I awoke to as fair a morning as ever I have seen. A rising mist gave way to the sparkle of sunlight on a thick all covering frost reflecting the pearly shaded of pink and blue before it was melted away by the same sunshine that had given it such beauty.
My son arrived home in a happy mood which was astonishing given the circumstances. As a rule my son would be angered by work related clap trap but since he has already decided to leave in the not too far distant future he has become more philosophical about such shenanigans. We had toast and coffee together joking all the while and then Pa arrived, a lovely surprise as he is usually still asleep at such times.
More coffee and viands were provided and we all had a good long chat. I am pleased that my son is now resolved to take leave the slave drivers for whom he labours and could at last see the comical side of their antics. Once he had gone off to bed I made the days loaves and as we were to have chicken in the pot tonight I decided to make some kamut loaves which although they are white the flour from which they are made is whole grain. It is the flour used for baking bread in ancient Egypt and very good bred it is too.
The bread turned our beautifully and Pa and I had our breakfast of porridge in a kitchen fragrant with the wonderful smell of warm bread. The bird garden which is overlooked by the kitchen windows was full of small visitors and it was great fun to watch them squabbling over peanuts and flitting about. I washed the dishes, prepared the vegetables for dinner and them off I went to buy more peanuts for these same birds.
I was very lucky at the garden centre as a member of the staff saw né looking at a large container of meal worms and attached a half price sticker to the container was holding and then pointed out some wonderful wooden fat ball feeders also at a reduced price This was splendid luck as we spend rather a lot on b=wild bird food so every little helps. I picked up a big bag of nuts and headed for the checkout, the whole lot came to only twenty pounds and included the fat balls to fill the new feeder.
Pa was delighted with my purchases and went out at once to locate the new feeder in the old damson tree in the orchard. I was finishing the preparations for our dinner when the door bell rang and there was our friendly buggy man. He had ,earlier in the week bough us two tiller covers and two wing mirrors for the buggies. We had expected to pay thirty pounds just for the mirrors with the tiller covers at around ten pounds each, in fact he only charged us twenty pounds for the lot. I thought that I had heard incorrectly but no that was all he asked and I could not believe our run of luck.
Still amazed Pa and I had coffee and just as I was putting the chicken in the oven the doorbell went again. This time it was the father of one of my sons old school friends with whom we have kept in touch for years. He had a large bag of good jam jars, always welcome here as when ever you give away jars of jam you lose the jar and as we never buy jam I am always running out of jars during the preserving season. These were accepted with thanks and them he produced fro his bag a bowl containing, he told us a friendship cake all the way from Germany.
Apparently the mixture which resembles a batter is placed in a bowl and stirred regularly and feed every few days until finally the mixture is divided in to four, fruit is added to one portion and is baked, two portions are given to friends (hence the name )and the forth is kept to begin the cycle again. This came complete with instructions and I was really excited by such an unusual gift. I shall cetatinly have a go and if all goes well in about a couple of weeks I shall have some of the mixture to give away thus continuing the circle of friendship, it is a wonderful idea do don’t you think?
Some many small but lovely things have happened today and it has made us all very happy, even a long awaited parcel arrived and in the evening just as it had yesterday the sun set in a blaze of reds amd purples behind our cottage which looked for all the world like a cat curled up before the fire, and as I watched a tawny owl flew over the garden wall from the churchyard and perched in our apple tree, silently and patiently waiting for the mice to begin foraging.
Our meal was a merry one and was very much enjoyed, I had hidden a dozen grilled bacon rolls in with the chicken and vegetables and this pleased the boys very much. We continued the jokes form the morning right through the meal ad Pa and I told of our good fortune.
Such a day as this has been makes for the kind of happiness which lasts in the memory for a long time, a sunlit mile stone on the path of life and when at last I curl up in bed tonight I shall have only happy thoughts and remembrances of the kindness of others to warm my heart. That and the consciousness of being far more fortunate than I deserve.
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