A Rant and A Gift.

An early start to my day, not by choice I can assure you. My Approved Food order is coming today, I had an Email yesterday giving me a delivery slot from 07:30 to 17:30, I usually get an hour window, so was a bit miffed!!. I have logged on to track the order and it is still sitting in the distribution center at Peterborough, 25 minutes away!. The "customer care!" help line is a recorded message saying that the advisers can give no further information, fat lot of good they are. I do have plans for the day and they do not include sitting in the cottage for hours waiting. I think that AF have changed their delivery company, it may be a mistake on their part. I would rather pay a little extra delivery charge to have a more precise time.
Rant over, it is safe to come out from behind the sofa.
I will still use AF, I will just have to box clever about my order day and try to aim for a Monday delivery. That is a day when I am usually stuck at home busy at home doing the little jobs that are annoyingly time consuming but vital.

Now I have got that off my chest I want to welcome a new follower, PugMomQuilts. I had a trip out yesterday, hence no blog post, and saw a pair of adorable black pugs, Mum and daughter. They were as cute as buttons, Mum was a bit stand offish but daughter was full of herself and demanded a cuddle from me and a fuss from Ben. Who, I might add, was totally entranced by the attention.

We stopped in a bit of Sandringham Woodland and Ben was a very happy little dog, chasing round. He met 2 very big very muddy Golden(HA mudden more like) Retrievers and had a mad chase me chase you session.
 I spotted this tree and just loved the shape.

Once it is in leaf all those horizontal lines will be lost.

I received a gift, it was given with an apology in case I was offended. Just look.

There is no date or number to be seen but it is well used.

I will be making the Granny loaf soon.

As you can see there are marks and smears from a busy cooks fingers, I remember once putting a wooden spoon down onto a page of my first cookbook and leaving a dollop of Parkin mix behind, the stain is still there.

I am thrilled with my gift, much better than a shiny "coffee table tome" full of glossy pictures of meals that take a weeks worth of money to make.

On another note, I have shared with you my blog hopping trips, I have found some great blogs to follow and to make an occasional visit that way. 

One of the best was Sew and Sow Farm, written by Jan. Well she has just reached a milestone, a year of blogging and to celebrate is having Five Days of giveaways, today's is for some wonderful Aurifil thread. Do go and have a look, I look forward to her posts and often pop in and visit some of her followers too.

Reasons to be grateful

1. Glorious sunny days.

2. Meeting new dogs on my walks.( and the owners)

3. A load of goodies on their way from AF.

4. An unusually mild February, at least it is here.

5. The ability to say "Yes Please" to the offer of a trip out in our lovely countryside.

I am so glad that I made the decision to retire last year, I would have missed out on so much if I had stayed part time.

I certainly would not have had the time to learn to crochet.

And as I have the offer of a trip out shortly, just a quick visit to Else,s ( I will have to tell you about that place) I am off now,

TTFN                                               Pam