Rushing about!

Keith and Sophie went for a three hour walk today which I thought was a bit too much - surely an hour's walk, three times a week is enough?

Mike was on a trip to the Sky Studios in London today and Keith had taken him into Northampton at the unearthly hour of 6am. I'm glad he volunteered! After Keith and Sophie set off I settled myself into the conservatory to catch up with all the jobs I needed to do and enjoyed the sunshine shining through the windows. After yesterday's rainy morning it was a beautiful day.

They were home just after 11am and I made breakfast. Sophie and I went out in the afternoon down to the St James Retail Park as I wanted to go to Homesense to buy some nick nacks for the ensuite bathroom. The walls are looking a little bare!

We popped into Starbucks first and Sophie treated me to a coffee and a cake before we walked over to Homesense, passing the now empty ex-BHS store. I said to Sophie that before Christmas it would probably be given over to a discount store...watch this space!

Unbelievably Homesense had Christmas decorations for sale! I couldn't resist a little "gonk" with a white hat and beard. He looked remarkably like "Herr Hair" that we bought in Berlin last December. It seems incredible that we are back now in a situation where the shops are pushing the festive season on us already!

We were happily looking around when Mike messaged me to say he was fifteen minutes away from college and could we go and pick him up? We duly obliged but it meant he had to come to Jones's with us (more Christmas decorations...and lots of them!) and then a visit to Waitrose where I had to buy some chicken for tomorrow night's curry. We had forgotten to buy it yesterday!

In Jones's I bought a load of bird food as it is certainly getting chillier now and our feathered friends will need all the help they can get. We have had so many birds visit our garden this year and the robin is well and truly back along with sparrows (loads of them!), blue and great tits, starlings, collared doves and the odd magpie. I haven't seen any blackbirds for a while and Rooky hasn't been seen for weeks so I hope they'll all return as it gets colder. "Cheryl" still visits and is intent on hiding her nuts all over the garden!