DINNER
Chicken Soup made with leftover Roast Cicken, Onions, Courgettes and Cabbage from the Garden, Organic Carrots (always taste better), Baby New Potatoes and Celery

Walnut Dream Ice Cream

This afternoon I had a go at nailing some wood over the holes in the chicken hut and coop. I couldn't find the hammer, so I used the blunt end of an axe. The poor chicks and Madam Broody had to put up with me banging away, shaking their run in the process. The hut we use for them is really old, it belonged to Mr A's parents from when they had chickens. We had to have another coop for Madam Broody and her chicks, apart from the 3 other hens we've got. After Mr A finding a couple of the chicks amongst the courgette plant, next to the coop, he shoved some boards over the holes, but nothing was secured.
ake
I went into town for my sherbert lemon supply and discovered that the zip on my handbag was broken so I went into some charity shops and found a new (second hand) bag. For £3.75, I've got a new looking bag with lots of different compartments and zips. Just trying to remember which particular bit of the bag contains what is going to take a while to sort out. Despite that, I'm chuffed with it, as it's big enough to contain all my bits and pieces and they are easy to get out as well. I don't know why I didn't get the right handbag before, as my previous one had 2 zips, one on the side, which meant sometimes things would fall out when I opened it up. Blimey, I didn't think I would have so much to say about buying a second hand hand bag!

Mr A is away this week, so I've been running on my own timetable, beholden to no one else but myself (and the chickens). My son has kindly volunteered to open up the chicks door in the morning to let them out into the run. This job is usually done by Mr A, who is an early riser. I take a little while to 'get into my body' first thing, and loosen up etc before climbing the steps up the bank behind our house, up the garden to the top, where the chicks live. As my son, his wife and Liberty, (4) live just a few steps away from the chicks house, it's nearer for him to do the job in the morning in return for eggs. It's a good arrangement, we all live on a bank (not the monetary kind) with our wooden house up a set of steps to the first level, then more steps up to their wooden house at the top of the bank. It does mean that they have quite a climb going up and down the steps, but by now they've got used to it. I shudder to think that it could have been the other way round, with us living at the top and my son's family living down the steps, nearer the road.
I have to accept that I'm getting older, and finding that my body doesn't respond they way it used to. This is something that I've heard people say and thought that they were just moaning about getting old, but now I know what they mean! My best time of day is in the afternoon, by then I'm fully functioning, firing on all cylinders. First thing in the morning, I find that I need to sit, drink a cup of coffee and slowly get into the day. I couldn't work an early shift, as I used to anymore.
It's not a big deal really, I'm just having a bit of a winge.....and when I'm out having a dance, well, the ol' hips are wiggling away, and my bottom's gyrating at speed and I'm dancing like I'm at an audition for Pans People, the Next Generation......

There doesn't seem to be anything to my taste on telly these days...I've taken to watching 4OD on my laptop, the screen of which is bigger than our t.v. anyway...yes folks, I have a 15" screen on my laptop and it's a blooming beauty!

I've just finished a book by William Gibson, well known for 'Necromancer' a cutting edge Sci-Fi book he wrote years ago which won a few literary awards. Anyway, this book, called 'Pattern Recognition'. It was ok, but I thought it lacked something. His prose is really good, his descriptions take you on a journey, but I found the actual plot, the nuts and bolts of the story didn't match it. He used the phrase 'mirror world' early on, for different objects, which gave it an air of mystery. I thought that he meant 'mirror world' as a sci-fi construct, that these objects were in another dimension sort of thing. What it turned out he meant, when he explained the phrase, he only meant that it was belonging to England and not America. Which made it quite dull and not extraordinary at all. Anyway, I was a tad disappointed in the book. Some parts of the story were elaborated with lots of explanations, whilst other parts were skated over when I thought he could have written more on them.

I'm now reading 'Power Play' by Joseph Finder. It's a straightforward thriller but concisely written which I'm enjoying more. Tomorrow I'm going to the library, so I'll look for more of his books as this is the first one I've read.
Scarabella have a rehearsal tomorrow and then a gig on thursday, so there will be lots of driving for me this week. I've also got my meals on wheels round tomorrow morning.

Well, I reckon this Chicken Soup's ready. First I have to take out all the bones and carcass, then - mmmmmmmmmmm...lovely soup!