Hello friend...

Lola often sits like this with her head on the back of the sofa gazing at Hamish the Heilan' Coo.  I often wonder what's going through her head as she gazes at him.  Does she wonder why he never moos?  Or what happened to the rest of his body?  Maybe it's something as simple as his head is full of twigs that she'd like to chew!  :-))

If I'm in the kitchen and catch her eye whilst she's doing this, she looks at me with those big brown eyes of hers and I can't help but get her a treat.  A healthy one though...a carrot or a tomato.  I can't resist! 

Today has been another busy and sciatica-pain-free day.

My cleaning lady arrived just after lunch and I was soooooo happy to see her. Because of us having covid she's not been here since the day before Hogmanay.  David gave the whole place the once over when he took down the Christmas decorations (I am eternally grateful that my mother in law raised a modern man capable of looking after himself, his house and his wife! :-) but it definitely needed L's magic touch.  

I managed to spend two hours...yes two whole hours...in my studio this afternoon!  First time in absolutely ages!  I spent all that time getting the place back into shape and things back where they should have been, so it's all ready for me to head back in at the start of the week and who knows...I might even manage to create something!

Later in the afternoon D and I headed to the garage to unpack our new freezer that was delivered earlier this month.  Due to us self-isolating the delivery drivers just had to open the garage door and dump it, which they did.

When ordering it I had originally intended to get a chest freezer, but I learned that not all chest freezers (in fact not all freezers of any style) are suitable to be left in garages as they stop working properly when the temperatures drop.  Apparently if you want to keep a freezer in your garage you have to check that it's specifically suited for that purpose.

Anyway in the end I decided on a upright freezer with five drawers as I felt that would be a more organised way to store food and be more accessible to me.  It fits the space perfectly and I am really pleased with it.  

When we came back inside I went to make a start on dinner but D announced he was cooking and shooed me away.  Never one to turn down an offer of being cooked for, I got my feet up and my crochet out and marvelled at the lovely smells coming from the kitchen.

Half an hour later I was presented with the most delicious and perfectly cooked duck breast in a red onion, red wine and redcurrant jus (all made from scratch), D's famous creamy mashed potatoes and delicious green beans (with still a bit of bite to them.  I hate soggy green beans!)  A glass of rather tasty Malbec on the side.  He saw me raising my eyebrows and explained it was a pre-birthday dinner.  Jeez you know you're getting old when you completely forget it's your birthday the next day!  (we're having Burns supper food tomorrow night.  Well it's almost Rabbie's birthday too :-) 

A lovely ending to the day :D