Work and Play

What a fabulous day yesterday was. Spurred on by Val's assault on weeds the day before, I worked my way though three beds, stooping over the fork to pull up anything that shouldn't be there. At one point the sky looked a bit dodgy so I whizzed around on the lawnmower too before going back to weeding. The ground was soft from recent rain and the weeds came up easily, but the soil just shook off too. Perfect cnditions. I love this job when it's not a struggle, but by mid-afternoon I decided to stop and have a bath. Even then I kept spotting a patch at the bottom of the garden and going back for a bit more. I definitely have symptoms of OCD in the garden, but then if Little Sissinghurst is your aim you need to be a tad obsessive.

I went indoors, planned an early supper of fresh pasta, spinach and parmesan, and soaked my aching body. When I judged it was time to emerge I looked at my watch - 4.30, plenty of time to eat and meet Ruth at 6pm as planned for a walk and a drink at Snape before the concert. But no! It was 5.30! So it was a rush to get ready, feed the dog and hurtle off to where we leave one car and continue together in the other. I managed to grab a chick pea, rice and halloumi salad in Waitrose, though the nice northern lady who uses "love" between every word told me nonchalantly "Sorry love, we're out of cutlery love, we have an order in love, but it hasn't come in love", so I ate it with my spare key in the car, thanks for that love. It was a beautiful evening at Snape as we walked along the river, Hugo drawing exuberant praise from the two people we passed. Eventually we sat outside the Maltings in the evening sun with our glasses of wine, and the rush of getting there and seeing to the dog just washed away. We plotted Ruth's 70th birthday party next month - "no, I'm not telling anyone it's my birthday, just a summer party." "But then you won't get any presents!" "Oh yes, that's true!" The concert was challenging but we rose to it. I had got free tickets after all. Chatting to an usher friend whose daughter is on the staff it became clear that the whole of Aldeburgh Music has heard about Sammy's and my escapade of last week, and they all seem to heartily approve of our actions. I bet they've had a good laugh too. I'm still coming out in a cold sweat thinking about how narrowly we escaped public humiliation.