Quintessential Northamptonshire

Another pleasant day today. I started on a long list of quick jobs I'd been storing up (well, avoiding) at work, leaving another list of long jobs that I now need to urgently prioritise. I feel that I am getting things steadily under control.

I left at lunch and did a Waitrose shop for some bits and pieces for the roast duck, Szechuan sauce and stir fry we cooked this evening, in celebration of my second lodger, J, finally showing his face again after months of working abroad.

As I needed to see the head shrink, there was no point going home as he lives way on the other side of town. So I took full advantage of the glorious sunny weather to practise with the telephoto lens and try creating a few panoramics in some stunningly beautiful estate country in deepest Northamptonshire. It was a really splendid, carefree and 'stolen' afternoon. The sky larks were around again, making my heart sing. (My blip is my favourite one.)

Then, I tried to get into the head shrink's place and found it locked. No reply (yet I could have sworn that there was someone inside). How annoying. We've obviously got crossed wires on dates. So, I could have gone straight home at 2pm after shopping after all rather than spending two hours kicking my heels. I was quite annoyed but I then decided that it was no bad thing to have had a free afternoon practising my shots anyway.

The dinner was a success and will be done again and we've caught up with J. Since Christmas he's been working in Delhi, Copenhagen, Kingston, Skopje and Pristina! He's only seen his family for about two weeks in total since Christmas. Tough, but hopefully lucrative for him as he's getting married later this year.

So we are a full house in front of Masterchef tonight, which makes me happy.