So now it is dark by 5pm and the trees are absolutely stunning this year. I don't know if it is because we had such a wet summer but the colours are incredible and the leaves seem to be sticking on the trees for a long time. The reds, golds, ambers, russets and browns are beautiful. I might venture down to Temple Newsam tomorrow to see what kind of display the trees there are putting on.
Mum has finally had her nose job. She had a basal cell carcinoma (which sounds more alarming than it apparently is) which was mis-diagnosed for many years and therefore being wrongly treated with creams and antibiotics. Finally, it was recognised as a rodent ulcer - the non technical name for it - and she was referred to a specialist. Removing these growth is supposed to be straightforward. You may recall that the removal was supposed to happen last June - on the day dad died - but was cancelled because mum's heart rate was erratic and because the numbing agent contains adrenaline they did not want to go ahead. So, after a long process of referral back to her heart specialist, waiting for cardioversion to correct the heart rate, and waiting again for skin specialist referral - she finally had the ulcer removed this week.
All went well - they did not use a general anaesthetic - but my god her face is a mess! She looks like she has been badly beaten up. This is due to the fact that at the same time as the ulcer is removed a skin graft is taken to cover over the area. The graft was taken from her cheek. It's all very clever, and I am sure it will look great when it has healed but for now it is pretty horrible. Underneath mum's eye is bruised and puffy and she has two big lines of stitches on her face. And through all this she's been terrific - in fact the only thing she's bothered about is having the stitches removed!
The recent cook fest went well. The mushroom risotto was excellent and I will definitely remake. The sticky stuff for the binfire party went down a treat - they'll be repeated too. Salmon fishcakes were also good - and I also made a Nigella chocolate cake which includes half a jar of marmelade - I'd forgotten all about this one, but found the recipe again when I was leafing through "Domestic Goddess". I LOVE the Nigella Christmas book - it's fabulous and there are lots of recipes in there that I intend to try. When I do I need to try to take some pictures - not that I'd ever compete with some of the fantastic food blogs out there.........
