David's Watching

The first real frosty morning of the winter and a beautiful bright day to boot!  Tony dropped me at the station and I took the train to Saltaire for my recorder lesson.  I was a little nervous about it as, due to illness, I haven't picked up my instrument in a couple of weeks and it did take me ten minutes or so to find my mojo, but having a new piece to explore helped and F my tutor is always supportive.

Afterwards I walked down to the Mill for a cuppa and toasted teacake.  It was just after opening so I was the only customer in the Diner for a while.  I like its eclectic decor.  After my refreshment break I spent some time amongst the wonderful books and picked up a few Christmas related bits and pieces before catching the train back and walking home.

Crossing the bridge in the park I spotted a heron standing in the river and watched it for a while.  Back in the Estate I heard the drone of the new rhodo basher which Tony spotted earlier in the week.  It is certainly doing a thorough job of taking out the invasive plants which harbour the tree virus.  It will be interesting to see what plants appear in the opened up areas.

I spent the afternoon doing some prep cooking for Friday tea when we have invited our immediate neighbours on all three sides around.  

I have been listening to a lot more radio recently and yesterday heard Dr Tim Spector (who fronts the Zoe app.) talking about gut health.  One of his five tips is that we should eat 30 different plants each week to improve our gut microbiome.  Out of interest I thought I would list the plants I have eaten since Monday:
orange
oats
apple 
raisins
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds
cashews
pecans
cranberries
pine nuts
grapes
tomatoes
baked beans
broccoli
potato
sweet potato
cauliflower
carrot
onion
coffee
banana
celery
peppers
plum
herbs
oils
beetroot
lemon 
garlic 
courgette
Thirty so far by my reckoning - how different is yours I wonder?