10-06-25

Hello, everyone.  I'm writing this back at home as life gets back to normal and I'm back to the usual timetable of stuff.  We've had variable weather over the weekend and it looks to be dry but not sunny most of the day.  OK for getting the washing out though, so that's good.  In fact - hang on, I'm going to get a load in right now . . .

. . . there we go, a load in so it should be done so I can get it on the line before Groove.

After the last breakfast yesterday, I set off to find Mandy's house using the trusty sat nav which took me all round the houses but got me there.

We walked into Maldon (not far) to a place called the Continental cafe which had seating inside and outside on a lovely little square at the back . . .

. . . like this . . .

. . . with pretty plants and . . .

. . . beautiful hanging baskets that put mine to shame.

The coffee was pretty good too and the company was absolutely the best.

It was so nice to meet up with someone I've chatted to online and we seemed to get on really well.  We'll be meeting up again in July and I'm looking forward to it.

Maldon is one of those old towns with interesting buildings and alleyways plus the estuary, of course.

I'm thinking of spending a few days there - there's plenty of B&Bs, etc, plus a Travelodge and Mandy could tell me the interesting places to visit.

Anyway, later on I headed off home, unpacked, put one load of washing in and went into the garden.
The tomatoes seem to be doing great, there's a couple of runners coming up at long, long last, the baby corn is surviving, the chilli pepper has plenty of flowers and one teeny-tiny little pepper but those poor cucumbers - the second one has collapsed and the third, the biggest, seems to be going the same way.  I've looked it up and it says overwatering (???).  OK - hmmm, no idea why but there you go.  I'm leaving the one that still has hope and we will see.  I suppose I could just go to B&Q/Longacres and see if there are any more plants available - I'll see how I feel later.  It's a bit late really.

I received an email from Ray and Jam who organises the coach trips, saying that the date of the Edinburgh trip has to be changed for very good reason.  It's now three weeks later, at the beginning of December.  That clashes with another trip but they will try to sort that out too.  Poor them, it's not their fault and it must be an absolute nightmare.  Remember, this isn't a business, they do it as a voluntary community thing  and they do it very well indeed.

It is back to the normal timetable today.  It's Groove first thing; Chris is still being careful with her back and won't be coming.  I think I will take some jeans to change into afterwards and drive on to Marriages as I need some more bread flour and, because I am that side of town, I could pop into the aforementioned garden places, just to see.

Then it will be home to do some housework, ironing, and so on.  A normal day.  Have a good one, everybody!  xx