Mud glorious mud

After a morning sorting out food to pack in the van I drove over to leave a bare root rose at Chris’s (first driving for 7 weeks due to operation on foot) - she was 70 when visiting Ailie in NZ - as was Ailie, and I had promised to treat them when they came home but it looked like this could be ages so I bought them a David Austin rose, Boscobel, in the meantime. No sooner had I got back than Ailie arrived so we had a chat, I gave her her rose, by which time #3 daughter arrived with the children.

Ella’s (who is 8) stamina amazes me - normally she goes to rugby at Falcons near the airport by metro and cycles back with her dad but today the metro did not run, so not only did she play rugby she had to cycle 14 miles round trip on her little girl’s bike. We are buying them both frog bikes for Xmas. (Thomas and James both have them but they are very expensive.) Anyway both Ella and Nathaniel were up for a moorland walk. They chatted and played all the way round, messing about in puddles, mud and making a jumping game with a bit of old wooden plank. They were still wearing their muddy rugby clothes.

The tongues never stopped. Nathaniel was full of the on-line games he’d played at Beavers Jodi. Ella said she’d scored 3 tries which she was pleased about as she happily told me she is not the fastest runner but she’s strong so she was able to push off all the defenders. It is mixed boys and girls. She’s really keen. She gets so involved in everything she tries which I admire.

I had misjudged how short of food we’d get, having ordered the Sainsbury delivery a week ago. So I improvised. We had some spinach and kale in the garden so I made rather a disgusting sauce with caramelised onions, garlic, chilli and olive oil with the chopped greens. It looked a bit like a cow pat. But once Liquidised then mixed in cooked orzo and Parmesan it tasted really nice and must have been most nutritious !





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