Good Saturday - Y lunches with Sylvia

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A pleasant Saturday. I took Y to town where she was meeting Sylvia for lunch at The Bell.

While she was there I went to Carphone Warehouse and bought a new mobile. The minor defects in my existing Samsung - 'warning tone of impending appointment too faint' and 'not going off at all in some circumstances' finally reached irritation point. In any case Hannah quite fancies my exisiting one. So I have returned to a tried and trusted Nokia 6500 slide.

It will take me ages to work out how to use its wide range of facilities but I shall get there. The warning tone is loud enough even for my wax-full ears. Having them syringed on Friday 24th though, prior to our holiday. And Yes, I have been doing the warm olive-oil bit.

The Bell has undergone a major re-fit which Y tells me has been mostly downstairs and affected them little. Her last visit had resulted in a 20% off voucher which made the meal and drinks under a tenner. Sylvia doesn't really like The Bell, preferring the fawning waiters at Café de Paris, and in anycase she had forgotten her voucher.

Picture 1 is, as you can see, a snap of a Small Tortoiseshell aglais urticae and I'm quite pleased with the photograph. Probably Bungus will manage some constructive criticism but we are used to that n'est ce pas?

Picture 3 is to keep you uptodate with the Liquidamber which gets progressively redder. In the course of the next few weeks some leaves go purple and all sorts of other shades in between. One of which is a virulent dark green. Watch this space.

Before setting off for town I got down on my hands/knees and cleared a patch for the gooseberry bushes. I have one of those kneeling things with handles which makes it all possible. The plants looked healthy, with little buds just emerging. Far too early of course, but a good keen frost will slow them down a bit.

This evening we enjoyed Strictly come Dancing and there were some excellent performances. Those at the top - Cherie, Tom, Austin don't need our support. In the end Y voted for Heather Small and I voted for Jodie Kidd.

Comments

Bungus ....... Don't let the Moon/melon similarity worry you. It's only my over-active imagination anyway.

The full moon we have just experienced was the Hunters' Moon by the way.

You weren't supposed to SEE anything in the Shower. It was just that we have had a new shower fitted, complete with new basin, and I wanted to 'record' that boring fact. For me the whole purpose of my blog is for family and friends to have access to our routine lives, both now and for the future. Hence the 'record' shots. How do you feel it should be?

As I keep advising you - "Write your own blog and then you can have whatever content and whatever pictures you approve of".

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E-mail just in with this picture attached. Earlier in the day David rang for Delia's oven-baked winter vegetables recipe which I dictated to him over the phone.

As is so often the case with Delia, she helpfull says that the choice of vegetables isn't set in stone ! Use whatever you have.

He followed it and and was very pleased with the result, to accompany Jamie Oliver's Sea Bass á la Tony Blair but with Rainbow Trout substituted. As David says the trout is less expensive than the sea-bass and just as tasty. It eertainly looks excellent my boy! Congratulations !

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Baby-sitting at Burton Joyce tomorrow evening. But plenty to do before that.

Bit tired - so I'm closing there..... David's always loved this picture -



Good night and sleep tight
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