Wednesday, 5th February 2020 - Glowing Trees at Sunset

There has been a couple of health assessments in The Evans family today. All perfect. I gave Harriet a copy of The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy for being such a great Mum. I ordered it from Amazon yesterday. It had arrived by the time we had returned from the hospital. It has gone up £4.04 since yesterday. I feel I got a bargain.

The venison, boar and pheasant has defrosted overnight leaving what looked like a massacre on my white table cloth. I have rubbed and massaged dry brine into all the cracks and crevices. It is now doing its thing in the fridge for 24 hours or so before the next deep marinade stage.

The sun was setting over our 'ancient' woodland gave the tops of the trees an amazing orange glow.

Glowing Trees at Sunset
Watercolour

Tuesday, 4th February 2020 - Herbie

I have collected our Christmas present from Sarah. I now have venison, boar and pheasant defrosting on the table in the dining room. We ruminated over the irritation of fidgety legs at night. We concluded there is no remedy. We will continue to twitch and fidget.

Herbie came to play with grandma. He was tired. So was I. We had a restorative moment watching Postman Pat. Harriet and Brett needed to concentrate on their new home plans.

Herbie
Pen

Monday, 3rd February 2020 - Inspired by Charlie Mackesy

I received Tescos groceries in my PJs. How naughty. The driver was totally nonplussed by my attire. I now have ingredients to test recipes for our wassail dinner here in five days. There is soup and pudding being tested today. I had the soup for dinner. It will do nicely.

Leelee came to art with a copy of The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. The drawings are beautifully spontaneous.

I went to sleep feeling slightly bereft. I have finished a good book.

Inspired by Charlie Mackesy
Ink

02022020 - A Pot of Primroses

I have had to cross an item of my Bucket List. This is not something I have achieved. I am very disappointed that I never got to see Nicholas Parsons recording Just A Minute. I feel very sad about this.

My pots are looking glorious. I was briefly tempted by the polyanthus at Merriments but at £4.99 each my temptation reseeded. Tescos had six floriferous beauties at £3 for six. Now that was tempting. I put a total of 24 in my trolley that are now planted.

Bella had her daily piano practice with me. I am having to look up some of the theory already. Wow she is learning at the rate of knots. I am very impressed.

This evening I am drinking gin and tonic whilst blogging. See yesterday's blog as to why. I am still on the Bombay Sapphire.

Tonight I have stir fry with fish. I will be watching Bodies. I have just found this on BBC iPlayer. I love a medical drama . It has some brilliant actors - one very attractive.

A Pot of Primroses
Pen and Watercolour

Saturday, 1st February 2020 - Bombay, Beefeater and Whitley Neill

Hello February.

Another alarmed start to my day.

I went with Harriet to Ashford Hospital for Herbie to have an eye check. He was soooo amazing. Well done little chap. All perfect.

An email dropped into my inbox tempting me with a Boden sale. I love their clothes but they are ridiculously expensive.  I found some lovely reduced blouses not in my size. I got the bigger ones as they were a beautiful bargain. They have arrived. I tried them on. They are really far too big but feel so comfortable and roomy I have kept them. If you see me wafting around in a very large blouse just admire the quality. I am inside somewhere.

I have three bottle of gin in my cupboard. Beefeater Blood Orange, Bombay Sapphire (I never knew there were two 'p's' in sapphire - until today) and Whitley Neill Rhubarb and Ginger. They look pretty standing together. I have only sampled the Bombay so far. It needs a good simple tonic.

A simple painting that took hours. I wanted to leave the layers to dry before approaching the next one. It took a bit of patience.

Bombay, Beefeater and Whitley Neill
Watercolour

Friday, 31st January 2020 - Conghurst Lane

I was mute  and bleary as I dragged myself from under my duvet. Tim has gone to Orlando. I dropped him off at the station hoping to miss the mass of commuters. At 6.45am the stream of cars heading to work was surprising. I was surprised.

I arrived at Merriments for a coffee with Sarah half an hour early. What a twit I am. We found Wendy and asked for her experience on the purchase of sweetpea seeds. Sarah  now has enough to fill over one hundred vases. I nor Sarah or Wendy were very impressed with Merriments. They sell expensive tat, the plants are exorbitant, I didn't like the decor in the restaurant which looks like it is set up for coach parties of retirees. I did get a pot of chutney with my cheese scone which was a nice touch. I don't think we will ever ever return.

This evening Harriet and I ate crispy duck and drank Chapel Down bacchus - a favourite of  mine and hers. It was a delightful evening. It was good to talk without the little ones. They are gorgeous but can be quite distracting. My thoughts get diverted easily by someone needed me to put a puzzle together. It was good to be able to concentrate on a whole sentence. Harriet is an amazing daughter. 

Conghurst Lane

Watercolour

Thursday, 30th January 2020 - Hetty Exploring

Hetty had her class school assembly. It was about the rainforest. I feel a massive sense of pride watching my grandchildren grow. You were marvelous Hetty.

The weather has been dismal and not conducive for doing much outside. I stayed inside. The ironing pile is now heavily reduced giving us a whole new wardrobe.

We went with Mike and Pippa for an impromptu (always the best) meal at The Bull. The steak and ale pie was delicious. I now have to heave my overstuffed body to bed. Goodnight.

Hetty Exploring
Pen and Watercolour