Yes, I’m afraid I am now going to break with tradition + count 3 days as 1. Especially necessary at the moment – not only am I 3 days behind time, it now being the early morning of Saturday the 26th, but also the 3 days are very much the same. In addition, it is very important that I get up to date, because there is so little time that is light after we finish work for me to be able to do anything.
Anyway – the similarities – we get up, eat a breakfast of cereal + banana, followed by jam sandwiches, (mine with peanut butter.) Then to work, where we pick apples all day, more or less without a break. On the 3 days in question, we filled 4, 5 + 6 bins, but this is not a sign of our improvement, such things being left very much to chance, whim + the weather. We finish somewhere between 5.30 + 7, back to the tent, light a fire, cook a meal, + sit around it till about 8.30, then bed. We usually read by torchlight – it’s dark at 7.30 – for 10 mins or so.
The differences? Chiefly the meal of course, the highlight of the day. On Wednesday it was sausage, egg, tomato + beans, Thursday spaghetti with tomato sauce, + Friday a vegetable stew. Each of them was magnificent, tho’ they all benefitted from those 2 sauces, the open air + a hearty appetite. There were other differences between the days. On the last 2 Rob shared the meal with us – we’re pretty much a group now, + shall miss him when he goes – he leaves about Oct 11th. Also, on Thursday lunchtime, I took an hour off to drive to the local shopping centre, to cash a travellers’ cheque + buy some goodies. Most notable among these were a half-bottle of rum, which massively improved our evening chocolate, + some marshmallows, which I’d never tried toasted, but which turned out to be excellent. The nights have become very cold indeed, so the evenings would see us huddled over as big a fire as we could manage – once the cooking was done, cupping our hands round a rapidly cooling hot rum + chocolate, + toasting a marshmallow on a stick. Still, there is promise of a cabin, so we must enjoy such outdoor pleasures while we may.
Apologies for the three-day compendium, not something that I revert to very often, I promise. Interestingly, I was determined to keep up to date, which presumably suggests I had managed it so far (a situation which was to slip in times to come.)
It really was becoming very cold, and making camping an increasingly uncomfortable way of life.
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