There is a danger that Spring may be round the corner. One of us was outside sweeping up the end of last years leaves and the other was inside feckling out bits of dust that had been sat quiet for too long.

The leaves are all bagged up and hopefully this time next year will have turned into a dark brown mulch that I will be able to spread around elsewhere in the garden.

In the sun the greenhouse was hot and I felt a twinge of guilt that I hadn’t got round to planting anything in there yet. If I had done then the seeds could of been making good use of the heat.

The guilt was assuaged by the fact that I had been able to extract a confession from someone whose tomatoes I have long admired that he didn’t grow them from seed but instead he picked up seedlings from the garden centre instead.

There was one solitary squashed looking daisy in the middle of the lawn but a couple of daffodils had blown cover and there was the first sign of blossom in the trees.

As a last hurrah for the cold months we had a cheese fondue recipe courtesy of Keith Floyd.

It is perhaps difficult to believe the we are blest with having two fondue sets.

I had acquired one as a Christmas present a year or before getting married and then we got the second as a wedding present. hey don’t come out very often although I do have dim recollections of being bold enough to have two different cheese fondues on the go on the one evening. There must of been a few cheese nightmares that night.

If we do have a cheese fondue then it is the Keith Floyd recipe that I use. An almost equal amount of amount of Emmenthal and Gruyere cheese cut up into cubes stirred over a low heat in the fondue pot with wine, a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of Kirsch mixed up with some cornflour. The cornflour is important as it helps bind the wine a cheese together in a smooth creamy mass.

Don’t forget to rub the inside of the pot with some garlic before you start cooking.

Once the cheese has melted and blending into wine and volcanic bubbles are bursting through the surface, stir in some chop herbs and salt and plenty of pepper, then transfer the pot to the burner and eat with crusty bread and try not to burn your mouth.

Unusually there hasn’t been much cooking this weekend and I am starting to get twitchy.

We had a takeaway on Friday night and were then asked out for dinner last night at the last minute and the fondue I was planning was left until next weekend and later this afternoon we are going for a planned lunch out.

To keep my fingers busy I have made an aubergine tian to eat tomorrow. Whilst that cooked I made a trip to the tip and continued to clear out rubbish from the basement.

No more stray bottles of beer were found but I did come across various items of beer making equipment left over from last time I thought I would try and make some beer at home about 12 years ago. I will have to use it next time I make up a barrel.

The current brew is doing well and will be decanted over the next few days for the final stage of fermentation so it is ready for drinking in a couple of days time.

There were a couple of evenings last week when I put my nose under the lid and the beer seemed to be bubbling up like some white monster ready to spill up out of the barrel and take over the basement.