We see a snake!

I was awake at 7.30am this morning, and let the cats out straightaway as they were miaowing to get into the garden. Outside, it was glorious and, looking at the forecast, we're set for at least a week of dry, fine and sunny weather. There were mutterings on the news this morning about a drought, as some areas of the UK  haven't had any rain for three weeks, and I actually can't remember the last time we had any. I won't be buying any bedding plants for the garden as we'll have nobody to water them when we go away!

Sophie and I watched Saturday Kitchen for a little while, but I wanted to get preparations for tonight's lasagne done, so I chopped up shallots, carrots, celery, a pepper and a courgette. Sophie made a batch of banana and chocolate muffins while Keith went to get a newspaper.

We watched a little more and had another coffee, and the morning whizzed by. Sophie made us sandwiches for lunch, and we covered the muffins with a clean tea towel, ready to be eaten with a cup of tea later.

After lunch, I cooked the vegetables, added the meat and other ingredients, and left the Bolognese sauce to simmer slowly all afternoon. I had a quick shower, and Sophie and I set out for a walk at 2pm. We headed to Walgrave and did "the round" in reverse. This was a walk I used to do several times a week, but it's been years since I did it!

Beautiful, very old, Oak tree

At the bottom of the track leading to Walgrave

It was hot and peaceful; we didn't see another soul the whole way around! At the bottom of the track is a little river, and we always used to peer into the water to see if there were any fish. Well, today, we saw a snake! It was swimming in the river and then slithered up the bank! Sophie ran off to get a closer look, and we think it may have been an adder, although it was difficult to tell. We'd never seen a snake on our outings before, and certainly not swimming in the little brook!

We carried on up a more forgiving hill and stopped at the top to look at the crop growing. We had no idea what it was, but it partly obscured the gorgeous view.

We could see home now, but had to walk through another field, and then cross over into the meadow owned by the village. By now, we were hot and tired, and the thought of getting home and having a cup of tea and a muffin was most welcome!

Nearly there!

We had been out for about an hour and a quarter, and I was pleased we'd made the time to go for a walk. It had been far too long since we'd completed our favourite walk, so let's hope we'll do it many more times.

The tea and muffin were lovely, and we spent the rest of the warm afternoon relaxing. In the early evening, Sophie and I played Scrabble, and my daughter thrashed me! When we finished, we played cards before Sophie made the bechamel sauce for the lasagne. Once that was done, we layered the sauces, the pasta sheets, and the cheese, and popped the dish in the oven to cook for half an hour. Sophie made garlic bread, and voila! It was done!

As anyone in my family will tell you, I'm not a huge fan of lasagne and especially when it's gloopy, like our dish was. It tasted delicious, though, and we're planning to have it again tomorrow night, and add more pasta sheets.

Our viewing pleasure for this evening was the remake of The Flight of the Phoenix, and we had trouble getting naughty Mooney Bums in. He was hanging out with Lynn's cat, Cora, and wouldn't come in until we enticed him in with the laser toy. Little monkey!