We’re back in England and happy to be, once again, at Andrew’s. Ensconced in our Bar Hill home-away-from-home. There’s not really much to report – England now looks very Autumn-y. There’s conkers and acorns and blackberries. So many blackberries! Andrew has some in his backyard.

Today Luke and I went for a walk up the road with a pail and picked about half a kilo and if Andrew doesn’t eat them all when he gets home I might even make a pie.

We’ve been watching tv (apparently I’d somehow missed the complete first series of The IT Crowd! Quelle horreur!)  and just generally slothing about and getting laundry done. Oh, and immediately messing up Andrew’s spare room. Poor guy. On the plus side, I have had a chance to do some cooking, from which I hope he feels he’s benefited, and he was kind enough to buy me this as a surprise. Click on the link, it’s wonderful. Both parental types and teacher friends will enjoy it, I think.

Today Luke and I mapped out our plan for the rest of our time in the UK, which I am very sad to see the end of. Still, we’re packing stuff into our last three weeks, with Nottingham, Birmingham, an ale festival (with cider, thank goodness), a friend’s band to see, Jimmy Carr (a comedian), a big night out in London, the Isle of Wight and hopefully Dorset on the agenda. Most of this hinges on Van Failen still being registered and operable but we’ll cross that bridge when Matt (the owner of our van) gets back to us.

Then I did make pie!

Delicious!