July 5

John and I take the dogs out early for an extra long walk around both the upper and lower dams.  The water level is very low, but it is still a lovely walk and great exercise.  The dogs are in seventh heaven, crashing the bush and chasing the odd rabbit.

I have invited a friend of my parents round for tea.  It is the first time she has left her house to go anywhere besides shopping over the last three months.  Although she lives in a retirement complex, she has not seen many people at all and life has been very lonely for her.  Like many elderly people in Zimbabwe, she has no family left here as all her five children live in different parts of the world. When her husband died 18 months ago, only two of them managed to come to the funeral.

In the morning I make some scones.  I used to be terrible at making scones until I used a Mary Berry recipe.  They are something that should be quite simple, but many modern recipes make them  difficult.  I like Mary Berry because she cuts out a lot of the nonsense associated with cooking and baking nowadays.  The ingredients are simple and so are her instructions.  The worst kind of recipes are the ones found on the net which come with a story attached.  If you want to find out how to make lemon meringue pie, you first have to wade through the writer's description of what a cold winter's day it was and how the chickens on her farm were doing really well and how they then went for a walk with the dog and came back and cut some roses from the garden . . . blah, blah, blah., blah, blah.  Just tell me how many lemons and how many eggs I need, please!

My dad is in an unsociable mood.  Every day he asks me what we are doing, where we are going, who we are seeing and today, when we actually are having a visitor, he decides he doesn't want to see anyone and goes and sits inside his cottage.  This is until I tell him if he wants a scone and a cup of tea, then he needs to come and be polite. Unfortunately, there is no cream for the scones as there was none at the shops, but the missing bits no longer seem to bother anyone.  

John takes Sian and Ellie out for a driving lesson up at the Forestry reserve.  Sian comes back stony-faced and I guess that John has been teaching her to hill starts or emergency stops.  I am half right - it was parallel parking this afternoon. I think John jumps the gun a bit, but he insists that there is nothing serious about the lessons.  I'm not so sure that Sian feels the same way.