Lazy Sunday

Sometimes domestic bliss appears from the most unplanned sources.

This morning we got up late - we haven't for ages and when we did eventually stir we discovered just enough ingredients in the house to make a pretty decent brunch which even included fruit juice and fresh coffee.

Then we headed out to find pine cones, (part of my christmas craft endeavors) and went up to the plantation by Wyevales garden centre where we wandered through the trees and again i really wished I had my fast camara to capture the birds and squirrels which were everywhere. The trees were amazing and it was very peaceful - leading me to conclude my tranquillity research was right describing even small places can truly be oases of calm.

As is happening so frequently at the moment I saw something amazing in the woods. Picking pine cones is a very peaceful activity and involved scouring the ground carefully but also moving carefully so as not to cruch any good cones. I noticed a squirrel jumping down a tree which seems to be moving oddly so I watched a little more carefully, in the mother squirrels mouth was a small baby squirrel with small ears and a little tail which was waving around as the mum bounced along the ground before bouncing up another tree. Lovely.

After collecting a few cones (will photograph tomorrow) and after he'd nibbled at a few sweet chestnuts we headed to the garden centre round the corner where we spent an hour browsing and eventually bought some cut price flower seeds, and some shallots, garlic, winter peas and green manure for the veg match as well as a fleece cloche. I am hoping to spend the next couple of days tidying and preparing the garden for winter.

I then had to go off and run a few errands and he stayed at home to wash the car and managed to fix the oven too. Getting back I put a beef casserole on and made a crumble from mums apples, did some recipe hunting, and checked on the sloes before we make sloe gin & sloe vodka tonmorrow evening. It really is the little things which count - fresh food & good wine!!!

Tomorrow I promise - I will spend some time in my garden!