Here I sit all broken-hearted...

Can't remember what I was going to tell you. I'll burble for a bit, then I'll remember.

Al's splendid home-made paper bags are the hit of Yagnub! People offer to buy them and can hardly believe that he gives them away. Ro and Dilly were dubious when he started to make them, as the time he takes is out of proportion, they think, to their usefulness. I was enchanted from the start. I became all excited...it is true that I am noted for my enthusiasm about quite small matters. I won't post pictures and that, as his website will be up within the next week and I will then abandon the habit of a lunchtime and actually put up a permanent link. By the way, if anyone is ever hurt that I don't link to them when they link to me, I did explain it a while ago; I don't link because I like you all too much to choose. I read everyone's blog who comments on mine - even if I don't often comment, I read you - and I read a fair few who have never commented, or replied to my comments.

I've remembered, and how could I have forgotten the Talk of Yagnub! In the wee small hours of last night, a car drove along Mahsrae Street, failed to make the bend and, over-correcting, thwacked itself into the pub on said bend. The local constabulary were called out and found that the passenger had got out and legged it, but the driver was trapped. He had to be cut out and the rest of the night and the whole morning was spent in contemplating, measuring, gathering evidence (chalk marks on the road to prove it!!(!) ), working out what had happened (daft bloke drove too fast, crashed) and clearing up. Lots of sand on the road to mop up fuel and oil and the aforementioned, albeit in parenthesis, chalk marks dotted across to show the car's trajectory. The corner of the pub looks a bit bruised. It has been worked out that the car was travelling at something like 70 mph, which is quite unheard of in Norfolk; this is Suffolk which is only slightly racier.

I worked in the shop this afternoon, as Al and Dilly were doing something bee-related. The sunshine has made bees blissfully happy and they are calm and purposeful. Al and Dilly are deciding on the final siting for their hive - I've told them the best place, as BW and Mr BW have eyed up the land and told me (with reasons. Splendid). Many prices have gone up startlingly. Lemons, for example - what is it with lemons? Nine months ago, Al sold them at 6 for £1, or 20 pence each. They were the only item where the price had not changed in the five years he had owned the shop. He kept that price until he would have been selling at a loss, but now he has to sell lemons at 38p. Limes, which once were 35p, are now 25p, on the other hand. There is no sense in this that I can see. A few weeks ago, he sold peppers at £3.30 per kilo and made a profit. Suddenly, the wholesale price went up to £5.40, so that's what he's selling at. He makes no profit, he looks on it as part of the service until the price goes down again. A lady came in and asked for a green pepper; I apologised for the high price and told her 94p. "That's all right," she said, "Tesco's have got them at £1"

We sold out of lettuces, cucumbers, salad potatoes and Cornish new potatoes, though. And green peppers, as it happens.