It never rains but it pours!

The weather overnight and this morning was shocking.  November is proving to be a shitty old month.  It rained and rained and rained throughout the night and then we had a brief respite and then it lashed down again in between our first coffee and our second coffee.  I know because John got up to make the first one and walked across the conservatory without any issue and then when I got up to make the second I could see that we had had some water coming in.  Fortunately the remainder of the day was dry and bright so John set about investigating what had happened.

It transpires that the 'stuff' he was sold in the week to replace some of the aging silicone on the conservatory roof and which he was told was suitable to use with Aluminium was not.  It had held off any ingress of rain until the last storm which proved to be a storm too far and then it had given up the ghost.  On closer inspection John could see that it had not hardened, or if it had was now reduced to a soft goo which looked like bird poo and poo from a poorly bird at that.  This was now spread in lumps down the glass but fortunately not really visible from the inside.  John shot off down to Glykkis and got something which he knew would do the job and set about fixing the issue.

Whilst he was doing that I set about doing some cooking as we have Mum for lunch tomorrow.  I also had a few bits and pieces that needed using up - during the first lockdown I made a lot of soup.  There were some rather eclectic mixtures during that time - so much so that often the soup was merely referred to by its colour rather than its ingredients.

Today was possibly my most eclectic yet - pear and butterbean soup - the Vegan recipe called for celeriac but I didn't have any of that so I substituted that ingredient with some...

...cheese!!! well I had a lot that needed using up so I thought what the hell???  I didn't actually have any pears either but a carton of some weird pear juice which John had bought on a whim one day and which neither of us really liked.

Apart from those substitutions and the addition of some chili and ginger the recipe was much the same!!

What resulted was a rather nice soup with a sort of sweet and spicy flavour which looked a bit like the adhesive goo which was slipping nicely down the glass of the conservatory.  I didn't for one minute think that John would like it but he took one mouthful as my taster in chief and then served himself a cup declaring that it was absolutely the right thing to warm him up having been up on the roof getting wet removing goo and replacing with silicone.  I am glad he liked it as I made rather a lot and I can see we will be eating this for quite some time to come.

I checked in on Sonia to make sure she was ok - she had a couple of things she wasn't able to manage now that she is incapacitated but she is determined to do as much as she can.  A friend had kindly brought her some soup in a yoghurt tub but Sonia couldn't get the lid off!!  Simple things that we just don't take into consideration when we have two hands or even only one hand which is functioning.  John will go round later this evening and light her woodburner for her so that she is warm - after the rain of last night it is important that she doesn't get a chill on top of everything else.  We have agreed that she will give me a text in the mornings just to confirm all is ok and then I wont have to disturb her unless she needs me.  I did tell her I was cooking a traditional Lamb Casserole with Pearl Barley and Dumplings for tomorrow's lunch and her eyes lit up so if there is enough I shall ensure I put a bowl back for her.