Drawing back the curtains to see blue sky and sunshine was a delight. Start the day off with our occasional weekly treat of a cooked breakfast with grilled dry cured bacon, Muckleton marmalade sausages (made in Shropshire on the farm from outdoor reared Gloucester Old Spot pigs), the freshest eggs from my friend Hilary’s brown chickens and huge mushrooms and tiny tomatoes from our local greengrocers. Our greengrocers is where we buy any fruit and veg Tony isn’t growing on the allotment, second choice is one of the local farm shops and the supermarket is a last resort, Co-op and Waitrose preferred, closely followed by M and S – final bargains from the others – Aldi great for cleaning products, Tesco very last on the list, if at all – I digress, apologies.

In the kitchen, we have a 'chalk wall', on this we list all the produce Tony currently has available from the allotment and duly cross it through when all is gone, this is a great help when planning shopping and menus.

Beef cooked in Jumping Hare beer (Aldi) and wholegrain mustard is my next job and that is going to sit nicely on the top of the stove with bubbles just breaking the surface for several hours. Oh, nearly forgot the chicken livers, which I spied at Waitrose, cook up a quick pate (low fat cream fraiche replacing cream) enough to fill two teacup sized containers and put those in the fridge to chill before freezing.

Catching up with a few household jobs as trips away last week reduced my time for such things. Feel it’s all looking nice, woops still in my pj’s – time for a shower.