STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

If any one who did nor know me looked around my room they might be forgiven for supposing me to have a duel personality. The room is mostly in keeping with the house, patchwork quilts, pine wardrobe, oil lamps and candles. Then there is my tiny wiccan alter,complete with athame and goblet,amulets and so forth,so far so good. Since May however the amount of technical equipment has proliferated enormously. Once upon a time I had a vintage T.V and and ancient video recorder, then the rot set in. It began with my little lap top, my son convinced me that I needed one, and I must say he was right
Then the T.V gave up the ghost, and as we rent ours I rang the company and asked for a new one. Until it arrived I had no idea that it would be so big,still We just managed to squeeze it in, along with the digital box and the H.D.V. Player which my neighbour kindly sent round, along with a large set of grey drawers with glass fronts. The drawers were handy as they were larger than mine so we managed to house all the new stuff. Then my son gave me a wind up radio,and now I have a printer. I must say it is a wonderful thing, the scanner is amazing and something I have needed for years. It will be so useful as I make my own gift tags and Christmas cards, it is such hard work without a scanner. Every where I look there are remote controls and gadgets, I have even acquired a lava lamp, although the cat has buttonholed it for her own especial use as a tootsie warmer! I suppose that having resisted progress for so long it was inevitable that I would have to deal with these things some time, but I must say that I have had a crash course this year. Grudgingly I admit that my son, who has always been a techi was right the new things are much better than the old ones, which I say without qualification.

I cooked a special breakfast of scotch crumpets this morning with hot strawberry jam sauce, at my son,s request, and made three granary loaves, they smell so nutty and yeasty. Cooking done for the moment I went to Home base to pick up some timber for a repair job. The boys at Home base are great, they cut the wood to the correct length as we chatted about football. I needed a new adaptor so I chose one with energy surge protection/ it really is worth it,we had a modem ruined by a power surge not too long ago.
Home again, and my clever son had set up the printer, it,s wonderful,but huge, still I am very happy as I have not been able to make my own jam jar labels of wine bottle labels since Pa old one gasped it,s last. We had to rearrange things to fit it in but we managed it at last.

Pa had nodded off so after several prods and the promise of coffee we managed to wake him and then I went off to make the soup for dinner. It is a sort of tradition that we have soup on a Monday, today I made vegetable soup, with squash,carrots, parsnips,onions, red peppers, turnip,peas, and celery, oh yes and some red lentils. I cooked them in butter for five minutes and then covered them with water and simmered for thirty minutes. Lastly I blitzed them in a blender with some milk and cream and seasoned with salt and pepper. It is a lovely gold colour and perfect for such a cold night. I had been asked to make a treacle suet pudding with custard for afters , bad for the waistline but at my age who cares!

We all need an early night so that we can be fresh for tomorrow when I hope to have a firework display. There will be quite a bit of work to do in the garden so it will depend on the state of my toe.
I am a bit concerned about my little cat as I have had to move her beloved lava lamp from the top[ of the H.D.V box, I have a feeling that she will be seriously displeased. She presented me with a large rat this morning and I feel rather churlish for spoiling her favourite roost. Oh well, it can not be helped, I shall just have to give her an extra cuddle tonight.