Tuesday.

Snapshot of an apple pie, made on Sunday by Ann and granddaughter Lucy. It had one or two cloves in it to jazz it up (not really necessary for an apple pie in the usual way, but as we're eating  lots of them due to the glut of apples,  it does vary the flavour). Served with custard and/or cream.

Not sure why I put this one in. It's just a snap of the sitting room (usually known as the bar parlour - this place used to be half an old Inn).

What I really wanted to write about today  is my weekly lip reading class. Just under thirty per cent of the English language is readable on the lips, but every little helps. The class is attended by ten or a dozen of us, and we all really enjoy it. I don't quite know why it's such fun; partly I suppose because we're all in the same boat, including our tutor Jill - that is to some extent we're all luggy, hard of hearing, aurally challenged (to use the rather mealy mouthed modern expression). In other words - deaf. And that means that we all know the problems, and it also means that we can pick up tips from each other on means of solving some of the problems. I think too that as Jill is a professional teacher she is able to make the classes fun. She devises quizzes for us regarding the different sounds we are studying. I'll have to give an example here, I think. This week we were doing the 'J', 'Ch', and 'Sh' sounds, which are homophenes - that is they look exactly the same on the lips. Jill would silently mouth a word at us and we'd have to come up with a word meaning the same but with the 'J', 'Ch', or 'Sh' sound in it. One of the words Jill mouthed was 'throw away' ( fairly easy words to read on the lips - try it in a mirror), and we each came up with a meaning containing this week's sounds. Mine was 'ditch', Brian's next to me was 'chuck out'. The answers, too, have to be silently mouthed and the others (and Jill) guess them. I'm sure you get the idea. You'd be surprised at how tiring two hours of this sort of learning can be. Three of us were discussing this in the break, and the general opinion is that it's tiring because of the sheer concentration needed. We all agreed that it's....... well 'fun' is the word that seems to best describe it. A while back, just as I was going out to lip reading class, Ann was talking to one of the grandchildren on the 'phone. "Say hello to your grandfather" she said. "He's just going out to his play group." Since then (in the family) my lip reading class has been known as 'Pa's Playgroup'. I told Jill this, and she took it as rather a compliment.

Being called up to supper now. More later perhaps.