It's been a hectic few days here at casa Woodhouse. The experiment with making chutney went really well - first time of doing it in the slow cooker. Recipe was from my slow cooker cookbook and is called Spicy Mango Chutney, and made about five jars. Finished product was the most beautiful colour - a rich, golden orange due to the turmeric, butternut squash and mango in the ingredients. Had a sniff and a taste when bottling - obviously it's too soon to say exactly as it now needs to mature for a couple of months, but I think it will be good. I'm tempted to make another batch, as it'll be great for Christmas presents and mangoes seem to be very abundant at the moment - all the supermarkets are doing the most enormous ones for a pound each.

We've also noticed in the last few days that blackberries seem to be ripening like mad. One of the roads near us has a fine crop so am hoping to go and pick some later this week. Will freeze some, make some crumble and if feeling ambitious, make some jam. My mother would always take us blackberrying when we were kids and I have very happy memories of things like summer pudding and of her making big vats of blackberry jam and freezing things like blackberry pies for later in the year.

Last weekend was very quiet as Andrew picked up a bug in London, and actually was off work last Monday (the first time I've seen him be off work in years). He thoughtfully passed it on to me just before we had our long awaited visit by our two small nephews, so have been staggering through the last few days feeling dreadful. We managed Ok with the boys as Andrew had recovered sufficiently by the time they arrived to go and do the more active stuff while I skulked around the house and did the necessary cooking, tidying etc. which suited me very well as I could get on with it at my own pace and could be snuffly in peace, without straining my sore throat in conversation. It was the sort of cold that leaves your throat feeling like a cat had been clawing at it, your sinuses were about to explode and your chest like a party of Woodbine smokers had been secretly down there having a celebratory puff. Throw in a fever, aches and a lymph system struggling to cope and you're there! I'm still quite snuffly but improving gradually.

Anyway, the boys. They were very excited, and enjoyed sleeping in the bunk beds, stroking the dogs, having strawberry milkshakes, going powerboating, eating a Chinese takeaway, watching movies on Sky (we saw Nanny McFee, and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief), taking the dogs for walks, visiting a castle, doing a jigsaw, swapping stickers, playing games on the computer and picking blueberries from the garden. They loved the millions of sparrows in the garden and adored the dogs. On Saturday, when it was time for them to go home, we'd hoped to do a big family BBQ for them, their parents and brother, but it rained, so we did a sort of indoor equivalent with lots of sausages and a huge variety of salads and home made flatbreads, plus a fruit compote. After they'd gone the house seemed incredibly quiet, and the last few days we've just been very peacefully pottering about, taking things gently and catching up on various domestic items. I attach some photos. I've ordered some prints and will be making a nice little mini scrapbook to send them as a reminder of their trip.