Food on the brain

B. has lived where he lives all his life. I can't really blame him, he has a house with no visible neighbours, 2 miles from the nearest village, and surrounded by fields (which mostly belong to his dad's farm). His dad has lived in the farmhouse all his life too, and before that, his parents lived there. During the war, they had a few PoW's working on their farm, and one of them, an Italian, stayed nearby, eventually buying his own farm. He has known B. all his life and we often go and see him. He's almost 90 now, lives on his own (although his children live close by) and does everything himself. Every time we go there, he has changed another room, installed a shower, made a new window... We went to visit him last Sunday and when we asked him how he was, he responded with 'not enough hours in the day'. I hope I can grow old like that.
His garden is a huge vegetable plot, and as soon as you turn up, he goes to his kitchen, grabs a handful of plastic carrier bags and drags you out to the garden. This time, it was gooseberries, potatoes, courgettes, the most delicious French beans I have ever tasted, and tomatoes. The tomatoes were so beautiful, it was almost a shame to eat them:


We ended up with 2 kgs of very ripe gooseberries, so on Monday I took the plunge and made jam. I had never made jam before and was a bit nervous about the setting process, but I needn't have - everything went smoothly and I'm now the proud owner of these


Yes I must get some nice labels!

Last year we bought some wetsuits when we were camping in Cornwall. I know they're meant to be tight fitting, but mine was extremely tight. I had a feeling I'd put on a bit of weight since last year, well according to my bathroom scales I had, so last Sunday I tried the wetsuit on again and uhm, it was *really* tight. Five years ago I managed to lose almost 2 1/2 stone with WeightWatchers and most of the time I still follow their principles, but I do like my food and an icecream or Chinese takeaway will be enjoyed occasionally! When I bent forward to pick something up off the floor and I heard 'crack' and my wetsuit had ripped, I knew it was time to do something about it. So on Monday morning I looked up meetings, found one that was on that morning, and signed up again, thinking I had about a stone to lose. Imagine my surprise when I stood on the scales and found I was only 4 1/2 lbs over my goal weight! Small problem, you can only sign up if you have 5 lbs or more to lose, so I lowered my goal weight a bit - but to be honest, once those 4 1/2 lbs have shifted, I'm happy. I'm glad I signed up again, it's made me feel more in control and I hope it won't be too long before I'm back to a weight that makes me feel happier. Wish me luck!