Shopping - Stir Fry - Messing About

The pictures are nothing to do with today's activities but I wanted to publish them. Both are Bromley House. No. 1 is the 'hallowed inner portal' to our beloved library and immediately puts one in 'shhh..' mode prior to actually going in. The picture was suffering badly from converging verticles and barrel-distortion (don't worry, I don't intend to bore you with an explanation) but I have a smashing progamme called 'PTlens' which fixed it in two clicks.

If you go through this door and keep straight ahead, without going up the stairs, you come to a door leading to the little private walled-garden at the rear of the library.

A treasure in the summer, situated as it is, a hundred yards from Market Square. Sitting there with four books to browse through, and a coffee in a private suntrap can be blissful.

Picture 2 gives a rough idea. The garden is maintained by volunteer library members and, were I fitter and less likely to fall over, it would give me great pleasure to help. I suppose that when we are settled in our new home I could satisfy my horticultural urges by growing a few plants.

This doorway also suffered from the same defects, always a problem on zoom lenses at the cheaper end of the market. But these days it is much less expensive to correct the problems later, on the computer, than to pay out say £900 on a classy lens. And not difficult either.

If it is raining or windy the porch is a welcome halfway house The garden is an original feature and the flag-stones are gorgeous.

Anyway, enough about Brommers. We went shopping, Lidl followed by Morrisons, and as if by magic filled three enormous bags. A boot-full. It amazes us how two people, both seventy-plus, manage to need so much revittalling. And we throw hardly anything away. I had to dispose of about a dozen yellow/brown brussell-sprouts and four shrivelled mushrooms the other day. Mind you it isn't just food, it's these wretched bargains Lidl tempts you with. Today we bought a full sized glass, spaghetti jar, at 99p it was irresistable and some clear plastic storage boxes which also were incredibly cheap and allowed us to chuck out some old, stained ones. I remember, way back in the 1950s before tupperware came along, covetting a square plastic storage box for my sandwiches. But we couldn't afford it that week and I had to carry on with the my red and white tin box. Nowadays they are disposable packaging - great shame too because they aren't bio-degradable.

For lunch I did a crispy-beef stir-fry. Thin ribbons of beef tossed in cornflour, and then lots of mixed veg. added for the last 4 minutes. An oyster sauce added, with a few drops of Sesame seed oil completed the stir-fry stage. And it was good, I managed to get the beef crispy without being over-done. OK Tracy, I'll stop there !!

This afternoon Y answered a couple of e-mails and carried on with her BBC webwise computer course which she is, obviously, doing well with. Her keyboard skills give her a racing start. I had a charming e-mail from Gary, the MD of the bookchair company. He dealt with my first enquiry which I sent to the wrong bit of the organisation, and he wrote yesterday to answer my concern that it hadn't yet arrived.

Tomorrow I have the RPS Regional Meeting about distinctions panels starting at 10.30am. They are meeting at Ravenshead which is all of six miles away; so I suppose booking in for the buffet lunch is a slight self-indulgence. But I shall enjoy the chance to mix and mingle and no doubt meet another batch of old friends.

...Catch you tomorrow, even if briefly.