Friday 16th February

Ah…..the joys of spring…well nearly. Lovely sun…..and the first signs of things starting to grow…weeds that is, not anything “proper”. Father took the opportunity between meetings to pull out all the strawberries in the “fruit bed”…..”not doing anything like a good enough job of yielding a sensible crop”…..that probably means another section of the veggie patch for more courgettes….wonderful, we all love courgettes (NOT).

We all stood outside for a while hoping (or not) to see a passing meteorite….actually, the real thing in Russia looked quite scary…absolutely just like those disaster movies…..if the first thing you see when you get up in the morning is a meteorite passing overhead then you probably want to go straight back to bed.

Mum, Dad and Bex went to the Lent Lunch at the Public Hall today…celery soup, bread and cheese, coffee. To make up for that they are heading down to St. Catherine’s Café (late night opening on Fridays) for a bite to eat with friends later. The IT Girl has loaded an app on Dad’s phone that lets him “scan stuff” and work out how many calories he is consuming every day….as you might have guessed, he isn’t that impressed…..”did you know that a single Jammy Dodger is 83 calories?”….Bex calculated that it might be good idea for Dad to try to keep to 2200 calories every day, and like that he has a good chance of losing a small amount of weight……Dad thought that sounded like a good deal as 2000 is quite a big number… he was singularly unimpressed when he discovered that he’d had 900 calories for breakfast and “hadn’t really eaten anything”….we suspect there’s a way to go with this diet yet.

We all commented on the fact that as Dad walked past the Jersey Dresser a few things were vibrating inside….that mightn’t sound like to big deal….but when you also know that we have a solid floor with tiles on it then it gets a little concerning…. As the fireman pointed out “Could be the fact that there’s 112 kilos stomping past?”……we think Dad got the message…..apparently he hasn’t eaten anything this afternoon.

The bookcase has arrived….or been collected to be precise. It’s in pieces in the snug, and while this weather lasts it may be while before it gets assembled. The other slightly worrying thing is the weight…..it has 5 glass shelves, and each one weighs????......well, you wouldn’t pick up two at once. When it’s assembled we’re concerned that maybe the floor might not cope…..we’ll have to see….

More clearing was happening in the field this afternoon…the boys had borrowed a tractor from next door, and, with the stillness of the weather, their “discussions” about who was the more proficient tractor driver could be heard probably all over the Parish. Needless to say that the situation wasn’t helped by the Ex-Farmer offering advice on “the best way to do that job”. They survived the afternoon without coming to blows ......but only just.

As most of you may well know, Mum is doing the “Race for Life” again this year…..in fact I think that most of us are taking part….including the dog. Our T shirts arrived this morning and very fetching they are too….even the dog has one…that’s another photo that we’ll have to post on here.