Ups and Downs!

Colourful Mai and I went to a local village craft fair in an effort to find that elusive festive spirit! Hidden in the mist we found it! Pottery, wicker work, wood turning, fimo miniature animals, needle felting, make your own dried fruit wreath, jams and jellies,  and the obligatory knitted figures! This little Tomte was on a fellow allotmenteers stall - she and her husband run a small business and are freelance ecologists. She was selling tea and I tasted the floral and the cold infusion - not to my taste!  I did love her Tomte but with a kit of my own and my sister now making all sorts of needle felted creatures I really couldn't justify buying one no matter how cute they looked! I did buy lots of other things and two little things for Friends daughters she had asked me to find for her.
I came home to find Tilly still in the coop in the same position she had been in when I opened. I took her inside and I spent the afternoon with her sleeping on my lap , giving her water from a minute syringe now and then. She has no  signs of ill health just lethargy,so I think it is just her time.  I'm afraid I did have a howling cry at one point - in the grand scale of things she is just a little chicken but I love her to bits. At chicken bedtime I lined the cat carrier with hay and put her and Polly inside to spend the night in the conservatory and headed to Friends.
As Friend had liked both the meals I'd offered her I decided to cook the other one for her and her daughter - I would be making it for myself anyway and I think Youngest could do with a break.  They watched an updated film of Cinderella - oh dear me what utter tosh! We then sat down with saffron and fennel risotto with pea shoots and charred courgette and garlic bread to watch the Strictly results. I was incensed Ori got through by basically standing there in the tango whilst his partner did all the show stopping moves! So my two favourites in the dance off - not happy! As we waited for the dance off I made caramelized apples and we ate them on waffles with ice-cream as they danced. The dancers cried, I cried - oh what a cry fest! I left them watching Planet Earth - I couldn't take the chance of more crying to animals maimed or killed so left them to it - Youngest thanked me or cooking and said she couldn't remember when she last felt so stuffed! 
I peeked in the cat carrier and Tilly was still alive, so then went to do some crochet in front of the TV - no satellite signal being received it flashed up at me! I'm hoping it's the pea souper of a mist that is causing the problem and thought how serendipitous it was that I had decided to cook Friends dinner and so got to watch Strictly! 
I went to bed wondering what joys the next day would bring - would Tilly be ok, would the TV be back on, would the blooming chicken run arrive?! Friends Eldest is also coming home - I think Youngest told her not to wait till wednesday as she had planned.