A sprint towards the finish line

Visiting friends

I've been baking again, sustenance for a very dear friend who came to visit from faraway. I tried out a new recipe for Oat and Raisin biscuits, taken from Linda Collister's "cookies, biscuits and biscotti". I had to make a few changes, I was running low on a few ingredients (probably because of all the baking I've been doing lately). The result is excellent, more of a cookie than a biscuit and of course obviously the oats with all their super food properties cancel out thesugar and butter. Don't they? Oh and lets not forget the raisins, that's one of our five a day. My goodness, these cookies are practically a super food themselves, I'm going to have another one right now.

My husband hasn't been been around to sample this batch of baking because he set off for Le Mans on Tuesday morning. I have been taking advantage of his absence by slobbing around, letting the children run wild, eating lots of fish (his greatest failing is a dislike of fish) and knitting in bed while catching up on the Archers. Ahhh, life's little pleasures.

My dear friend Kate arrived on Wednesday with her lively 2 year old and scumptious new baby, they have been excellent company and we found time between watching children and chatting to visit my neighbour's garden.

Not bad eh? We spotted our friend George on the lawn bathing in tourist admiration.

Sadly the neighbours did not invite us in for tea. Perhaps they didn't have a chance to clean up and were embarassed.

The Gardens are breathtaking and inspiring and my head is bursting with more ideas and plant desires than I could ever squash into my very much smaller plot. The views down the valley and across to the mountains are incredible although I was tickled when my friend said she thought perhaps I had better views from my little cottage. Irritatingly I did not take a notebook and of course now I am struggling to recall the names of some of the things I would like to locate for my garden, of course this would not of bothered my grandmother who always took a large handbag on garden visits and inspite of being a law abiding citizen in every other way, thought nothing of slipping out her scissors to take a cutting of anything that caught her eye.