I was up quite early to finish Luke's ironing so he could pack it and to make food for their trip to Durham - in South Africa this packed food is known as 'padkos', directly translated from Afrikaans as road food. I suppose because it is such a large country with long distances travelled on journeys,  padkos was the norm to take on a car journey, especially in the days before motorway stops with food outlets existed Even though today one can stop all along the motorways to buy food I don't like fast foods and somehow it is still easier to take one's own padkos!

The house is very quiet now that Luke and Adam have left, quite sad really. I think Murdoch notices their absence and also tends to mope around for a day or two.

It was a dull day but by late afternoon the sun broke through and I wondered if I should head up to Bushy Park but then I though about the traffic at that time of day and decided against it - luckily I had taken this photo on my dog walk this morning. It was rather windy today so I am surprised that there are any seed heads left on these at all!