Winter sun

This view is getting rather frequent outings as it's on one of my regular walks. Still, this is the winter version, vines as yet unpruned.

German friends Helga and Michael, who spend the winter here, invited us round for dinner yesterday evening, along with S and T. I will admit to not having a high opinion of German cuisine, but I know that Helga is an excellent baker, witness her best-ever pasteis de nata. It turns out that they are both wonderful cooks, and the meal was superb.  My diet was ignored for the evening. The main course was a dark, rich stew featuring beef, carrots, apricots, and prunes in a truly delicious gravy, served with a  cheesy potato gratin -- I happily indulged, having not eaten potatoes for months. Pudding was what looked like one of those ghastly German desserts piled high with sickly cream, but turned out to be a hazelnut praline mousse that tasted like the filling of expensive Belgian chocolates -- you couldn't eat much of it (T had three helpings), but it was amazing. Good company too. My only restraint was not to have more than one helping of anything except the potatoes, and to limit my alcohol consumption.

My incipient cold took a holiday for the evening, but sadly it was back today. But this morning I finally finished my calendar to my satisfaction and clicked the "Order" button. I'd bought credits for 50% off in one of Photobox's many special sales in October. Trying to apply the discount to my shopping cart resulted in an interaction with their "customer service", which in turn resulted in a vow never to do business with Photobox again, after ten years of always ordering my calendars and prints from them. This left the customer service person unmoved. So if you have any recommendations for a new high quality supplier, I'm all ears. 

I went for my breezy walk in the afternoon, but bottled out on community keep fit as I've been sneezing and snuffling ever since. Quiet night in then.