Well everything really collapsed this week.


I drained the syrup into a new demijohn using a funnel and a clean tea towel. I did this inside on our lovely laminate floor that had to be scrubbed and scrubbed. Who knew that sugar and pumpkin syrup would be so sticky?



With the remaining pumpkin and sugar I chopped it up and added water, yeast and yeast nutrient. I then cling wrapped the box.



Later in the week I checked it out and both the box and the demijohn were fizzing away. If you look closely at the picture below you can see sediment on the bottom and foam on the top. It smells very fermenty in there!

The pumpkin has collapsed and leaked.  I have cleaned it up some more and placed cling film over the top to make it more airtight. I have also ordered some demijohns as I feel that this is perhaps a little too medieval.

I am cream-crackered, Kill the Messenger was a great success and audiences at all three venues were very positive in their response.


I'm looking forward to the next one!

Well, I thought I'd go and have a look today. We've had a couple of warm days so it might have got a bit of a move on. The Pumpkin has been sweating in the box which may also be speeding up the process.


I have been expecting some mold (which you're supposed to wipe off when it appears but I didn't expect to get some so soon. (For the following sentence imagine me speaking in a very throaty geeky voice, like Yoda but not as cool.) As you can see from the picture below there is white mold forming on the stem area. I have wiped the mold off (as suggested).



















After this I open up the pumpkin and am disappointed, thought not surprised to see mold on the walls.



















However I am excited to see the walls as the sugar has already dissolved to form a thick and delicious looking brown syrup.



















Cleaning out the inside of the pumpkin is an easy task and I then fill it up with more sugar. It is now exceptionally heavy.




















The lid is now replaced and I put cling film on the top and place it back in the box. I will check it more readily.
Will it start to hiss and pop soon?

I thought today, that as I have more pumpkins than I need that I might do a few interesting things with them.

The pumpkins have taken really well to the garden, two plants spreading fast and producing, so far, three fully grown fellas and it's only just September!

I went online and found recipes for Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin and Chick Pea curry, pumpkin Soup, but then I remembered something much more fun and challenging. Rum. My dad has a wine and spirits recipe book that contained instructions for Marrow rum, now what if I could do the same with Pumpkin, wouldn't that be a bit nicer?

In the interests of scientific (as well as culinary) research I want to see how long it will take and how much one pumpkin will produce. Of the utmost importance though will be whether it tastes like crap. Here we go...

So I picked my best pumpkin from one of my two raised beds...



















Then I took it to the kitchen and cut off the top, scooping out the seeds (saving some for next year)...




















After this I poured a 2kg of sugar enough to fill it to the brim, I added a a teaspoon of cinnamon to the sugar and mixed it in.

















Finally I put the top back on and put it in a clear plastic tub in the garage.
Now then I just have to wait for it to hiss and pop before I drill some holes in the bottom.
We'll wait and see...

About to go watch a rehearsal for this "old" play. Will try and get some photographs up.

Also have finished first draft of "Deadman's Lane" see groovy pic below as appetiser!

Twitter Novel is going well. Am just getting the hang of how the whole Twitter thing works. Now I need to get back to the regular novel-writing. Really want to finish The Jesus Man. Watch this space.

Not being one to jump on a bandwagon I have jumped on a bandwagon and started the world's first (probably) twitter novel. I have just discovered Twitter and like the fact that it makes you reduce the amount of info in your writing. I am going to be writing this with Steevan Glover - it will take ages, but you can see this book build day by day and sentence by sentence over the next year.

I am getting somewhere with this!

It should be good, I have started a new way of writing. As I have so little time due to my job I speak into a dictaphone in the car and then type up when I get a moment! It creates an instant drafting process - albeit not a very good one.

I find this picture, which is a mash up of an old victorian print and a clipart to be a real inspiration for this time travel - religious satire - I will give no more away until I have finished!

Burning wood in my outdoor oven thing. The wood that I had chopped off the tree was too damp and created lots of smoke. I took a picture of the lampshade through the smoke. I thought this would be a good cover for one of my novels, the one set in collapsing suburbia. I must get on and write this!

Welcome one and all to this my blog.


I will be using this primarily for my writing and other experiments (I might use it for my AST work in which I will outline techniques and resources that have worked. I may upload lesson plans and workshops too!)


Obviously  this is early days and I hope that I can keep up the entries. We'll see.


Happy New Year!