It’s Cheeseday

I have several photos that I’d like to blip today. Eventually I’ve chosen the most artistic for the main, and the remainder are all extras to give you the story of the day.

Bean and I had a walk up the hill first thing in stunning clear conditions. Barry the farmer has restocked his baylage area ready for winter cattle feeding. 

The view from the top was excellent (extra 1): a sight which never fails to awe me. As usual when I’m up there I burbled to Bean about how fortunate we are to have found ourselves in this gorgeous place. She agreed.

Once home I got on with making a couple of Camemberts: a task which continued sporadically for the rest of the day. 

I then unhooked the bow saw from its nail in the garage and spent a couple of hours cutting up a huge dead  branchy-branch which had fallen off one of the massive macrocarpa trees which fringe the property. Most of it will be firewood in due course.

Extra 2 - I was having a breather, nearing the end of the job. Extra 3 shows where the branch fell from - the jagged tear 1/3 of the way up. It is just as well nobody was standing underneath when it fell.

For a change of pace after sawing I cleaned and vacuumed the new cabin, having put the sofa cover and floor rugs into the wash this morning. It’s been a few weeks ;-)

The final task of the weekend was to plant the olive trees. Conditions were perfect. The recent rain has moistened the soil and there are a few days of warm weather ahead. They are now growing in the main lawn, well-composted, well-watered and well-staked against the strongest norwesterly winds. Extra 4.

The Camemberts will drain overnight, then be salted and air dry for a day or two. They will spend a few weeks in a maturing box in the fridge to develop their white mould rinds. Finally I will wrap them and leave them another few weeks to mature fully. 11 weeks from now they’ll be ready to eat.

I’ll sleep well tonight. Bean is exhausted from supervising.