'Mixed up confusion'

I got up early to make tea this morning and noticed a bowl full of water under the newly serviced gas boiler, which wasn't there when the engineer left yesterday. A small drip can become a problem quite quickly, and by 9-30am the engineer had been back to fix it, which is a sign of good customer service. I had my car serviced at the end of last week and had to take it back to get the leak from the newly repaired windscreen washers, which were also leaking, when a pipe wasn't attached. This afternoon I had my hair cut, and then my hurting back was fixed by Jonathan, my osteopath and good friend. I don't think I am leaking anything but brain cells.

By 10-30am, I'd dropped Helena off at a job interview in Gloucester, and I pottered about for an hour until she was ready to go home. We then set off across country, only to find Ermine Street, the old roman road from Gloucester to Cirencester was closed for some unknown reason. We found another way around the problem, and climbed up the escarpment to the top of the Cotswold hills and wended our way to Bisley. The beech trees still haven't turned brown as yet, probably due to the lack of frost, until yesterday. I had hoped to find a blip in the ancient Cranham woods, but when driving through it the light was rather dull and not what I wanted to blip.

The reason for going to Bisley was to take Helena to the Stancombe Beech Farm Shop where we could stock up with vegetables, and in particular their wonderful field mushrooms that Helena loves to eat, after grilling them with garlic and cheese. As soon as we drove into the yard, we were confronted with their annual array of pumpkins which they grow in the adjacent field. In the new barn, Helena went to choose one but was having a hard time with the abundance of shapes, colours and types. I remembered that I blipped a similar scene to this last year, but without Helena, so her presence makes all the difference!

Sally, who is one of the family that owns the farm and shop, showed us the store area behind the shop, where there was an array of freshly picked vegetables including cauliflowers, purple sprouting broccoli, potatoes, carrots, cabbages and leeks which are all there own produce. I took a few pictures but it was so dark in the shed that I couldn't get a good image.

When we got home, I found that my job in London is being delayed by a few days at the minimum maybe more, which is extremely annoying as I wanted to get it done and dusted. Now I will have to alter the various plans I'd arranged to juggle all my various responsibilities. So perhaps I will have time to go to Westonbirt after all early next week, unless the sky starts dripping furiously.