I turn the handle of the extractor so the centrifugal force expels the golden deliciousness. The honey is filtered to remove the odd bee leg before standing overnight (at least) so any remaining debris can be skimmed from the top. The “empty” frames go back to the hives with other full frames to feed the bees over the coming winter.