It’s amazing how quickly time passes when you’re having fun. I’ve been on holiday from work for nearly a week now - and it doesn’t seem like that long at all!

Austin rolled up into Cambridge last Tuesday. Eating and drinking commenced in the East.

Lindsey and Ian arrived in Tupton on Thursday. Eating and drinking commenced in the Midlands.

They took the eating and drinking down to the West country on Monday.

We will all take it up to the North this coming Monday.

And that will be England covered with feasting :-)

I approve of feasting. Though there is no chance that my wedding trousers are going to fit comfortably tomorrow. No chance at all.

I have bought elastic for the waistband.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is not too bad (unless you look at the BBC forecast which we will ignore for the time being). If it is as nice as metcheck or the Met Office say it’s going to be I might even wear a floatie skirt tomorrow. I am a bit worried that quite heavy rain is forecast for this evening when none at all was being predicted an hour ago. We shall see. Can’t do anything about it. And we can picnic just as well in the house as we can in Bakewell. The chicken for the sandwiches is roasting as we speak :-)

In the meantime, Lindsey, Ian, The Builder (at the weekend) and I have been exploring the local pub food provision, playing in the food shops and boosting the alcohol economy. The Cromford steam fair was cancelled because the field it was going to be in was waterlogged. The Bakewell agricultural show is scoffing loudly and proceeding as planned. They say that if you are going to hold outdoor events in England you should plan for wet weather. They are, of course, right. And they have a very pleasant day for it. Alas - we can’t go. We have shopping and cooking to do. We were going to go to the Cromford do. Lindsey and Ian booked their flights specifically so they would be able to go. It’s a bit pathetic that it was cancelled really. Last weekend the weather was quite nice and we could all have worn our wellies or walking boots.

Austin came for roast lamb on Sunday evening and has since gone to play in Sheffield. Lindsey and Ian are back from Cornwall. Taffa, Gaz, Austin and Freyja are assembling at our place this evening. Jeanette and Matthew, with Rebecca and Evie are coming up tomorrow.

Right. Off to prepare feasting food. I have half the jam tarts baked for Saturday. Once the chicken is out of the oven I shall make the other half. Then I have a log list of things to do. Towards the top of the list is to go shopping. Perhaps I had better change out of my nightie and dressing gown and put some day clothes on!