Sanctuary at Maggie's
Friday 8th November 2019
The plan was so simple. 0915 at Maggie's for oatcake breakfast. 1100 at Chatsworth for a walk. As I only organise GB days to be sunny, it came as a bit of a shock to have plans thwarted by the rather soggy outlook. So, after about 51 panic WhatsApp messages and a couple of phone calls, we went ahead anyway as is our GB way, limiting ourselves to breakfast, just to be on the safe side.
And of course, the day was absolutely gorgeous, as proved on my journey.
Blue sky!
However, not everyone could join us, including Lynn had to go for a welly walk instead before she got cut off from the rising tide.
Tali, not sure whether river swimming is a good idea today.
At around 0930, Maggie, Charlotte, Jo, Alison, Julia and me plus newcomers Maureen and Bob met in the kitchen sanctuary. We briefly thought about Pam being a cool dude in Bude...'jazz hands' and Helen M who was probably still having a sundowner at whatever time of day it suited her!
The kitchen was lovely and warm and a perfect place for drying off wet trews.
Ooohhh. That's a bit toasty!
A bit of wafting works wonders!
Maureen and I then settled into the serious business of the day, to try and find the most efficient way to cook up a lot of oatcakes, with Charlotte advising on the side. But in doing so, missed a lot of gossip!
This one is far too sticky
This one takes up too much time
But this method is perfect...
And magically, Chris turns up bang on time. Perhaps eating oatcakes was a little more exciting than watching paint dry!
Cheers everyone
"Fruit bits in mine too! Cheers!"
We pondered about the difference between oatcakes, pyclets and crumpets, but decided it was a northern-midlands-southern thingy, but they tasted so lovely that in the end there weren't any spare for Bob to take home and freeze. So, he left full, but empty-handed.
With lashings of tea and coffee, conversation flowed, but we did pause to sing 'happy birthday' in tune to James who is celebrating a 100th birthday in Amsterdam. We thought about buying presents for much older folk, and decided that a trip out is all that's needed. Julia and Bob seemed pleased that this had worked.
And we may not all need an 'Alexa' ....just yet, but a geeky little dual usb drive for one's mobile phone can really sort one's storage and memory out!
Maggie: Ooh, a modern-day slate.. marvellous!
The occasional glance out of the window, revealed that the sun was indeed still shining and life was carrying on as normal in Maggie's garden.
Nuthatch of the day
Squirrel of the day
But that's what happens when you let your garden 'go wild'!
So we came to the end of a wonderful morning without having really done anything at all. And before we had even blinked, Maureen had cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher; there must be a super domestic goddess gene in the family.
On the way home, still blue sky driving....
