Homing in

After all the dog sitting, it’s nice to be back at home and enjoy the comforts of being there. You might wonder why I do the dog sitting if I miss the house, well it’s being with the dogs and helping people out that I also like. But I have probably done too much of it this year. The other problem is jobs at home build up, and there now is the time of catching up on them. But during my last sit, as I was walking along a path near where the dog lived, I saw what I thought was a ten pound bank note on the grass. Unfortunately it was not complete. I posted this photo on the local Facebook site and someone nailed it, the note was dropped, and got cut into bits by the lawnmower when the grass was cut. 

This years Xmas cake is made. It’s now in a tin wrapped in baking paper and every weekend up until Xmas it receives a soaking of brandy, to feed it. Then I will coat it with  apricot jam, cover it with marzipan and then with fondant icing. I used a hand mixer donated by a friend to mix it all, up which worked a charm. Four hours baking!

It may not be the most attractive cake but this ginger cake was made a week later, and various slices were distributed to friends. It had stem ginger chunks in it which added to its taste and texture.

While I was away in Greece, we had the exterior faces of our kitchen cupboards changed. It’s brightened up the kitchen enormously. I then spent a few hours emptying each cupboard and putting things back in a nice way, to making finding things easier now.

 

 

I really like the Angel on the Bridge pub in Henley. I have been meaning to go there for dinner one night, but decided to go on a Friday when they do a mussels night. I was not disappointed. It was a real treat. I took the train so I could enjoy a few beers. I have been there a couple of times at lunchtimes with dogs and enjoyed their wonderful sandwiches.

The garden is starting to go to sleep and I have hoovered the gravel and started cutting back the perennials. The front drive was power washed yesterday, I had to use the lance as it was so encrusted with moss and dirt. This meant, I got covered in gunk too, and my trousers were soaked. I still have the slabs at the back to do. I have also been doing some work on the TRHA garden, more tidying, cutting back the old blackberry vines and the grass verge and pyracantha. It does look quite smart now. The pyracantha does need levelling off, there are done gaps in it that hope I can encourage it to fill.

I brought back a friend from the local hospital yesterday. The hospital is big and you would have thought it would have been fairly easy to find a wheelchair to take her from her ward to the car park. I pretty much walked the entire place scouting one out. In the end I got one,  it had been left with other medical appliances like sticks to be recycled. Never has such a mundane object been gratefully seen. Meanwhile on a more positive note on my trip to Henley, I took two photos. Both were those in the moment ones. Seconds later the shot would not have been there. It’s good to be home.