A pie fit for a king

 One of the positive things about the internet is contact with my friends all over the world. Being in Greece separates me from the ones near where I live but it’s been good to hear that everyone is having a good time. I got some photos and my favourite has to be the two dogs in Oxford, that I looked after my return to the UK having been here in October. The black lab loves rubbing her face in wet grass, but this time it’s wet with snow. We still don’t know why she does this.

My friends dog was a bit off colour Christmas Day, but he seemed back on form yesterday which is good. He did some goofing and playing with his toys, doing tug with his owner. We went into the port yesterday with him ( Christmas Day he refused to go for a walk) and had a coffee at the only place open. As we left it started to rain so we beat a hasty retreat back home. But it stopped and the predicted storm that we expected in the afternoon did not materialise. But as it darkened we saw lightening, it seemed far away but there was rain. It was time to light the log burner.

It fair to say one of my friends in this house has a love affair with this house warmer/oven. I must admit it is a nice addition to the house, and it warms up the house well, a bit too warm for my liking perhaps. The oven bit was put to good use on Christmas Day and yesterday it cooked a pie for us. Left over turkey, with leeks in a shortcrust pastry. In a pie dish given to them by one of their friends. We had a bit of stuffing, mash, and a roast potato warmed up from the day before and the gravy as well. It was a super meal and much enjoyed. 

After a bit of tv, I ventured outside to check the weather, this time no rain, so I was able to walk back to my place. But on the horizon came flashes of lightning and counting from the time it appeared, and the resulting thunder sounded, comforted me that it was far off. But when I got back, I tried to take some photos. One photo looks dramatic as the camera sensor was overloaded by the lightening.

I went inside and tried to sleep, but the storm became closer and rain appeared. I don’t think it lasted long, and I soon drifted off. Meanwhile as time permits I have been working on an online horticulture show submission form. Currently there is a paper version, and it was suggested I could try and develop an online version. I used ChatGPT of course, and it’s much more complicated than I envisaged. It has to import all the show classes from a series of files, handle individual entries and family ones, the latterwhen the entire families entrees are recorded. The end result is two emails, one to the submitter and one to the Show Secretary. These emails contain the submission and the fees payable. There is a bit of work to tidy it up, and stitch it into the existing web page for Shows. I am sure it will be developed  further as time goes on. Ideally it could produce a file with all the entries which could be imported into the spreadsheet that we use to record all the entries and results.



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