Photo diary: week 41, project 365

 

We have a new cafe in town - Coffee #1. Apparently, it's a chain, though I haven't heard of it before. My kid was very eager to try it. Don't know if we really need yet another cafe in town, but as the building at the Market Square was empty for a long time, it's better than nothing.

I liked the décor, with mismatched tables and chairs, funky murals depicting the local history, and especially the big book shelves at the back of the cafe.

Eddie pronounced his hot panino edible but not particularly exciting. He loved the Halloweed crunch, which was like a heavy wet brick with icing and decorations (it was awful, honestly). And the coffee was not very good. A mixed bag - we liked the location and interior but food and drink, not so much.

On Monday I spent a long time, traipsing from one shop to another to try to find a winter coat. I don't want a parka or a long puffer coat which makes you look like you are wearing a duvet. I also don't want a winter coat with only one button - perhaps OK, if you step out of the car straight into your office, but for someone who walks everywhere in town, I need a coat that would protect me from the gusts of wind, and thus needs to have several buttons. I am not over-keen to buy a coat online, as I'd like to try it on before buying. 

For example, this coat from Phase Eight looked good on the hanger (love the 1940s shoulders), and was OK from the front. Sadly, from the back it bubbled up, so I looked like the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Back to square one. 

For Tuesday's evening, when Eddie and I watch the GBBO and have a good giggle at the bloopers, I baked some spicy almond butter cookies. They were supposed to be gingerbread men, but I forgot to buy the ground ginger, oups. Talking about the bloopers...

I used a coconut almond butter from Pip & Nut, and quite a lot of spices - cinnamon, vanilla etc. 

It was also the birthday of my late friend Anne, who would have been 95 this year. She was the most wonderful, loyal, caring friend, and I miss her so much. 

I walked into town, and saw these white doves by the museum. It looks like one of them has three wings, but actually that's just two doves on one perch.

That's one of the thugs from the neighbourhood who thinks our garden is his personal toilet. The amount of expensive plants those thugs have dug out, the ruined vegetable seedlings, the killed birds left on the lawn, and of course, the smelly deposits all over the place, from the vegetable patch to the path, from the back door, to everywhere else. 

Nothing deters them. I tried coffee granules scattered around the garden, lots of orange peel, they don't care. I don't want to instal the ultrasonic repellent, as our direct neighbours have little dogs, who would suffer. And I can't put anything on the stone walls either, as we have a big garden. 

Spider webs always fascinate me, with their intricate designs and fragile beauty. As long as the spiders stay outside. Indoors, I'd rather not see them. The other day there was a huge one scuttling along the bed, eeek, I felt like burning the duvet and the whole bed.

On Monday I visited a new charity shop, and found a brand new, still sealed Ravensburger Send off for the Queen 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle for a fiver. I'm not in a hurry to finish it, working on it a little bit at a time.

And finally, my red orchid started to bloom. It was given to me by one of the ex-neighbours who moved to Oxford a few years ago.

In the last week I finished reading The girl from Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl. It is set in dual timeline: 1942 and present day. I found the WWII storyline more gripping than the modern one, but overall, it is an intriguing and emotional read.

Last night I started reading The forgotten maid by Jane Cable. It's another dualtime story, set in Cornwall. The Cornish setting is so beautiful, vivid and evocative. I wish I could jump on the train and travel to my favourite destination.

How was your week?

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