Feering then Phil & Bren

Its the weekend so there's an automatic lie-in for me until 8.

Take the dog out before breakfast. It's a glorious morning. Bright, sunny and crisp with a frost underfoot. The dog loves it. He's really frisky. Interestingly, our previous Lab was the same. He always loved the crispy, icy wintry mornings.

We come across the farmer and his wife (yep! the farmer took a wife), and their dog (yep! the farmer's wife took a dog) and a puppy (well, I guess that the dog took a puppy!). They struggle to control their dogs but I just tell Blake to stay with me and, glory be!, he does! I wave nonchalantly and continue with my walk while they struggle to control their dogs. I'm so impressed with Blake that I nearly give him a treat but manage to restrain myself. Can't spoil him!

We get to the halfway point and I stop and just take in the views, and the lovely weather. I take a couple of snaps with my phone - including the long-legged shadows: still looking for the 'killer' pic! Well, one can dream.

During the walk I've been mulling over all the potential problems I'm likely to face when I get back into the office - especially with the window a******s. I think I've got a workable plan sorted out but I don't have any confidence that they will finish on time. I need to think about how to handle that with the people who want to rent the space from April.

After breakfast (and a new crossword) I start clearing out out books and cupboards. I'm sorting books into what we want to keep and the rest. I reluctantly put some in the boxes 'to go' trying to figure out if I'll actually re-read the ones I've decided to keep versus the new ones I'm likely to come across in future. I have to admit that my judgement is probably right!

It is like taking a walk down memory lane as I can remember when I read many of these books and how much some of them impressed me. There is a lot of science fiction and fantasy. This isn't a genre that I read much nowadays and I promise myself that I'll get stuck in again. So much to read and the amount keeps growing!

Phil comes over and picks us up. ........
.......Bren has laid on a great meal for us! Five courses and conversation - it's four really but I'm 'bigging up' courses!

We chat, argue, disagree, tell each other what we think is not right in the world and with others, are opinionated, show ourselves up, agree, swop family gossip (from all sides of the family), do all the normal things that families do with each other but because they're Phil and Bren: they make us feel a lot better about ourselves than when we started. Great evening.

Mini-cab home. Its a bit pricey but what else can you expect at this time of night!