So where has the week gone then??

You know what.... I am SICK OF BLOGGER. I check the dashboard to see who has posted new posts and so help me, more often than not, Blogger tells me I am not following any blogs. Hello???? I have nearly 200 on the dashboard. Or I should have nearly 200. Right now, apparently I follow no-one. It is enough to send anyone off the deep end. So in case I have disappeared off your lists, please rest assured that I am here.

The week is going by so fast, and it seems just yesterday it was Monday. And now Thursday is nearly over. Apart from the patio, which is a work in progress, and a very good one indeed, there is not a lot happening around here. More doctors, time with friends, and now I have the wadding I can start pinning the big quilt. And tomatoes. I dream about tomatoes. The wretched things are taking over my kitchen and my life. There is a limit to the number of tomatoes one can look at. Especially when one has run out of freezer space, and one has no idea how to can anything, never mind no jars either.

I have spent too long standing (see the tomato saga) and David, in a moment of genius, told me I should get a high stool thingy - bar stool type of chair so I could sit and peel tomatoes. Amongst other things. He even helpfully left the Ikea website open for me to see. So when my friends offered to take me to Ikea, I deicded to see what they had and ended up with a bargain. The best of the chairs. There was only one on the shelf, and I popped that on the trolley, then meandered over to look at the bargain basement, as one does, and there in the middle of the floor was my chair. I asked if it was reduced, and the man said it was. Why? It had no packaging. So they knocked a third off the price. For packaging I would have to throw away, and for a chair I did not need to assemble????? It was in the trolley so fast, you have no idea. The one in the box went back on the shelf. Deal done. I now have a chair. However, it seems to be in the way, so I will have to re-jig the kitchen, or just learn to sit on it. I love it, even if there is a tiny scratch which you need a magnifying glass to see.

My life is filled with exciting things.

In the background, you can see some of the many thousands of tomatoes. You can also see a red tea-towel wrapped around something. That would be the most exciting part of the day. We stopped at a South African shop on the way to Ikea, and lo and behold, they had Nutty Wheat flour from South Africa! I used to make bread with it when we lived there - just 4 cups of flour, a teaspoon of bicarb and a teaspoon of salt, then add 500 mls of drinking yoghurt or buttermilk mixed with 2 tablespoons of either honey or golden syrup, and combine the lot, and bake in a loaf tin for 45 mins at 180C. be still my heart. I had a loaf in the oven within 15 minutes of getting back home. Sigh. It is every bit as delicious as I remembered.

So there you have the latest news from the Casa del la Rocking Chair. David and Duncan will finish the patio in the next day or so, and I will be able to sort the garden. (That means get the son to move everything to where I want it to go.) I am totally in awe of his strength, by the way. He picks up 2ft square concrete slabs and pops them down as if they weigh nothing. I wouldn't be able to lift one if my life depended on it. He is immensely strong. And he can now add patio laying to his CV. This has been a summer of new experiences for him! I am really thankful he is here, and wiling to help out. He is a star.