autumn colours

  This morning I left the house with Violet, she took herself off to the bus stop and I took myself off to the supermarket. Once there I bought all that I needed including stuff to throw together a speedy lasagne for tonight. I may have bought cake too, as it's the Bake Off tonight, and it always feels right to eat cake whilst watching it. Only I keep forgetting, so this is the first time I've managed to remember. I didn't buy any beer, wine or Monster so I could go to self service and not have to wait for anyone to come along to approve such purchases. That was a fail, the machine wouldn't authorise my debit card which was totally embarrassing. Before I left I'd checked my bank account so knew exactly how much was in there. I called over a member of staff to ask if I could leave the shopping and go and use the cash machine, but there was no need. She said sometimes the machines were a pain, she took my card, held it in the machine and then it worked. she had the magic touch. But crikey, talk about humiliation.
After that I walked home. I needed to be quick as someone was coming out to check the boiler, we've had some issues with the heating but it wasn't classed as an emergency so we had to wait two weeks for an appointment. I'd rearranged to visit my mum yesterday knowing about today, but then Bill said it was booked for Wednesday so I thought great, I can go to the shop. Early this morning he sheepishly said 'it's actually today they're coming to look at the boiler'. Grr. But I still went shopping, just had to be quick and luckily it all worked out. I even had time to do the laundry and put together the lasagne before the chap turned up.

Over the weekend Bill spent time working on the path in the front garden. With all the digging and disruption for the porch it was a mess and needed digging down a bit more and changing slightly. It's not finished yet but good progress has been made. The floor of the porch looks gorgeous. Initially we planned on black white tiles, but then when in the tile shop and rootling around we spotted the terracotta/cream/black Victorian style and thought they would look better. Just love it. It's so nice. Now we need to hear from the company as to when they can install the door, though we have now seen photos of how it looks and it's exactly what we wanted. Cannot wait to see it in situ. It really does feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Did you get many trick or treaters? It's still not a massive thing here in England, despite the best attempts of the supermarkets, and I admit to being a Halloween Grinch and not participating at all. I'd even put the few little pumpkin touches from inside the house back in the garage by lunchtime Monday. When it gets dark I peep out now and then to see if any little witches or ghosts are moving around and saw a few, but we shroud the house in darkness and make sure it's obvious we aren't taking part. People get the message. I noticed that several houses had done the same this year. One or two put up decorations and pumpkins, but not many. And when out on my walk this morning I didn't see a single smashed up pumpkin, which was nice. Usually the streets are littered with them.
I didn't have any suitable sweeties in anyway, the only choccy in this house is in the jar in the kitchen. I'm trying to keep it full at all times, but it turns out that while I chose these chocs for the pretty and seasonal hued wrappers, Violet finds them delicious and oftens sneaks a paw into the jar. But that's ok. They are there to be eaten. I just like it when it's nice and full, so bought another box this morning.

Happy November.