Weekend off ( sort of)

A canal and mistletoe-free weekend down in Dorset - did nothing all day on Saturday except sift through the backlog of mail - and resolve to deal with it next week (but probably won't).

Sunday (today) heading back home via Mary's (my sister) house where Harriet (a niece but not one of Mary's) is over for the weekend. She was 18 last week. Doesn't time fly... makes me feel old.

Anyway, en route we decide to take a walk through the estate at Melbury Sampford - where there is a big estate aroundMelbury House (canal enthusiasts note: this is nothing to do with the old British Waterways HQ called Melbury House - that was at Marylebone in London, and anyway we moved out of it years ago...). A nice, pleasant walk in the gathering gloom of a December afternoon.

Caroline suspects an ulterior motive - I often suggest walks in country house estates to, er, spot whether they have mistletoes in their lime avenues. And she was right to suspect but to my dismay there's no mistletoe here - not many limes actually, mostly oaks and horse chestnuts.

Amazing cobwebs in the grass though - am inserting pic but it doesn't do justice at this size - all those wavy bits in the grass between and in front of the sheep are spiders webs. (Do the sheep eat the webs? Do the webs tickle their nostrils?)

We realise after we chose the location that we're right next to Evershot village, which is (i think) where Lesley Waters, my chef in Ready Steady Cook (see previous blogs) resides. Bit of an odd coincidence - but at least don't meet her in the street - which would have been embarrassing... Maybe next time!