A day of 2 halves

My Thursday began with the usual shopping trip to Lidl, but I only bought holiday food and a few bits for the kids for the freezer. They are big enough to fend for themselves I decided, but I did buy fruit...they may not buy themselves fruit!

After that was all away, I sat in the garden and had a coffee with Jon. A bit of tidying and then my guests for the day arrived. Firstly Helen who had driven up from St Neots, for the first time. Quite a daunting 2 and a half hour journey if you have never done it before. Her sat nav brought her through Norwich. I hope very much that it has got her home safely too, and that she isn't still trawling along the tiny Norfolk backroads, looking for the way out! We have been corresponding by email since I finished reading a book she had written. I enjoyed it so much I decided I had to contact her and tell her so, which sparked up a friendship. So today was a bit of a blind date really. Tracey and Zoe had been very close friends with Helen going back 10 years or so, and as they were still holidaying over this way, I invited them over. We had a lovely few hours chatting over coffee and lunch. Time flew, but we managed to cover many subjects from Ghosts and Wandlebury, to Alpacas and perennial vegetable growing, with much talk of dietary food choice thrown in for good measure. Before we knew it, it was gone 3, and they all headed back home. I really enjoyed the gathering of friends in my garden - something I have really missed.

After dinner, we had a visit from Mollie and Josh, then Jon went off to scouts and Henry came to the allotment with me, where we covered two sections with some weed suppressing membrane. I am now hopeful that the weeds will die back over time and I can begin to plant some of the perennial vegetables that Helen has been telling me about. It makes so much more sense to grow things that will come back each year. It has given me new impetus to make my allotment work for me. I just have to start small. After Henry had gone, I stayed on to cut back some edges with the shears. There is soooooo much long grass and weed. I left at 9.30 to cycle home, full of hayfever.

Had a quick catch up with mum on facetime. She has had a couple of hours volunteering at the Isabel Hospice shop today. Labelling items and putting them on hangers. Sounds like something I'd like to do....although I do have quite a lot of clothes on my bedroom chair, so I guess I might need to practice the putting on hangers thing first!

Must get off to bed now. One more work day then 2 heavenly weeks off in our caravan in (wet?) Wales. :-)