For the first time, I think, since I moved here, I didn’t go to the Remembrance Sunday service at the church.  I went to the 8 o’clock service and I’ll go to the Remembrance Day assembly at school tomorrow, but this year I listened to the ceremony at the Cenotaph on the radio instead.  Last year, I was asked to play the Last Post and Reveille on the clarinet, since the village was lacking in any churchgoing brass players .  It sounded less peculiar than you might think.

Ronan and Dora came to lunch and so did Charlotte, Miriam’s mother.  Miriam (who stayed, if you remember, for several weeks in our annexe) is in Australia now and tomorrow is her birthday.  It would have been my mother’s birthday tomorrow too, her 90th.

I’ve just been out to walk the dog.  There’s a sharp frost and a clear sky.  I used the torch on my phone, and was mildly interested to note the vapour wafting away from it, with the heat it gave off.  I touched it and it felt quite cold, however.

I mentioned that our Bramley apple tree had a very good crop this year and I’ve got the best apples in store.  I’ve been using up the windfalls, or the better ones anyway.  I’ve still got a couple of pounds of cooked apples in the fridge, we can’t flag yet.  We’ll never eat all the apples in the larder and  I’m running out of puddings.  Maybe I should make some mincemeat.  Except then I’ll have jars of mincemeat not to eat.  H’m.