We all woke up this morning half an hour before Lucy was due to be at work for the lunchtime shift.
We staggered around passing mugs of coffee to each other and trying to sort through the pile of clean washing that nobody had put away to find some clothes that mostly fitted. Oliver solved the problem by staying in his underpants but I felt that would not be the best solution for me, and made a mess of my nicely folded pile of washing by rooting frantically through it trying to find a T-shirt that I liked. It was long after lunchtime before I noticed that Mark was wearing it.
Somehow we managed to get her into work on time, and then we had a leisurely stroll with the dogs and planned our own day.
It is Tuesday, which is not a brilliant day for picking up customers even in the height of summer, which is the current season, and actually it is lovely when the clouds part for a while and the sun comes out, warm and joyous: but that is not happening often enough for people to be inspired to take a spontaneous walking holiday in the Lake District and then get a taxi back to the station: and so we decided that we would spend the day doing household things and then go to work in the evening to mop up the always lucrative too-drunk-to-walk trade.
Of course we have got visitors coming for dinner tomorrow so I spent most of the morning happily planning menus and then going round Booths with Mark’s credit card, buying interesting cheese and exciting things like lemons and sweet potatoes that I don’t normally bother about. They are splendid to have when there are other people about to exclaim over the magnificence of dinner, and not worth bothering about when it is just me and Mark shovelling it in as quickly as we can because we are late for whatever we are supposed to be doing.
On our way around our stroll I took the opportunity to explain my Having Friends To Dinner logistical problems. We have taken our large table over to the farm and exchanged it for a smaller oak one that we had in storage there, because it means that we have got more room in our little kitchen, but the problem is that there is not very much room on it to set six place settings and then shove in the middle all the things like olives and mayonnaise and bread and all the other things that you have to have when you are trying to impress people with how cultured and civilised you are.
I explained to Mark that I needed him to make a nice stand to put in the middle to put hot things on like the shepherd’s pie, so that it would be a bit higher up and there would be more room in the middle of the table. He grumbled quite a lot at first but eventually agreed that it would be a good idea, and then spent ages measuring the space on the table and planning it before buzzing off out from underneath my feet across to the farm to bash bits of tin about and burn holes in his trousers with sparks from the welder.
He has made a splendid job of it, it has got lovely curved legs, and he found some broken tiles and bits of slate and glass whilst he was there, and has made the most beautiful mosaic design for it. It isn’t finished yet, because it has all got very detailed and a bit fiddly, but he thinks that it will be done in plenty of time. I will have to take a picture of it tomorrow because it was too dark by the time he stopped messing about with it, but I am very pleased, it is going to be magnificent.
I had a lovely day chopping vegetables and baking biscuits and making meringues and strawberry mousse to put in an Eton Mess tomorrow. It was so lovely not to have to rush off to work, I have got all sorts of things done. I have cut lots of mint and sage and bay and chives and hung them in the kitchen in bundles to dry, which is a job I have been looking at for ages. I wanted to harvest the coriander and fennel seeds as well, but they are still too green and so will have to wait.
The house smells glorious now, drying herbs and roasting tomatoes and fresh strawberries, and I felt very pleased with myself by tea time. Lucy came in from work and made it as far as the sofa today before she collapsed, which is a good sign, she must be getting fitter.
I worked for a while and then came home to layer cheese and brazil nuts and potatoes on top of the shepherd’s pie before bed, and Mark finished the shift off. It has been such a contented, busy sort of day.
Except I still haven’t put the washing away.
