weekending in January

The photos are randoms from a few recent walks. How was your weekend? Ours has been a nice one on the whole, with the usual hiccups.

I enjoyed the company of four fantastic friends on Friday night (drank far too much). Jack came along to entertain my friend's dog. He had a lovely time, too (but didn't drink too much).

Richard got up at four am on Saturday to catch a plane to Colombia. He arrived without delays this time and was enjoying a day off on Sunday. He gave me a tour of the garden of his wee guest house when he was waiting for his breakfast by the pool. It looked really inviting. The sounds in the tropics are amazingly different to the sounds in the garden here. I am a bit envious. He'll be working all week and fly back next weekend.

I took Annie to Decathlon on Saturday, she has outgrown all her outdoors stuff and needed to be kitted out for a Scout camping weekend in February. I love Decathlon, this shop full of colourful wellies, bikes, running stuff and whatever else the sporty mind could wish for.

Saturday night I went to a birthday party at the bowling club. Sam was babysitting but he was in one of those aloof teenage moods, not really up for babysitting or anything but Netflix. He also had a friend over. I stuck to soft drinks and birthday cake rather than bubbly and cake because I just knew I would be driving at least one teenager home later. Not unexpectedly Annie called at 10 pm, upset. I am going to spare you the details but if you have or had teenagers, I am sure you can imagine a number of scenarios that might upset a thirteen year old girl. A chat with Sam followed. You know, the one about respect for others etc. Sam has been enjoying a great deal of freedom and he is a great lad all taken into consideration but sometimes I do feel like shaking him a bit. I want to continue to support his exploration of young adult life with all its right and wrong turns but it ain't always easy. And yes, I did indeed drive a teenager home later that night.

Sunday morning was peaceful. Annie went to the local shops with her best friend. She bought me a new nail polish so I can have passable yoga feet (dark cherry).

The little creatures, the dog and I went for a long walk/bike ride along the river. It was lovely to be out and about. We came across a weird walking club, dozens of husky dogs with their owners walking at great speed. The dogs seemed to be mostly strapped to their people's waist pulling them along at a fast pace. It was a bit intimidating actually a living avalanche of sorts. James and Alistair enjoyed the outdoor gym and also racing along the river. They stayed on their bikes a good deal longer after we got home, cycling up and down the road.

I sat in the living room, knitted, had a chat with Richard and did no housework. For dinner I tried something new: lentil croquettes. These things defeated me. They were supposed to be fried in the saucepan. Mine disintegrated to pulp. I shoved the second batch in the oven, these did maintain their approximate shape and they tasted quite nice, if a bit bland. Definitely room for improvement. I also cooked a plain risotto with a whole bag of baby spinach and watched three children's mouths twist with disgust. Alistair loved it. That cooking malarkey is a real pain!

I spent the evening catching up with some old favourites on Netflix. I did some more knitting, determined to finish my scarf before summer is here.

I hope you all have a good week. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello. I am glad you like to read about life as it happens here, mundane or not. I guess mundanity is a matter of opinion. xx