Sunday.

Just before setting out to Church this morning Ann got a panic 'phone call from one of our churchwardens asking her if she would 'serve and administer' at this morning's Eucharist. Ann agreed, of course, which meant a quick gallop to Church for us, instead of the relaxed stroll we had planned. Still , it meant I had plenty of time to buy some stamps, post a letter, and get to the choir practice. We'd been invited to lunch at a friend's house near the Church (the house to the left of the above photo) so after the service we strolled round to above house (where our friend Hilary, who lives in the same street, was a fellow guest) and joined them in a pre lunch sherry. The main course of lunch was a very traditional roast beef with yorkshire pudding and all the usual vegetables. For the pudding course our hostess had made a very fine apple and pear crumble, and as she was serving it she handed Ann a plastic tub from the freezer labelled chocolate icecream, and asked Ann to open it saying "I think this will go rather well with the pudding". "I don't think it will, dear." says Ann. "Oh, why not?" says our hostess. "Because there's a hand written label on the lid saying Curried Parsnip Soup", says Ann. Our hostess then remembered making the soup and re using the ice cream tub to store it. I'm afraid we pulled her leg mercilessly over it. However , she produced a jug of cream from her fridge which made a better combination with her excellent fruit crumble. We wondered what would have happened if Ann hadn't spotted the label. I think, if our hostess hadn't tried any of the 'chocolate ice cream' the three guests would have eaten it without making any comment. I hope we would anyway, although it would have tested our stiff upper lips to the limit.

You will notice that I have carefully refrained from using our hostess's name to avoid any possibility of embarassing her.

We then had coffee in the drawing room where we also played two very well faught games of scrabble. Altogether a very pleasant lunch and afternoon. I'm afraid it will be long remembered as theday of the peculiar pudding. Eventually walked home at about four thirty, and on the way home took the below photo of a lovely sunset. Must go and do some work now, so will bid you all a rather early- Goodnight.