Morning with a difference

The morning started certainly differently.

I looked up the street to see a dawn raid had obviously happened at one of the houses up the street. A couple of police vans were still parked outside.

This happens about once or twice a year. One of our neighbours is regarded as one of the local crime barons. He’s usually raided from time to time to check for stolen &/or pirated goods.

It has to be said we have no dealings with these people. When they first moved in, we sent our Christmas card welcoming them. It was ignored, as were any proffered helloes when we walked pass them. We put it down to their age. They are only in their early 20s with a young child & clearly regard us as a couple of old codgers. We these days ignore them back. Having seen the police vans there so often now, we feel no urge to have anything to do with them.

The second thing that made this morning different was the arrival of Storm Hector in the night. It did start to rain last night, for the first time in weeks. As the night went on the rain stopped & the wind grew. Now the plants are twisting this way & that. The silver birches attempt to touch their toes. I’m relieved to say the garden furniture seems to be staying in place, though I half wonder if it wouldn’t be wise to move them into our recently floored shed for the duration.

Tomorrow I’m off to see the doctor to get the result of my blood tests, to see if there is any real cause for worry.

Salad days?

We’ve had much debate about what to have for dinner tonight. 

I had decided to make some duck/lamb croquettes, using up some leftover meat that had lost its label in the freezer. Then I remembered we had some bacon bits sitting around the fridge. 

On the basis that frozen stuff will keep better than food in the freezer, I changed my mind to make some Little Bacon Flans. 

As it’s been so hot, I wondered if for once we could have a side salad to accompany the warm flans rather than our usual accompaniments of chips & hot baked beans. Then it occurred to me we had already decided that tomorrow we were going to have a salad using up a half tin of salmon, augmented with some cooked prawns. It’s going to be a fairly traditional English salad, finishing off the Little Gem lettuce we have in, some tomatoes, boiled egg, beetroot & sweet peppers. I didn’t think we wanted the same salad for two days & anyhow we only had the one small lettuce left. 

Tuesday is always a difficult day for food preparation as I’m never quite sure when the home help is going to arrive. A salad is the perfect solution. Boiling a few eggs can be done when I making my breakfast. I'm could even have a chucky egg for breakfast.

So I’ve argued myself out of a salad for today. It’s back into a hot kitchen for chips & baked beans. Still we can always eat out in the shade of our garden. And today there’s even a cooling breeze.

Busy day

Yesterday was a busy day. The shed’s gained a new floor & I’ve donated yet more blood.

The shed is looking considerably better for its new floor. The people who did it have made sure have made sure all wood ends are wrapped in damp-proofing to hopefully ensure they will not rot as the previous floor did. Now all that needs to be done is for the Fox to decide what shelving he needs & empty the garage of the various things that usually live in the shed.

My blood donation is to check on my raised calcium levels. I have a doctor’s appointment next week to discuss the results.

I was so pleased to have Alison to take my bloods. She never seems to have any trouble with my nervous veins. She’s straight in, straight out, job done.

After the floor was complete we popped down to our local pub & had chance to catch up with some friends we haven’t seen for a while. They were still celebrating his 71^st birthday on Thursday.

It was a good, if tiring, day, completed by a rather nice Salmon & Prawn Chowder the Fox made.