Saturday Greetings!!

A Happy Stitching Saturday to all stitchers out there!!! Big Sis and I have declared this to be a Stitchalong Weekend and I'm just taking five for a snackie, drink and a blog post. It's a real chill damp Fall day outside in Darkest Wiltshire . . . the kind of drizzly rain that gets into your bones if you're not careful!! My friend Mand and I visited an old market town near to where we live and treated ourselves to a full English breakfast in the Polly Tearooms!! Very old-fashioned and wonderful!!!! The town itself is old-fashioned and the stores reflect the fact that the town is in a "moneyed" area and near to racehorse breeding country which means folks who live in and around the town have ooodles of dosh. There's a real nice old-fashioned butcher's shop in the High Street which, although the prices are somewhat eye-watering, the quality of the meat is first-class and a little will go a long way!!!! There's also a high-end grocery store for more treats and quite a few interesting little stores for clothes and other stuff. If you cut through a little alleyway and walk past where I used to work you end up in the watermeadows behind the High Street and can feed lots of ducks, moorhens, cootes and other wildfowl as the River Kennet winds its way leisurely. In many ways it's a timeless place - my parents enjoyed visiting and the Polly Tearooms has been in the High Street forever and its Cream Teas are legendary!!!! Years ago when I was small there was an old-fashioned sweet shop in the High Street which sold the best sugar mice in the world but now this is long gone although you can still get sugar mice in the Polly along with lots of other cookies and cakes and candy - all homemade!!!! However our visit today was short as the drizzly chill rain was not conducive to window shopping or feeding ducks!!! Big Sis has the same weather and we both agree this is cat-on-your-lap weather and just perfect for stitching!!! Dinner tonight was comfort food courtesy of one of Nigel Slater's supper recipies . . . leftover roast chicken with couscous, chives and peas in a dressing of lemon, orange and good olive oil plus a little seasoning. He used pea shoots in his recipe but I had peas and it's all about making use of what you have on paw!!! It was very good and I think some of my sourdough bread would go well another time. It was also quick to put together which is what I wanted . . . sometimes you need something good but which doesn't take ages to make!!! Enjoy the weekend folks and happy stitching!!!!