This and that

Yesterday was a lovely day and i spent some of the morning cleaning my front driveway which is mainly block paved. Thanks to being in the EEC we are no longer allowed to use Sodium Chlorate which in May this year was banned from use. I tried on several occasions to get some on the web, but all had removed the product well before the May deadline. It is now much harder to clean the paving. generally there is a build up of moss and weeds between the paving. Anyway while I was working, my next door neighbour came to see what I was using. This is a proper wire brush, on a broom type handle, the wire being about wide enough to fit between the gaps of the paving. She was impressed. I mentioned it to her that as she had an petrol driven grass cutter, perhaps her partner could see if there was anything on the web that could fit on her mower. As
I informed her, if it was swept with a mechanical brush there would be no need to clean the paving. This providing it was brushed regular. I then remarked that the block paving on supermarkets and coulcil places were kept clean that way. I then mentioned to her, that if I had my way again I would never have block paving done. She readily agreed and commented that it was labour intensive to keep clean and tidy.
In the afternoon, I ached from doing block paving, I went to pick the cooking apples. I mentioned it before that they were large. I weighed 3 of the larger apples and they weighed 1 kg. Far too large really, I then severely pruned the cooking apple. I have probably mentioned it before , it is a Bramley. This is a cooking apple, something that most on the continent will not be familiar with. It is used only for culinary purposes. Apple pies and crumbles, baked apples and apple sauce. It is perfect for these as they boil down to a fluffy pulp. Well, as most will know I am a diabetic so I can not or I am not supposed to have apple pies or apple crumble with any sugar. bramley apples are very very tart and need sugar. Well I will not have many apples next year. Mind you, they are excellent keepers. This year, I had my last Bramley apple in May, using it for apple sauce to go with pork. They are much sweeter when they have been in store.
Today was wet to start with so nothing was done at all. It did brighten up later and I went out for a short time to do more block paving. I now have about 40% of the driveway comlpeted. Tomorrow though, nothing will be done as my friend will be here hopfully getting my flue cleaned and later I go for a flue jab.
Just a note as to why no blog for a couple of days. Two words. Ryder Cup. It took up all of my spare time mind you it was exciting, it would not have mattered who had won it was a great weekend and more due to the rain. Golf was the winner. Now we wait for another 2 years. I only hope that I am still around to see it. More soon.