Memory Lane.

I went to Ashwell today, to see Olive. Ashwell's my home, if anywhere is. It's a truly beautiful village, and very old. There are cottages still inhabited that feature in the Doomsday book. This wall is pretty ancient, though I'm not sure exactly how old it is. It's made of wattle and daub, and the top is randomly thatched. The bees love it - the whole thing is basically a hive. When they restored it recently, they had to be really careful and only do it at times of year when they wouldn't disturb them. The hollyhocks cover the whole village, and are spectacular in the summer. I've seen colours there I've never seen anywhere else - like a peach colour, or a red so dark it's almost black. There are even double ones, but they don't breed true. Olive was saying that there are people who collect the seeds these days and sell them.

Olive took my by surprise by feeding me lunch...sadly my vegetarianism hasn't reached the ears of vast numbers of my family or old friends yet. Bah. This resulted in a slightly uncomfortable scene. Meh. Olive is very easy to offend, and I'll probably get an earful from my parents about it. It never occurred to me she was intending to feed me though - she never has before. Anyway. I had the vegetables and she had the casserole, and it could have been worse, I suppose.

Also, I split my good jeans. I'm annoyed about this. I've done my best to fix them, but whatever happens I'm going to need new ones soon enough. Meh. I also need new shoes, particularly flipflops since I broke mine in Italy. Clearly, this is going to be expensive.