Autumn jay

The cemetery was full of jays today and the sun brought out all the colours in the autumn leaves. It was glorious. 

Work was slow and steady with no video meetings scheduled (phew!) though a work buddy called at the end of the day to ask for advice, which I gladly gave. It was nice to have a wee blether, too, which we would do normally if we were in the office.

The West Norwood Feast video meet this evening was one of finances and logistics for next year. It's hard to plan when we don't know what the year will hold. The news of a vaccine has raised everyone's hopes, but I think it's unlikely we'll all be back to normal before the first market day of next year in spring. At the moment, we lose money every time we put on a market because we have fewer stalls (just over half of what we normally have) due to social distancing measures but our operating costs are the same. We discussed operating more markets next year to make up costs but if we can't run at full capacity, there's no point in having more markets. We agreed to keep on being flexible as we can't plan anything definite. On the plus side, it was lovely to meet two new volunteers. 

I had a late evening shop to buy some ingredients for the (utter delicious) recipe Fred cooked tonight and the pineapple lamingtons I hope to bake tomorrow. I got the last tin of pineapple in West Norwood. I wonder if everyone is baking pineapple things. 

Bake Off brought back memories of eating jelly cubes straight from the packet as a child. Fred was horrified – he finds jelly disgusting. As Hermine said, I must have had fantastic nails and hair. I ate A LOT of jelly cubes. My poor Mum must have been exasperated at her eldest child's cupboard raiding.