We have come back down to Salisbury to visit The Builder’s mother. We left yesterday at about half past ten, after I had been up to the local hairdressers to be shorn (they’re very cheap but really not all that good. It’s a serviceable hair cut but nothing all that exciting. On the other hand, exciting haircuts cost in the order of £25, the local place is within a five minute stroll and they’re quite sweet. Plus you get loads of local gossip that I otherwise entirely miss out on!) So, we left after all that and after my entirely fruitless attempt to get the MacBook and the printer to talk to each other. Russia and America in the Cold War could have taken lessons on not communicating from my MacBook and my printer! A problem for another day when I have absolutely nothing else to do, I think.

The roads were VERY light on traffic!

We stopped at the Air Balloon for lunch. It’s on that road that the Highwayman is on. Leaves us one more pub to try (the Golden Heart, between the two). I had always idly assumed that the Air Balloon was a chain restaurant pub, something like Brewers Fayre. It’s not. It’s two old, old pubs joined together with lovely, fresh cooked food. The Builder and I shared a platter with a half pint of prawns, a bowl of crumbed whitebait, bread, dips and chips and salad. It was lovely.

Then we made our way into Salisbury. I wanted to go to Lakeland (Ian should never, ever go into Lakeland. We’ll never get him out again!) for a spice rack thingy and to inspect their ice cream makers. I had been pondering, as we were getting out of the car, that we could really do with a car bin. They sell those in Lakeland too. They had them by the front door as we went in!

We called at the Wilton House garden centre for a melon seedling, amongst other things (well, we called for a melon seedling - other things attached themselves to us as we were wandering around!) and then made our way to Barb’s place to deliver several rhubarb related things, for The Builder to plane her back door which is sticking and to indulge in scones, jam, cream and white wine (except for The Builder who was driving and had a cup of tea). Barb has staying with her the chef and his girl friend from the Black Dog. She had also, yesterday afternoon, managed to kidnap a passing visitor and had set him to work mowing her lawns. We had our scones and stuff sat outside in the sunshine. It was a lovely afternoon for sitting out.

We are not staying at Bridge Farm this trip (or even next :-( ) Norma has no free weekends until the autumn. So we are staying at The Swan in Stoford in the Wylye valley. It’s a lovely hotel with a grassed area across the road, by the side of the Wylye. We sat outside by the river yesterday evening with a bottle of wine and watched the river flowing and the traffic passing. We wandered up the road and admired the beautiful bridge. We came in and had a lovely dinner in the pub (well, it was all lovely apart from my fish which wasn’t entirely perfectly cooked. I mentioned this when they came to clear the plates - and they deducted it from our bill. I wasn't expecting them to do that - I was just telling them. I’d eaten the bulk of it, which was cooked. It was just the middle which wasn’t!) and then retired to bed.

Waiting for it to be breakfast time now. It’s another beautiful day. A good day for taking Gwen for a trip out. But before we go - I want the password for the pub’s wi-fi network!