Family

I took a walk around St Ives first thing this morning and enjoyed the early light on Coppice Pond.  It's great to see the family of swans including the 'ugly ducklings'.

Back home I had several jobs to do, but took some time out to track Tony's route from Alpe di Siusi to Rifugio Alpe di Tires.  The refuge is high in the Dolomites in spectacular scenery beneath craggy pinnacles.  I hope he has seen it in good weather as I can only imagine what the sunset will have been like.

I walked up to the allotment to check on the veg and came back with a bowlful of courgettes (some of which are now out at the front of the house looking for good homes - we always have too many for our own use); a fine green pepper; the last of the beans; enough tomatoes for another batch of soup and a handful or sweet peas.

After lunch I took some time out to practise some Czech.  I've been doing my online lessons on my I - Pad and struggling with the grammar (none of which is explained!) for several months.  I had a look on one of the forums and someone had expressed similar frustration.  Another learner advised him to look at the notes which accompanied each lesson - what??  It seems that if you open the app on a computer you have access to accompanying notes for each lesson......so the next hour was spent copying and printing them off and then suddenly the demonstratives have started to make some sense!!

The next time I looked up it was tea time.  I'm spending this time, whilst Tony is away, experimenting with some vegetarian meals in an attempt to reduce the amount of meat we eat.  I made a vegetable casserole last week which turned out watery but I froze what was left over and heated it up today, giving time for some of that excess liquid to boil away.  Meanwhile I had a go at making some of Jamie Oliver's feta and courgette scones to go with the casserole, and they were very nice! 

The nights are drawing in and the dressing gown has come out of the drawer so I guess it's time for a jigsaw!