Going nuts

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The last few days have been dominated by domestic admin and a gradual return to gardening work, dodging showers and fitting work around family life. 

I have fruit tree pruning lined up but would prefer some cold and dry weather for this, I really dislike climbing ladders and wielding saws when the ground is all boggy. Things go squelch underfoot, the ladder sinks and leans, the grass takes a pounding, boots and gloves are a muddy mess, I guess I will procrastinate a little longer. 

My recent visit to Germany ended with me taking home a few kilos of walnuts. My mum had such a glut this year; whilst everybody else's walnut trees had died (!!), hers has produced a bumper crop. No miracle, just nature's response to stress and threat. She was lucky that the tree survived, it is in a more sheltered spot than her friends' and neighbours' trees who are growing their fruit in an out of the village orchard. Mums walnuts are grown organically and they are of course an edible memento (tree planted by my dad when I was a teen), so I was very happy to bring a large bag over.

We have been testing the new nutcracker and I am chuffed to bits as it is working very well.

Also at my mum's I checked out some recipes and came across an unusual one for a nutcake, made without flour but with semolina and without butter, too. It did sound austere but turned out really rather nice. Filled with a mixture of whipping cream & ground nuts and topped with a icing sugar & cocoa glaze it is very tasty, moist, not too sweet and should keep in the fridge for several days (if the handsome d*vil does not devour it sooner). Just as well I did not make any resolutions of the dieting kind...

 

In keeping with the title of today's post I have been going a little nuts over another discovery made in Germany: my passport will run out in July! This may not mean much to you but I have vivid and painful memories of the effort required 10 years ago and sure enough, things have not improved much. 

Still a hard to navigate website to find crucial information re the process, lead times, paperwork required, still need to present myself at the embassy in person, still need to book an appointment (earliest one I could snaffle was early March), usual reams of paperwork to bring along. I did manage to find everything, although the birth certificate took some hunting. I have surpassed my organisational skills and booked my train ticket as wel; if the embassy experience is the same as last time, I will be traumatised within minutes and a spot of shopping may be in order. That or a stiff drink.