apple pie

Having fought off the pro-caterpillar rebel forces earlier in the year we are left with enough apples to make tasty pies into the winter months. And now just waiting for the sun to shine again before the full scale harvest assault of picking begins. We had been saddened by the pro-caterpillar gains on the leaves of the plum trees despite all our ultimatums. So all the cakes, jams and syrups from the apples is a nice conclusion to all the sanctions we had to impose in the orchard at Havran Cottage. What significant further steps we need to take for the future is still undecided. But in light of what illegal border crossings these pro-caterpillar rebel forces took (with possible outer perimeter support) we know that next year we will have to act much more quickly in order to prevent another difficult fruit growing season. 

cash till lady no.4

Another week of absurdity of grass cutting whilst monitoring a thunderstorm that circulates above. Racing along each strip  which is still saturated from the previous thunderstorm and deluge of rain. Reminders of long ago childhood wet summer holiday trips to North Wales, the weather is a predominant conversation topic with guests at the moment. Inaccurate Internet forecasts are not helping, much better to just look out of the window and hope for the best. 
Our favourite cash till lady at the local supermarket is always a source of entertainment to brighten up any day though. Her dour almost zombie-like face to welcome your arrival at cash till number four. The coop supermarket has this interesting number system on the trolleys where you have to tell the cashier what number your trolley is before any products and food are passed through the scanner. We've never been sure whether trolleys obtain points for this and when it is the end of the week the trolley with the most points has some time off the following week! That might explain why there is such a random selection of numbers on the trolleys of between 1 and 106 and that some trolleys don't come back from their weeks off. Anyway back to the lady on cash till number 4. On our last occasion there we had paid up, had the receipt thrown at us as usual along with change scattered everywhere (never expect change into the palm of your hand even if it is in front of their face, no skin contact please..). We noticed that a bakery product in a green sticker bag (half price tag) had mistakenly (or intentionally) been priced at full value on our receipt. Back into the store and cash till number 4 to get some change back, but what a fuss! She wasn't prepared to offer anything back as I had already had a bite from a half price bakery cake. And it will show up on the cashier's record as a mistake. But her face didn't change, as she pressed some coded buttons on the till. Without uttering a word or apology, outstanding amount of change once again thrown just within our reach, we were cast aside as the next customer's weekly shop began being passed through the scanner once more. Welcome to cash till number 4 lady at Coop.