I love getting letters from Catherine with her additional bits of information on the back of the envelope so that the Postal Workers can keep up with her diet!
“Run out of First Class Stamps so don’t know when it will arrive. To Postal Workers: thank you and I am now on Spinach (frozen), only when it cooks it splatters into ‘mush’ and needs at least half an hour to drain!. Will not be getting it again!”
23 August 2020
I thought I’d best start using one of my 39 biros. It’s delivery day and the young driver said I wasn’t in his SatNav as he knew exactly where I lived. What a lovely compliment. I’ve decided to try frozen spinach for a change. I need ‘building up’ but don’t know how much I have to eat to it to take effect. I thought they had sent the other ‘dreaded veg’ because the spinach was shaped into balls
24 August 2020
Update: I have 44 biros. My sore eye is a lot better, I have more oomph in me. I mowed the lawn this morning. All this rain has meant the grass has really grown. Mind you, I missed a clump so I took the scissors and cut the grass as it will only irritate me when I look out of the bedroom window.
Tilly is a lot happier. She is now out of hiding. She and Tinker are washing their faces profusely which means a ‘weather change’. Amanda has bought me a new face mask with a filter and on the front are sailing boats. She said I will know which way it goes on.
Saturday, Lindy came for a cup of tea and has partaken of two Corfe Rock Buns. I’m getting to be an expert now. Also Lindy brought with her some black treacle for me to make Bea’s Buns, as she has an overflow of it at home. (Bea’s Buns are cakes my mother, Catherine’s sister, used to make every week. It was her speciality. They are small, fruit buns with a lot of fruit and often alcohol).
I’m really afraid tonight of these strong winds. It doesn’t help being an end house and all those trees next to it. Tinker’s arrived and she’s on the settee with me, a bit of company for me, or does she just like Inspector Morse!
28 August 2020
Off to ‘Marks’ (M&S) to spend my voucher tomorrow and I might indulge in some Christmas cards, make an effort this year. It’s Friday night and normally I would watch the Edinburgh Tattoo. I love the pipe band music so I changed to BBC2 and watched the First Night of the Proms. It’s eerie, no audience, the orchestra sitting a metre away from each other and the BBC singers were standing four seats apart where the audience would be. I’m not a classical music person but I felt compelled to watch them perform.
29 August 2020
Today has come to visit Bishops Stortford, up very early, fed three cats and informed them they were getting extras as I wouldn’t be home in time to give them their lunch. I don’t think they took it in. Before I went out, I did a lot of checking, taps, doors, cooker, fridge door shut. I’m a ‘checkerholic’. Amanda phoned as I was locking the front door saying “now walk away from it”. I eventually did. I was nervous about three things: locking the front door, rain coming in (though I had plenty of paper and towels on the floor, and the worse one was getting on the bus on my own with the mask. All silly things really, as everything was fine.
‘Marks’ was disappointing, didn’t see any clothes that looked comfortable, so voucher remains unused. Instead I bought Port Salut cheese and a sultana cake; you can’t go out empty-handed. I got three T-Shirts from Sports Direct and a card in Clintons. Though very chilly it was a lovely day out. Glad to be home in the warm. The ‘Gang’ were there to meet me, all hungry!
Catherine, Amanda, Liz and I watched ‘Britain’s Favourite Detective’, texting each other as each show was announced from 25 to first place. Catherine’s idea was that we should each guess who would win and if you got it wrong you would eat food you hate. She knew that if I lost it would be halloumi and pomegranate. Liz said she wasn’t eating anything she didn’t like but if her guess was wrong she would make a cake for us all. I chose ‘Vera’ to win, Amanda ‘Morse’ and Liz ‘Frost’.
I guess when we next meet we’ll be eating food we don’t like!! It was a good competition. Sherlock Holmes never entered my mind as a series that would win. I thought it would be ‘Morse’ or ‘Frost’. I voted for ‘Poirot’. I was flabbergasted that ‘Columbo’ was number 6. I don’t like programmes that tell you ‘who dun it’ At the beginning then you have to watch the detective work it out. Cheerio”
Amanda, Catherine’s daughter, sent me a photo of Catherine holding her ‘Poinsettia’ tea towel so that seems like an appropriate one for this edition of Catherine’s Diary!!
Virtual Tea Towel Museum 