beer beer beer beer

following our successful first attempt at homebrewing (45 bottles of lager that actually lasted longer than i thought they would) today we have got the second batch on the go. this time we are making stout. i love stout. and porter. and kolsch. and well any beer really.

we go to a wee shop in thornwood that has been there forever. the woman who runs it is super helpful and never upsells anything (pretty rare). when i asked about buying citric acid she says "ocht just squeeze a lemon in it"! there is a huge range of kits which i am looking forward to working my way through.

we also have, just about ready to bottle, elderberry and bramble wine which we made from local bounty. there are loads of elder trees round jordanhill and temple and hunners o brambles obviously. i had made elderflower champagne before, but with this wine we can't touch it til next year!

looking forward to nettle beer and wine next year. would love to try birch sap wine as well if i can find a tree to tap, that would be pretty cool.

oh to be self sufficient in booze...cheers!

sneeze cough sneeze

day two of feeling like shite. sore throat, chesty cough, general lethargy. poor me.

I'm trying to embrace the enforced lying around time but I'm not very good at it. keep thinking of things i could be getting on with in the garden. how i should use this time off work wisely, then remembering why I'm off work in the first place....

still its nice in here with the stove and the cats, even though I'm sitting on the floor as they take up the couch....

i mean, would you mess with these two??

well my throat is extra sore as I've just been on the phone to my bro for nearly two hours (boy can we talk) so I'm off for a lemsip and half a bottle of covonia. if only i had some whisky!!!

i pretty much forgot....

i'd even started this blog!

it might me cool to do it a bit more, even just as a personal record for myself.

got our wee wood burning stove put in today. it looks so lovely and it will be ever so cosy in the winter. another step on the way to becoming a bit more self sufficient. there are so many places around here we can pick up wood from, its just lying around all over the place! we have made one order for seasoned wood, and hopefully that will be the only one we ever have to make.

love this time of year. leaves are turning. will soon be putting on my northern exposure box set and drinking mulled wine beside the fire. what joy!

bank holidays are mans greatest invention

so tomorrow is a sunday before a bank holiday monday. in times gone by this would not have mattered to me but now i have bank holidays off it makes me very excited. barry is off work and ive just been paid and the world (partick) is our playground. i have a thought to go to optimo but the bank hol crowd is often insufferable and i would end up getting hammered in order to put up with them. but it would be great to see some old friends and dance like a maniac for hours on end. it has been a while.

perhaps just some drinking in the finest hostelries glasgow has to offer. the three judges jazz session will be a promising starting point. and the merchent city festival is on if we feel like breaching the boundaries of partick town. i just love the vibe of a sunday before a holiday monday, everyone out having a great time knowing that they dont have to go to work the next day. eat drink and be merry!