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.