You can take a horse to water...........

I spent nearly all day gardening on Sunday, and left Mason trying to sort out various problems with his project. I managed to catch up with a few emails which were overdue.
On Monday I went off to Pinner for a change, it is a beautiful bus ride and made a change. The weather is still terribly hot. When I got home I tidied up a bit.

On Tuesday Margaret called round, and we sat outside in the shade and had icy lemonade. Poor John was at home recovering from having a tooth taken out by the dentist. It was nice to chat to Margaret as we had not seen each other for a while. As Mas had spent all day on the computer or phone, we decided to go out for dinner at the Man in the Moon to break the monotony.
It was steak night, so we both had one. Ken came in, and said his TV had just gone wrong, and he had come to watch the football match so he sat where he could watch it, and we went off home once we had finished our meal.

On Wednesday we went swimming in the afternoon. As usual we separated to go to the changing rooms, Mas saying he would see me in the pool in a minute. I swam alone for 50 minutes, knowing he must have got talking to the guys in the changing room.
Another lady was swimming too, the pool was fairly empty, and I got talking to her. She was from Croatia, and had lived here for 15 years, she was wondering where her partner had got to, and I suggested that he and Mas were talking together; before long they both appeared.

After swimming for an hour I got cold, and with lots of protests from Mas, left the pool, showered and dressed, and walked around several football pitches looking at the variety of bushes and plants. After two hours of this, Mas came out, and we left! He had not done any exercise, just talked in the pool!

A morning tea party

While we were having a very late breakfast Maheena called in to ask us to come to her house at 11am for tea. I mentioned that I had a bad cold, but this was brushed aside in a Que Serra Serra manner. After rushing about briefly we went to her home and found that Margaret and John were there too. We chatted and ate interesting snacks that Maheena had produced, and drank Indian tea made with milk and spices which was really nice. After a few hours we left as Mas was expecting a phone call.

Going to our house we saw Ben and chatted for a moment, me keeping my distance as my virus was probably feeling friendly; I really hope I have not passed it onto any of my friends.

While washing up later I saw a new cat in our garden sharpening his claws on a tree. It was a smallish pretty tabby cat and I noticed he was wearing a magnet on his collar. It is good our cat door will now only let Salty in otherwise I could envisage a team of cats romping through the house at night.

We watched a Jackie Chan video called Tuxedo in the evening. We are looking at lots of videos as Barry has given them to us as he is trying to make space in his house. We will pass them on to Margaret and John later.

Snow Party

I woke up early, and was quietly listening to the radio in bed when Salty meowed urgently under the door. Thinking he was in trouble I let him in, and he burst out purring. Once I was settled in bed again he lay on my arm and wedged his head under my chin and went to sleep! He stayed put until I eventually got up, which was unusual.

We had been invited round to Margaret and John's in the evening where we met up with the usual suspects. In all there were ten of us and three children. As usual Margaret and John had made a lovely party spread which we all enjoyed, and John had cooked an apple pie with apples from the garden.

It was nice to see our friends, and everyone had a good time chatting and laughing until it was time to go home. As we left we all found that it had been snowing all the time we were indoors, and we had to be careful walking home as everything was frozen, especially the roads. Nevertheless, it had been a really nice evening, and John and Margaret deserve medals for giving everyone such a nice time.

Stinging nettle arms, corkscrew neck and toothache

I had a routine appointment with my doctor and then walked home. Mas and I had planned to have lunch at the Man in the Moon and get some shopping, but when I reached home Margaret phoned and asked if I would like to go blackberrying with her and John. I left quickly after finding some plastic boxes to put the blackberries in in and went round to their house.

We walked over to Arches field, and they showed me their favourite picking place. The weather was hot and sunny, and in short order we had picked enough to fill all our boxes, and having displaced a wasps nest we went home. I invited them to come for lunch with us, so we all drove off in John's car to Stanmore.

We had a cheery lunch together, and then collected shopping. We had caught the sun a little getting the blackberries, and all felt quite sleepy. They dropped us home before driving to their house. In the evening I froze about 8lbs of blackberries and made jam with the rest.

Today I finished off the curtains, and re hung them which was the worst part of the job, and involved me screwing my neck around like the child from 'The Exorcist'. That job done, I tidied and vacuumed as there were cotton threads all over the house, and hoped my neck would return to normal before too long.

Mas has got bad toothache which sends pain along the jaw and up into his temple, but he has to wait for his dental appointment on Friday so is taking paracetamol every four hours. We watched Simon Baker (who is also in The Mentalist) in The Guardian. After that I washed up and played with Salty and left Mas to watch Numbers.

Travelling hedgehogs and other friends

Years ago Mas bought me some Valentine chocolates and two toy hedgehogs cuddling; this is now Salty's favourite toy. When we woke up I drew the bedroom curtains and saw the hedgehogs sitting on the lawn, moments later Salty ran out of the bushes, collected them, and bought them indoors, placing them near his bowl. Salty carries these around the house in his mouth, but obviously he takes them out to play during the night as well.















Marion phoned and Mas and I talked to her for a long time; we are hoping to get together soon, but just now she is feeling ill with a bug. Margaret called round too, bringing some photos that she took during her special lunch, and had some tea. Someone else called round to talk to Mas, and Pete phoned as well. He is going to Guernsey, and I am going as well, but not for as long as he is, but he is making the arrangements for it.

In the evening we saw The Witches of Eastwick as once again there was nothing interesting to watch on TV.

Time slippage at 'The Lake House' and helpful friends

On Saturday the weather was fine, so I took some late cuttings and hope they will work. I seemed to spend most of the day doing cooking and housework, and was feeling tired when Margaret called round to bring me lots of quinces that John had gathered as I like to make preserves of them; what a nice surprise!

In the evening we watched an interesting film starring Sandra Bullock called The Lake House, in which the two main characters are living two years apart in time. It was intriguing to see how they would catch up with each other, but talking about it later we thought the original book must have made a smoother ending without leaving so many questions unanswered.

Today I took some more cuttings, and cooked and froze some cooking apples for later use.
Pete phoned and chatted, and later Ben phoned from Guernsey with all the latest news. Luckily it turned out that he and Poppy would lend me their exercise cycle as I mentioned that I was going to buy one later and get super fit.

We watched Heartbeat and A Touch of Frost in the evening.

Banana bread with Taggart, after breakfast with Margaret.

Yesterday Mas was late getting home, so I took the opportunity to recycle some bananas and made banana bread. All went well until I was washing the blender. I poured hot water into it and it burst into about eight pieces which is odd as I am always blending boiling hot soup in it. Maybe after so much soup blending it had glass fatigue! The house smelled nice from the cooking though.
Mas came home exhausted after his meeting and trailing through all the tube labyrinths of St. Pacras and King's Cross. We had dinner and watched a violent Taggart episode (just the kind of TV show to give you pleasant dreams!) before going to bed rather early for us.

Margaret called round after breakfast today and we had a coffee and cake and talked for a while. We live in the same street, but had not seen each other for a month or so. After this Mas and I did a few chores locally.

Camellias in our garden.