On Thursday I spent the whole day dressed (but only did my face in the afternoon, which seems to work with my skin). I phoned Les and Jan about fish 'n chips. That will be September. Also, I organised the chimney sweep and did some work in the garden. In the afternoon I spent a couple of hours on the landscape work, which I am quite comfortable doing. A few pictures found their way onto flickr. I ordered the electronics for the SAD lamp and my replacement Canon lens arrived.
Pauline arrived back from her 'Grand Tour' on Thursday night and came over on Friday to unload the French wine, as well as a bottle of organic Asbach for me, which was very nice. I cooked fish 'n chips - Sea Bream, followed by blackberries from the garden.
On Saturday I continued working in the main bedroom, sorting things out, hoovering, dusting, securing from rodents etc. all of which meant emptying clothes racks and finding yet more stuff for charity shops, but since my car boot was full, I just put them aside. Later that day I dressed and had a pleasant time in the warm late sunshine, but I was feeling a bit 'rough'. Pictures are on flickr. That 'rough' feeling was still with me on Sunday - I think I probably overdid things, with a lot of memories etc. coming into play. Pauline came over and I managed to break one of this year's blackberry brandy kilner jars, which really did not help me! Anyway, things turned out OK in the end and we had slow-cooked venison stew, preceded by a revelation.
Last year I had cooked tomatoes in olive oil as I do with a glut and also roasted a couple of Aubergines before freezing them. Wanting to continue the freezer clear out, I decided to put them in a pan and serve with the venison (even though the flavours don't really match). They were cooked in a pan on the hob from frozen and after 30 minutes, the Aubergines had lost all their water and absorbed the oil from the tomatoes. I added some Ras el Hanout and the zest of half a lemon and we had it as a starter. The spices and lemon complimented the vegetables superbly - a new starter is born.
After Pauline left I decided not to watch any Game of Thrones (I've been watching every night since I bought the set and I still can't remember who is who) but settled down to Celebrity Masterchef of which I saw about 30 minutes before falling into a deep sleep. I struggled to get to bed sometime later.
I had already decided today to do a major shop and decided to go to Folkestone and drop the charity things in at Barbara's charity shop. I said to the manager I had gone there because a friend used to work there and he asked who. When I mentioned Barbara, he couldn't sing her praises highly enough - "Our favourite, a lovely lady, so friendly to everyone". I just about managed to say she had recently died and that the goods being deposited were on her behalf before leaving the shop with tears welling up. It was well done.
I then went to Sainsbury's and bought almost everything I could need for the coming week, including more brandy for the blackberries.
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