Lack of sleep....

Unlike my husband I have never been one of those lucky people who can fall asleep within one minute of my head hitting the pillow. I don't know why (I don't think it has been a full moon lately...), but for the last couple of nights I have been having even more trouble getting to sleep, which has given me even more time than usual to think about what I really want to achieve this year. When I initially built my new kitchen I planned to start a jam and muffin business - trying to grow as many of the ingredients needed to make these as I could. That is still my dream in many ways, but for the meantime I have decided to focus just on jam. I figure if I can make that a success then I can branch out into other things later.
The main advantage in making jam as opposed to muffins is that jam can be stored for at least 6 months, whereas muffins need to be baked and sold on the same day (and of course taken to the shops etc. every day too). Much less waste! Anyway to celebrate my big decision I went and picked the pumpkins (before the crows ate too many of them..), bought a new jam pan (26 litre capacity) and 15kgs of sugar to start with. Tomorrow I am going to challenge the marrow and ginger jam again.....

I've been making good progress with my weeding and each day seem to discover more plants which are surviving in amongst the weeds. Today I found mini tomatoes and peppers. I guess the garden is at least one-third weeded now, although I know that by the time I finish weeding it the first place I weeded will be overgrown again. I've been getting up at 6am and doing a couple of hours in the garden before Tom leaves for work and before it gets too hot and trying to do some in the evenings too - but as it gets dark here by 7pm you can't exactly get a lot done. I did outlast Tom's father tonight though - but had to stop after I realised I was probably pulling out the pepper plants and not the weeds......