Thursday 17th November

321/365: penstemon, looking like they've been made to stand
in the corner and face the wall (or fence in this case) ... they're
not facing the direction of the sun for some reason!

 

My plans for a quiet afternoon just reading and relaxing were shattered by the doorbell announcing a surprise visit from H. I thought she'd come to see me but no, she wanted to see my Instant Pot (IP) and she came prepared with a bagful of ingredients to try a couple of recipes. Now she not at her best in the kitchen and it scares me to watch her chopping vegetables ... I always have visions of severed fingers! ... so I suggested I did all the prep to save time (and avoid serious injury!) and she breathed a sigh of relief and agreed. I let her do the actual cooking though. She made a chilli and a batch of hidden vegetable pasta sauce and then I cooked up a batch of the pasta sauce for myself ... I'd already tried these recipes so I knew the cooking times so there wasn't any scrabbling to look for information online! She's a convert and plans to buy her own IP. Although I inwardly groaned when she arrived (because I was so looking forward to a quiet afternoon), I had a great time ... she is always good fun and ready for a laugh.

So, I'm trying for a quiet afternoon today instead but before that I have a short list of chores to do. I definitely need to hoover the living room carpet ... even I can't deny that it needs a good clean ... and I may do the stair carpet as well. I'm selling this to myself as a chance to use my new vacuum and test it out, rather than it being anything resembling housework! I need to get a bag or two of top soil ready for M tomorrow so that's a quick trip to the garden centre, and I want to call in at the gym I have chosen to speak to the staff and have a look around. None of that will take up too much time, and then the rest of the day will be my own.