The astute amongst you might have noticed that amongst the photos on Sunday there was a lone corn on the cob looking a bit stumpy in my hand. It is all that we had from the corn seeds that I  sowed in the summer. I left the planting of them too late and although they grew vigorously for a while we only had the one cob. I picked it before the full weight of winter set in.

I ate it earlier this evening. Once shucked it was about two and half inches long and there was clearly a bit of growth to go. But I put it in boiling water for ten minutes or so and then ate it with butter, salt and pepper and it tasted ok. Next year I will plant then earlier and get a better crop.

Of course that is not all that I am eating this evening. There is a partridge roasting in the oven. It is sat on a bed of potatoes and apple and has got a piece of fatty bacon lain across its breast. The potatoes went in first, cut up into half inch cubes and turn in oil, salt and pepper and cooked until they started to brown and crisp. I then stirred in some peeled and cubed apple, a small clove of garlic and put the partridge with its bacon on top. It all had a splash of red wine before it went back in the oven

A good cure for a cold I’d say along with the rest of the red wine.

Tired and grouchy and about to be filled up with cold. I should finish my glass of very nice red wine and head off to bed as I have another early start to Birmingham tomorrow morning.

Before I do that I should mention The National who we went to see in concert last night in Manchester at The Apollo. I have probably come late to The National as they only clicked a few years ago after they released High Violet. That same year I saw them play in a big tent at The Latitude Festival whilst the rest of the family and friends were watching Florence & Her Machine. Over the years there were a few that regretted not having come with me.

When I saw they were playing in Manchester I discounted the idea of getting a ticket as I thought they would be sold out. I was right but then another date was added and someone got tickets and so Galen and I found ourselves in the Apollo last night.

The last gig I took Galen to was two years ago to see a band called Howlin’ Rain in a damp empty warehouse in Manchester. As I recall there were only about 30 people watching and we were stood right by the stage. It was some of the most ferociously loud music I have heard. Guitars turned up to 15. It was so loud that Galen was almost reduced to tears as become overdone by tiredness and the sheer sonic overload.

He enjoyed himself a lot more last night. We agreed that there was something very cathartic in hearing a man singing about being having been carried in the arms of cheerleaders whilst guitars were being pummelled behind him. Hopefully we will be going to see a few more gigs soon although I doubt I will be able to persude him to try a return visit to Howlin’ Rain. Pity.

So did you watch. Did it make you feel better? Apart from the bit about American Express??!!

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.

Last night we had one of my favourite quick evening suppers. Apart from boiling water and cooking a bowl of pasta no cooking was required.

I picked up a dressed crab from The Farmers Market. Everything else was in the house.

So put water onto boil for the pasta. Spoon out all the brown and white meat from the crab into a bowl. Chop up some red chilli and a couple of cloves of garlic and stir into the meat. Squeeze in the juice of two lemons and a very good glug of good olive oil. Chop parsley and, if you have it, dill and stir that in as well. Taste. Season with salt and pepper. Taste again to make sure you are happy with it. Try not to taste too much.

By the time you have done all this the water should be boiling. Put in the pasta to cook. Normally this would be eaten with linguini but one of the kids had announced he didn’t like linguini so we had none in the house. I used corrugated fusilli instead which were well shaped to pick up the sauce.

Once the pasta was done I stirred in most of the crab sauce leaving some to smear over the top once the pasta was on each plate. another hot pungent sauce.

Later that evening I went into Liverpool to watch Phosphorescent in The Kazimer. Blissed out cracked voiced Americana. It was a good gig in a small intimate venue with the audience almost hanging over the stage singing along. I resisted the temptation to buy a t-shirt.