Winter woollies on again.

A little light shopping this morning, home by 3.30pm!
The most interesting buy was an indenture, dated 1770, on vellum, with a double sided glass frame - a document between Mary Dale, widow & her son, George.
Fascinating.
We shall sell it at the next sale, having done the research into it.
We bought the food for tomorrow & I seem to have been cooking ever since so that we can enjoy the day.
Gordon Ramsey is to blame - I looked recipes in his cook book whilst in DMK - I was so impressed that I ordered the book on Amazon & am using some recipes for tomorrow - choc & ginger cheesecake & Gordon's trifle plus a number of salads.
It's about time I expanded my repertoire!
I  think an early night may be a good idea.

Flog it!

We went to Bigwoods, auction house at Tiddington, just outside Stratford, this morning, as they were selling a couple of postcard albums, a couple of catalogues & a couple of books for us.
When we arrived, James ....., the plump smiley antique guy was outside, Charles ....., the smarmy one, was inside & Paul ....., the presenter was there - "Flog It" was being recorded.
Great excitement.
Our lots sold well & a number of lots sold for many times the estimate.
A good sale.
We went on to Stratford & had a little lunch at Carlucchios before going home via Morrisons in Solihull.
Aj's arrived to help G celebrate, on Sunday, now fed & in bed
G went for a good bike ride whilst I cooked dinner.
A little light food shopping tomorrow then home to make a b'day cake, whilst G works on the mower.

A lot of caravans on the road today - Warks schools broke up today, Solihull, next Thursday.

Fill up your tank....

What a load of rubbish!
The Stratford road jammed at the point where there are two garages off a small roundabout as the good folk of Shirley take up the suggestion of DC & keep their tanks full.
The increase in tax on hot fast food - typified by the Cornish pasty - has been made much of.
Apparently, you would need to buy - not necessarily eat - 900 pasties to spend as much in increased "pasty tax" as you will have gained by the increase in personal allowance.

Anyway, we have fuel, although the Lotus will be back on the road in April & has an empty tank, & don't eat pasties, so life looks good.
Warks police is to be cut from 850 to 650 - I don't think that they reach as far as Coleshill as it is, so we may not notice.

Today I have cleaned the house from top to bottom, filled the front borders with  an array of brightly coloured polyanthus, washed & ironed three loads of washing. G has sorted his pensions & is sorting the carburetor from the mower, so, one man may go to mow, on Saturday.

I have caught up with  J & Th, having picked them up from school for the last two days; tonight we bought fish & chips from Meriden, on the way home.
Delicious.

Happy Birthday twins.

Another great day, which started early this morning, scouts' pace to school, with J on his bike (scouts' pace I've decided is running until you can't, then walking until you can run again) & finished back home at 7.00pm after being seen off at the railway station by the family, train to CPH, a very good flight to BHX & being met by G.
It was such a clear day that you could see all of the Danish islands, in bright sunshine - doesn't happen often..
I had the most expensive coffee of my entire life, at the airport - 47kr/£5.89 for a medium cappuccino - I put a lot of chocolate on it for added value!
It's the exchange rate that's to blame rather than Starbucks - only 8kr to the pound, when it has always been ten.
Gordon's fault, again then.
MK's sister , K, had identical twin girls today, all doing well & according to today's telegraph, the twins will have a one in three chance of  living to be over 100!
Amazing.
I guess that that means that they will retire at 85 or thereabouts.

Lots of jobs to do tomorrow, housework, gardening & shopping - a promise of more hot weather until the weekend.

Thanks to W & MK & the boys for an enjoyable week.
DK made amazing progress in coping with his "red plaster wellies", during the week.
By Friday he had totally mastered moving, walking & climbing, as normal.
I'm sure that he was chattering in English by the end of the week; J's English is brill!

A Danish summer.

I can scarcely believe that I've been here a whole week & the weather has been fantastic - warm/hot, dry & sunny all week.
I may have hit the Danish summer!
W had a very early start today - I heard him leave.
J leaves for school at 7.30am, which was a struggle, he cycled & I did "scouts pace" with heavy breathing!
We took DK to nursery, where he stayed until 10.00am, which was pretty good going under the circumstances. He rested up, had lunch , then we went out for a walk for a couple of hours - did the bottle bank, fed the ducks, walked around town & collected J from school.
They were both tired & took little active entertaining.
All well with the world, everyone in bed, asleep.
Home tomorrow - I hope the sun keeps shining for a little longer - I have some gardening to do.

Hot, hot, hot.

Everybody has made the most of a beautiful, hot sunny day - you never know, this may be the danish summer!
Mk took J to his football training session this morning, W went for a 70km bike ride, then we spent the afternoon in the garden, variously playing football, gardening, hedge trimming (now in an experimental vase - perhaps I misunderstood!), enjoying coffee & cake.
We have just had another wonderful meal - roast pork (what else?) followed by Eton mess, with T & B for entertainment.
All ready for an early night to beat the "Spring-forward blues" in the morning, when W has a very early start for a three hour journey somewhere.

Elton John was 65 today.
Blimey.
Must be a good age to be! 

Happy Birthday from DK

I am in Ringsted with W, MK & family, coping well with the danish language, as usual - point,say a number, & the reply is always in excellent english - & that's just in the house!
DK has acclimatised to life with two bright red "wellie boots" on, in fact, he likes them a lot.
The greeting at Nursery is to stick out a leg, the boot is then tapped or the knee stroked, sometimes both.
He has visited Nursery each day to be tapped/stroked before coming home 20 minutes later.
Yesterday we ("we" this week is DK & me) went to Roskilde with MK to collect a little zimmer frame - "little" added there to avoid confusion -  "we" then spent the morning in Roskilde, having an adventure, then came home on the train, to have lunch with W, who had been confined to the cellar for four hours, working!
Both J & DK are now whizz kids on the wheelchair & zimmer frame - great fun spinning round on them.
The wheelchair has the benefit of not deafening everyone within a five-mile radius.

Last night we went to T & B's for a delicious dinner, to celebrate T's birthday - us Mums just get younger & more able!

Clocks forward tonight - I'm always pleased as I then wake up at about the right time for a few weeks.
Nobody else seems to be looking forward to getting up at 5.30am on Monday.
Strange!