Hmmm

The whole Sober in Summer challenge is not going well.  We *can* forswear alcohol. We know we need to save money. But the prospect of total abstinence until sometime next winter was making us miserable.  So we have rejigged the challenge.  Sober in Summer except on Sundays!  (Plus, of course, dispensations for special events like our visit to Warminster next weekend, our wedding anniversary and various other High Holidays.)  This has made us much happier - and much more likely to carry on with it :-P

We had a very pleasant but quite busy weekend.  The Weather Dogs were in an amiable mood and mostly smiled upon us.  So we trundled out shopping on Saturday morning, to the Dunstan Hall and then the Chatsworth garden centres and then to the supermarket. We spent the afternoon in the garden digging and weeding and tidying and pottering and then headed into Sheffield where we had remarkably nice pizza with Tabitha, Gareth and Cally. Then Tabitha and Gareth Went Out, leaving poor Cally to the ministrations of The Builder and me.  I have to say that I was absolutely stunned when I put her to bed and she just went KONK and off to sleep pretty much immediately.

Sunday was a beautiful day. And we spent the afternoon in Penny, Steve, Joseph and Imogen's beautiful garden in Fulwood (in Sheffield). They have a glorious cottage-style garden, complete with small pond with frogs and newts and a lovely little patio with a clematis growing over the pergola, and a grapevine making its way up one of the supports to join it. The food was delicious, too. An asparagus risotto accompanied by delicate pieces of sea bream, followed by a red and black currant fool with crunchy biscuits.  We drank (non-alcoholic) elderflower fizz and generally had a lovely time.  We have brought back with us a display cabinet which used to live in Penny and my mutual grandparents' house in London.  This has necessitated a quick re-arrangement of the dining room (the dead freezer has *finally* been put out in the driveway in the hope that the Junk Man will stop when he's next passing and take it away!!). There will be photos when the whole process has finished. At the moment the dining room looks very much as though a bomb has hit it!!!

Speaking of bombs - we were starting the re-arrangement of the dining room on Sunday when The Builder said: Quick, quick; come outside.  And there, quite low in the sky not far from us was an ENORMOUS bomber plane.  The Under Gardener tells me it was a Vulcan. I had never seen one before. It was huge. My first thought was that it was a Concorde. But they, of course, no longer fly and anyway it was the wrong shape.  It was just ambling along.  Then it put its nose up and with a mighty and magnificent roar picked up speed, climbed into the sky and disappeared over the hill on which sits Grassmoor.  Fortunately it was in benevolent mood.  Grassmoor was still there when we drove through it this morning so I assume the Vulcan was unarmed.  It was quite a startling sight.

I was a bit disconcerted when this turned up in the post on Friday

I rather wondered what Lindsey and Ian thought about my approach to my working life

But then I realised that on both Saturday and Sunday I was dashing about muttering to myself : "So much to do, so little time" and decided that they were referring to weekends rather than weekdays :-D  I must remember to wear it on frantically busy Saturdays!!!