Wednesday 29th October 08

Cuddly morning. Didn't get dressed til lunchtime.. the family had gone out to town by bus to get some clothes as the boys keep growing and not wearing them out but outgrowing them. They actually came back with a book, some material and stuff for a costume!

I got a phone call from Cycle Heaven saying Gill's bike wouldn't be ready til about 4pm, not 2 as was suggested yesterday, so I spent some time in the garden, tidying up frosted nasturtiums and picking off seeds and young flowerbuds for pickling. I've not pickled nasturtium buds yet, but since capers are flower buds, I'm trying nasturtium buds! The seeds are great, a lovely hot taste, good for pizzas and making bland grain dishes more interesting.

At 4 went to Cycle Heaven to pick up my bike with new, improved brakes (the disc-brake pads needed replacing) and Gill's which had been serviced. Also got two pairs of LED lights for the boys, as we're going out tonight.

So a bit of a rush to put the lights on their bikes, and a quick bowl of pumpkin soup which was very good, and left for St Nicks at about 5.20... picking up Maria's son on the way. The event was a York Rotters Pumpkin Evening, with a giant pumpkin competition and a pumpkin carving competition. I had purchased three pumpkins from Country Fresh (grown in Heslington!) and also took my biggest squash to enter into the competition. My little 2.5kg squash was dwarfed by Jo's big pumpkin, which itself was dwarfed by a giant 55kg monster grown by children at Bishopthorpe School... this of course won! The carving went well... loads of competitors / participants which meant loads of seeds for me to take back home to dry and prepare for my muesli. My eldest son won the third prize in the carving competition, which made him happy, and all three of them enjoyed themselves. Got home sometime after 7pm.

A very peaceful and happy evening...

Until, quite late, my laptop screen decied to give up completely, after several days of playing up and not behaving properly.