Mel had to work on Thursday morning, so I went to meet her at Sherborne, leaving my car and going in hers because Dodo lives in a narrow lane with limited parking space and my Landrover would take up a lot of space. Dodo was in great form. There were five of us, more than six would test the limits of her sitting room. Her nephew and family were going to visit at the weekend.
We chatted, ate cake, drank tea, sang Happy Birthday - as I observed, we all started in different keys but ended up together. Here's a picture of her card from the Queen.
In the evening, we met Wink's friend Mandy at the pub. The next day Wink had an appointment so I went to a coffee morning in her place, then drove to the house where she was dog and cat sitting for the weekend. The dogs were a yellow and a black labrador called Rufus and Billy, the cats were a ginger called Hobbes and a tabby called Wicket. On Saturday, another coffee morning, or rather a bazaar, where I won a bottle of port in the tombola. I reckon the two fundraisers did rather well from me overall, but I did come home with some goodies, including whole lots of books and some brand new loppers.
We met another of Wink's friends (she's the sociable one of the family) for lunch and then I set off for Zig's house. It was lovely to see her again, we last met three years ago and a lot has changed since, but she's as completely delightful as ever. And she made jolly good scones when I saw her last and delicious banana cake (was there grated chocolate in there?) this time, and I met dogs and cats and chickens and talked too much, as ever.
And Mig came too, and I followed her home to find Barney unscrewing the gin bottle and cooking dinner - which was a joint effort though I had nothing to do with it, and it was all totally delicious. Barney described me as "talky" which is fair enough, but I do hope I demonstrated that I can listen too, because I do have a worrying tendency to think it's up to me to keep the conversation flowing and a blogger's assumption that a monologue is fine, but not all the time, especially when people have interesting things to say.
Later, Barney went to bed several hours earlier than Mig and I did, which gave me the opportunity to make friends with Tosca, and it was after 1 when I went to bed. We seemed to have left rather a lot of empty bottles behind, I'm afraid.
The next day, Barney cooked breakfast. Why didn't I take a picture? I'm a fool, perhaps? Yes, you're right.
We chatted, ate cake, drank tea, sang Happy Birthday - as I observed, we all started in different keys but ended up together. Here's a picture of her card from the Queen.
We met another of Wink's friends (she's the sociable one of the family) for lunch and then I set off for Zig's house. It was lovely to see her again, we last met three years ago and a lot has changed since, but she's as completely delightful as ever. And she made jolly good scones when I saw her last and delicious banana cake (was there grated chocolate in there?) this time, and I met dogs and cats and chickens and talked too much, as ever.
And Mig came too, and I followed her home to find Barney unscrewing the gin bottle and cooking dinner - which was a joint effort though I had nothing to do with it, and it was all totally delicious. Barney described me as "talky" which is fair enough, but I do hope I demonstrated that I can listen too, because I do have a worrying tendency to think it's up to me to keep the conversation flowing and a blogger's assumption that a monologue is fine, but not all the time, especially when people have interesting things to say.
Later, Barney went to bed several hours earlier than Mig and I did, which gave me the opportunity to make friends with Tosca, and it was after 1 when I went to bed. We seemed to have left rather a lot of empty bottles behind, I'm afraid.
The next day, Barney cooked breakfast. Why didn't I take a picture? I'm a fool, perhaps? Yes, you're right.
7 comments:
Z? Talky? I can't believe it.
This post was like an episode of the Great British Bake Off.
Oh Rog, you're being a bit of a tease there. Although I think Zig should enter the GBBO next year, she'd win hands down.
Mrs Queen looks a bit grumpy on that birthday card.
Congrats to Dodo. You drunkard! x
We shall meet on the Scrabble table!
It's hard to smile for the camera without looking a bit tipsy, and I suppose that isn't a good look for her. Or maybe she's passed smiling responsibility to Katie Kambridge, who does it extremely well.
Hoo hah, darling, tiles at dawn. Well, in an hour or two. Just starting on my second glass this evening, but it's been ever such a busy day, honestly ; )
They were very nice bottles though. I seem to remember doing quite a lot of talking myself, so it can't all have been you. (and I think he meant it as a compliment of sorts : )
Tosca will be happy to see you again - not everyone will put up with the ecstatic dribbling and the shedding black and white fur for so long.
Well, it was true, can't be denied! And we pretty well kept pace with each other in terms of bottles. Tosca's adorable.
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