So I have just taken the chicken out of the oven to baste it with the fat and juices at the bottom of the pan. It went into the oven about 30 minutes ago with half a lemon inside and pats of butter and sage leaves pushed under its skin. It will be good with roast potatoes, chunks of dirty carrots and green kale.

When I woke up this morning there was a bright sun streaming into the bedroom. I opened the curtains and the sky was blue, the weather good enough to walk for the papers rather than being quick about it in the car. If I get it right I can put some bacon in a pan on a low heat so that when I am back it just needs turning over before being put between two pieces of toast and a large dollop of brown sauce. The bacon this morning also came from The Farmers Market. One of the butchers there was selling off-cuts cheap, there was nothing wrong with them apart from being thicker than normal and oddly shaped. I should have bought more to go in the freezer.

Having eaten the bacon, read some of the paper and drank a second cup of tea I went out into the garden. Although there were clouds gathering on the horizon the sun was still out. I started by going through the guilty task of clearing up the windfall apples. Every year I promise myself an apple press so I can convert all the apples in the garden into juice, or even better cider, but another year has gone by without me getting round to it. There are apples still on the trees and I picked them for eating. There is one tree that hasn’t produced anything before but this year has been giving off the sweetest apples.

After that it was clearing up leaves, chopping logs and general tidying up. There appeared to be at least two Robins stalking their corners of the garden picking over the mites and small insects thrown up as I shuffled leaves and dead plantage around.

Things are still growing in the veg plot and the garlic I planted a few weeks ago are started to push up shoots through the soil.

Taking the chicken out to baste it again. This time the spoon came out with a thick black gunk stuck to it. It is sticky like treacle and tastes delicious.