Sunflower success

For the past three years I have been trying to cultivate sunflowers, with only limited success. This year is different. I have four giant specimens blooming in the back garden, and several others in a mixture of sizes at the front. Those blipped have grown from some seedlings donated by my not-so-little sister.

We've had a relatively quiet day at home followed by evening fun. In the middle of the day, we made a single sortie to buy provisions for a wee dinner party. This afternoon we cooked. Our guests were Bruce, Elly, and Jon. We served: a version of bruschetta with oatcakes (vegan) and salmon pâté on toast (non-vegan) as the first course; cumin-scented butter and kidney bean stew (vegan) and duck stew (non-vegan) for the main course; and we all shared rhubarb crumble and vegan ice cream for pudding.

I would have won our 5-way post-dinner game of Catan had one of the others been willing to trade a single card with me in the final round. Their refusal gave gave the win to Mr hazelh instead.

Exercise today: none (I would have gone for a run, but I have a nasty blister on my heel from the shoes that I wore at the conference last week).