Last few days of summer 2011

Today I made some apple and blackberry pies for my freezer and some elderflower wine ready for Christmas.
Did I really? Did I heck, it was back to Maldon for me to lap up the late sunshine as this coming Friday is officially the first day of autumn.
I'm sure that when mother and me both snuff it that we'll have a brass plaque fixed to the wooden fence, with 'Dot and Deb's spot' engraved onto it!

It was glorious today down there and the river was really busy with lots of boats and barges of every size motoring and sailing up and down on it. I'm pleased to see that the passenger cruiser was still running, so we might actually get to go on it before the year is out.
The boating lake that we sit opposite was really busy too with families crabbing and the normal Sunday group of men who were sailing their mini yachts. I wonder if in theirs heads they are captains of gin palaces off to foreign shores.
It's quite funny that if we come here in the middle of the week, you get men of my mother's age sailing their wonderfully grand homemade boats and on the weekend, it's men of my age...bonus!
Boat sailing must be the new golf.
I wonder if I could get one of my own to sail and meet some of these chappies? Coo shiver me timbers!
But I did meet sailing his non motored yacht, was my old friend Ivor who used to be our chaplain at the university. Ruth, who was the campus nurse, was sitting on a bench with her head in her kindle catching up with the latest best seller while Ivor was sailing his leaving present from Mission Croatia.
For those who are in the dark, Mission Croatia was Ivor's dream come reality, where he would take a couple of mini buses full of students and willing staff, plus stuffed full of supplies over to a crumbling children's hospital in Croatia and basically spend two weeks every year helping to put it right.
It was lovely to catch up with them as it's not that long ago that I replied to her email with promises to meet up soon for a coffee and here we unexpectedly are! And it soon became evident that we had loads to catch up on with all the gossip from our old office.

I had a quiet night in front of the TV tonight, which I was going to spend ironing, but that can wait till tomorrow morning. I've got so focused on trying to lose weight or doing exercise, that I've forgotten how nice it is just to stay still. Plus I've forgotten how tired I get as well.
But all in all, a lovely day.

Lots of love Debbie x