Visitors

A sociable day, culminating in a meal with friends. In the preparation stages, I was struck by the worktop colours. Also by the multinational nature of what we were preparing, despite all the ingredients being things we take for granted as grocery standards: lentils from Turkey, onions from north Oxfordshire, oats from Shropshire, olive oil from 'the European Union' (Aldi are very reluctant in identifying provenance), tomato puree from Italy. The lemons for juice are surplus from the wedding-we-never-got-to, where they were part of the decor illustrating the 'Riviera chic' theme of the day (see also extras). The government have not yet implemented post-Brexit checks on food imports, so no problem for our friends to transport them from Belgium 

What a privileged time and place we live in, to have all this food bounty brought to us. I once did this 'where does it come from' exercise with the Xmas mincemeat, ending with a list that was a significant subset of the United Nations

Mid-afternoon we had an unexpected visitor (also an extra). Not having any kind of cat food, we were not able to offer any hospitality. I've read that a hedgehog out in the day time is not happy. This one was moving quite slowly, found a hiding place where I have left a tile leaning against a wall and lay down for a nap. An hour later, I went to check on it and it was gone - rested and recuperated, I hope