Thursday 16th October 2025

Post flu, life is getting back to normal.

We are both up before dawn, have coffee and off to the gym just after seven, going via the petrol station as the car was running on fumes.

Up the stairs and on the bike, this time I cycled round Prague for forty or so minutes: the touristy bits very touristy, the rest; empty.

We should go.

Back in the car and home for a brew and breakfast, and then the main event of the day: making sloe jelly.

The difference between jam and jelly (in the UK) is that in jelly the fruit is strained and filtered out, thus leaving the juice to be boiled and set. In jam the whole fruit is left in and part of the delight.

Sloes are small and sharp variety of native plum: in fact there are sloes, damsens: which are small and sweet plums, that make good jam. In in the middle: bullaces, a combination of sloes and damsons.

We make flavoured gin with sloes, but you can make jelly. And as there had been a glut of sloes this year, we collected a spare couple of bags then froze them.

Freezing the fruit spits the skins and makes getting the juice out easier.

So all the defrosted sloes were washed and put in a large pan, topped with water and brought to the boil, then left to simmer until the berries had broken down.

Once cool enough, the juice was ladled off, then the fruit put in a bag, suspended from a door and the remaining juice squeezed out.

That took all morning. And part of the afternoon.

We needed the same amount of sugar as we had juice: 3.8 litres, so nearly 4Kg of sugar.

I went to Tesco to get jam sugar, high in pectin.

We then realised we didn't have enough jars to put the jelly in, so we ordered some online which will be delivered on Saturday.

It is half term next week, so I nipped into town for a haircut, and as it turned out, a shave too. So not to mix with the kiddies too much next week.

I went to Cousins, where a hair cut, hair was, shave, hot towel, and massage came to all of £25. And at the end I looked lovely.

And so to the afternoon, where I read more of Stuarts book on The Beatles, and the non-Beatles who made their rise and success possible. Its written in a light and breezy manner, meaning the reader can dip in and out of it.

Jools went out for the afternoon: afternoon tea with the group she exercises with on a Wednesday, then home for an hour before heading to Sholden for her craft club.

I stay home, look after the cats, Scully in particular. Have defrosted jambalaya for dinner, then a quick tidy up before some writing and watching the only game on TV.

This weekend there might be two comets to chase, on Saturday and Tuesday the evenings are clear, so should be fun.

Other than that, another normal day at Chez Jelltex.