Sloe Gin is Rather Good
Finally Margret and I got
together to sample her Sloe Gin, unfortunately the parsnips and beetroot crisps
took a tumble. I had frozen the beetroot out of Margret’s garden and the water
content made it difficult to get them to crisp up. Well in my defence I
could’ve made a better job of it if I hadn’t been doing the school uniform wash,
preparing the evening meal and a few odd jobs in the office. I have decided
multi tasking is not my forte!! Will give this up for the New Year! I sit here
wondering with a big smile on my face how that will work and I expect as you
read this you’re smiling because you know it won’t.
Kevin will say from time to time
if you just concentrated on one thing at a time you would get the job done
quicker and better! I wish I had that simple luxury, I will retort. We have
special facial expressions for this particular interchange of words and known
facts. My face holds the thought “State the obvious” his is “Silly woman”; he
would deny this but I can read faces.
Though his view on this multi
tasking lark changes when it is him needing something done while I’m in the
midst of the fray of family life, trying to be a master of something while
tackling a multitude of skills. He has this pitting and pleading look and a
hesitant question lingering on his lips that I find amusing. I always think at
this point he should give me credit for the situation that is motherhood and
never state the obvious. I make him wait until he almost asks (Kevin never asks
for anything) and does this goading dance that shimmies with my emotions. It’s
painful to watch so I relent. I can almost read his mind he would also deny
this!
So after the fluster, I finally
make it to Margret’s. My redeeming gift of fresh Figs poached in port went well
with the Sloe gin. We talked and laughed our way through the history of
womanhood and life as it was in our lifetime and what it has become, laughing
as we always do. There is nothing finer than spending time in good company.
Now I woke up the morning after,
no not with a headache, we only sipped a glass OK maybe two and I sit here and
think to myself my dad makes Sloe Gin. He talks to me about it and has offered
me a glass on the odd occasion but I have always refused saying ‘I don’t like
Gin dad’ he will always shrug his shoulders ‘fair enough’ he would say. But I must
say I feel he has let me down in my education of village life! Education is
sometime hard to impart but you should never give up on trying! I do think he
could have tried a little harder to educate me on the finer points of Sloe Gin
making.
I would like to take up the
revival of Sloe Gin making after all it is part of my heritage and the taste is
refined so worth the effort but as you have to painstakingly prick every Sloe
Berry I’m not sure I could fit this in without multi tasking in triple
duplicate. I am wondering though how many bottles dad has managed to make this
year, perhaps I will give him a call!
While writing this I have
unloaded and loaded the dishwasher and washing machine, folded the clothes and
taken a load off the clothes airier and put them in the dryer while trying to
fix the wii. I have come to the conclusion kev is right, perhaps I should just
concentrate on one task and perhaps my writing would improve, what do you
think?
