Blogtober 2023 : Day 17

Day 17!  That’s a lot of days of posting and I am very grateful that you are still here!  I’ve been trying to catch up with comments today – one of the best things about Blogtober is the conversations that we have and I love it when you’ve got something to add to what I’ve been writing about during the day.  I may not have answered all of the comments yet but I have read them, so thank you for taking the time to write to me!

Unfortunately, the downside of blogging every day and not posting about specific topics is that you can see just how mundane my life actually is! 🙂  There’s food shopping, dog walking, cleaning, admin, cooking, laundry … all of those things that we all do but generally without writing them down every day – I guess what I’m saying is that I hope I’m not boring you!

We had the most amazing sunrise this morning; more amazing perhaps because it’s the first one I’ve seen for a while when it’s not been raining or foggy, but those pinks are just stunning!

My “same old” for the day included fixing a dripping tap, washing the sheets (I must go and put them back on the bed before I want to go to bed) and chatting on the phone to the roofer who has mended our roof in the past about his forthcoming holiday now that he’s retired (which was not good news for me as I needed him to come and look at the roof!  Fortunately, he knows someone 🙂 ) – the time just goes, doesn’t it?

Before I knew it, it was lunch time.  Lunch was pretty much the same as usual – I made a big box of Greek salad yesterday and it turns out that not only is this a really good way to get me to more salad, but it works for not so small daughter as well!  Result!

It was almost tea time by the time I got out with the dog today.  Ah, tea time – one of those rather confusing terms to someone who doesn’t live in the UK – we have lunch, tea, dinner, supper, and they all refer to different times of day and different meals and the terms are used differently around the country just to add to the confusion.  Oh, and there’s afternoon tea as well, which is plates of delicate sandwiches and cakes, served with tea, coffee or sometimes prosecco – but I don’t tend to think of that as a main meal.  “Tea” in our house is more around 5pm whereas “dinner” is later – say 6pm onwards – but “dinner” can also be the same as “lunch”.  Still with me?  “Supper” for us is a quick snack before bedtime but it’s also a lighter meal later in the evening and there are “supper clubs” where people go out for meals that are proper meals and not just cheese and biscuits 🙂

Anyway, it was heading on for 5pm so “tea time” by the time the dog and I got to the canal where I wanted us to walk.  It’s quite close to the supermarket so the plan was to walk the dog and then pick up the food shopping whilst he snoozed in the car.  It’s not too hot to leave him in the car at the moment and he doesn’t mind – and not so small daughter wasn’t “helping” today so I knew I’d be in and out pretty quickly.

It seemed very quiet when I got there, but within about 10 minutes the place was abuzz with walkers, cyclists, even fishermen, who were all on their way somewhere (apart from the fisherman who was sitting on a deck chair).

The dog and I headed away from the canal and across the bridge over the brook.

I showed you this same stretch of brook on Day 12 and it was quite a lot higher then; it shows how quickly the water level goes down when there isn’t any rain for a few days.  It was nice to catch the last of the sun, too.  It’s started going dark so much earlier now.

We walked on up the hill, moved out of the way of another cyclist, and stopped for a breather at the footpath sign.

The world isn’t a happy place at the moment, and I never take it for granted that I have the freedom to stand and look at green fields and trees.

Turning round to go back down the path, I spotted this hawthorn bush laden down with berries …

I’ve seen a few hawthorn bushes like this over the last couple of weeks – I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many berries on the bushes before.  We’ve got a hawthorn hedge but it gets cut so the berries are nothing like this.

Hopefully they’ll be providing a good meal for the birds and wildlife!

We walked back down the path towards the canal, dodging another cyclist and some large puddles that I hadn’t noticed on the way up and fortunately, neither had the dog.

We’ve been out at different times this week and it’s been really nice to see how familiar walks are different at different times of the day.  It’s not usually quite so busy in the morning, for one thing! 🙂

Next, it was food shopping time and I had to do some nifty manoeuvring with my trolley as the supermarket was busy too – people visiting after work for food for meals, just like me.  The store was full of Hallowe’en decorations and treats, sitting next to Christmas chocolate and cakes which felt a bit strange.

Look at these tiny pumpkins!

They’re called Munchkin pumpkins.  I was quite tempted to buy some just because they’re tiny and cute, but I wouldn’t have done anything with them and they’d have gone mouldy and revolting so I thought I would just take a photo to show you because I don’t think I’ve seen such tiny pumpkins before.

I had a conversation with not so small daughter the other day about whether she and big daughter would want to carve pumpkins this year.  She says yes, but big daughter isn’t living here now and it was something that they used to to do together so I’ll wait and see what they decide to do.  It’ll be a bit sad if last year was the last pumpkin-carving year, but at least I won’t have to worry about to do with pumpkins after Hallowe’en!

See you tomorrow! xx