Freyja. And a weekend

I meant to say and forgot. We got back from Salisbury to find a card in our letter box, addressed to Freyja, from Transport for London. I was a bit surprised.  Even more so when I read it. "We think we might have found something that you have lost. Please contact us ..."

So I rang Freyja to tell her about this. She was equally surprised.  How did they get our address?  And what has she lost?

Then she thought. On her (lost) passport she does have our address as an emergency contact. Perhaps someone has found her passport and for some reason handed it in at an Underground station, or to a bus driver or someone.

Anyway.  She rang them.  "What have you lost?" they asked.  "Well," she said.  "Someone nicked my backpack.  Could be almost anything.  But based on the address you sent your card to, at the very least you've got my passport."  "Good news," replied Transport for London. "We've got your backpack!".  And apart from her laptop, which appears to have decided to continue adventuring without her - she now has back everything that was in her backpack when it got nicked. All she has to do is go to the TfL Lost Property office and hand over £4 (I think it's £4), which is considerably less than what it would cost to replace her passport (which she will need at the end of the year for her GWT). 

So that's all good (apart from the loss of the laptop).

We had a lovely weekend.  We were at Bishops' House on Saturday morning.  We weren't expecting many visitors (Saturday morning, still winter and all that) so took books and electronics and wotnots with us to keep ourselves amused. We were astounded by the end of the morning to have had 30 visitors. They just poured in!  Mind you, it was an extremely beautiful morning. I had hung the washing out before we left and it was dry when we got home later in the afternoon. But even so, Saturday mornings tend to be the quietest shift of the weekend. People take their children to Saturday morning sports activities, they do the shopping, cleaning, washing, ironing, whatever. What they are normally not doing is walking in Meersbrook Park (unlees they are walking their dogs, in which case they still don't come and visit us!). Not sure what had got into everyone on Saturday, but it certainly filled up the morning nicely.  Even Gareth and Cally dropped by to say hello, on their way to the swings at the bottom of the park.

Then we went out to Chatsworth to lay in a few meaty supplies and some vegetables. It was a lovely drive from Sheffield to Chatsworth.  Obviously we don't very often go that way - and it really is beautiful countryside. We should do it more often - although it would not be terribly convenient!!!

I spent most of the rest of the weekend cooking.  I have chopped up grapefruits ready to make grapefruit marmalade (the peel and juice and water are macerating as we speak :-P ).  I made bread with left over stale milk and slightly out of date natural yoghurt.  I made cinnamon and apricot bread with buttermilk and sour cream (both of these ventures also had flour and yeast, naturally). We had roast beef and Yorkshire puddings for Sunday lunch and a vegetable and bean curd Japanese curry on Saturday. There's baked rhubarb and honey with a rolled oat and cinnamon "crumble". If you like baking (which, fortunately, I do) it was a very relaxing way of spending a Sunday. I really ought to have been out sorting out the garden after the winter (there are tiny signs of spring in the garden) but somehow using up all the leftovers while they were still useable and before they needed throwing away seemed more urgent.  I'll get to the garden later :-S

I was talking to Stella and Tony yesterday morning.  Poor Tony has a recurrence of the ocular shingles which horribly beset him some months ago.  He says the pain is not fun but that so far he doesn't have the awful spasms that really laid him low last time.  We must hope that the spasms stay well away. He seemed quite cheery though - and is making steady progress with his rug. He has now done the bottom border and one full line of squares. Stella also has had ocular excitement. She has had laser treatment on one eye (I don't know why). So they are both at the mercy of various alarms which insist that they put drops in their eyes RIGHTNOWTHISVERYMINUTE.