Barby Time

Made it through the last 24 hours with no ill-effects with my foraging, so I went back and got the set of 4 today - bar the oldest and biggest one which I left to spore.

Thanks also to the very kind nanou, who I don't think I have ever heard from before, but identified my parasol mushroom as lépiote élevée. This was all pretty much as I had thought, but it was so good to be reassured, and sounds so much nicer (and delicious) in French.

Don't know about you but the sun shone again briefly today. Somehow I managed to get my daughter J painting again, just as MrsB and I got invited last minute to a BBQ over at some friends, Mark and Jeanette's house nearby.

This is a shot of the tail end of that, with only room left for one more toasted marshmallow. It seems Mark lit his BBQ yesterday evening, cooked on it and managed to then reignite it this morning and cook a fried egg for breakfast. It was going strong as we arived around lunchtime, and Mark likened it to keeping the Olympic flame alight. After today's cooking, all the coals got transferred to an old tin bath, which then did the business as a brilliant firepit.

As an aside, but on that same subject, I once went into our local Garden Centre and mistakenly asked if I could speak to a sales assistant about their brassieres (bras) instead of their brasiers (firepits), whereupon the man shouted across the shop across all the customers : "there's a man here looking for brassieres". Humiliation was not the word.

We had arrived at 13:30, but by the time we rolled back home at 17:00, J had already finished all the painting allocated, and had then mowed all the lawns front and back. Blimey what a result, and what a little darling! Nothing now left for me to do today. I did mention the grass to her as I left, but it was only meant as a joke tongue in cheek - oops ;-)

Reason we are back early is that other good friends Martin and Angela (of the Betty Blue and Useful Dave stories) are calling in on their way back to Bristol tonight. They are stopping over to break their journey, and so some more drinking is reportedly planned - I am ashamed afraid to say.

Good job no meetings tomorrow.....