Recipe for a lovely evening

For the first time I turned on the air conditioning in my car as I made my way in the sunshine. I was as usual later leaving home than I had planned, driving along the familiar motorway then turning north on the A road that I have driven many times before but this time watching out for the side road that I had never taken before. The winding country lane I found myself going up and down hill, I noticed the Ancient Farm off to my right. I had always wondered where that was although I had believed it to be a mile or two further north on the west side of the A road. Well now I know exactly where it is, perhaps I will visit it one day.

Cautiously racing on up and down turning left and right as the lane meandered between farms. I soon found my destination, parking in the one obvious space left, I checked the time…..only a couple of minutes late……..not bad seeing how I had left it so late to leave. Scanning the tables set out in the garden I could see them through my rear view mirror.

As I walked across the car park they both looked around, I waved to indicate that it was me. They both stood up to greet me, I had remembered as I was driving that he no longer sports the facial hair he has worn for most of his adult life. One of the first things I noticed was that like me, she was wearing red and black. We sat talking about our children and the problems of bringing up our teenagers while he went inside to buy my glass of cider. Where I don’t feel the cold so much these days my companion was feeling cold especially when the sun was hidden by the building cloud. Such a shame as until now it had been a lovely sunny warm day.

Conversation with both my companions was easy and relaxed. So much to talk about, so little time. We made a move inside to get out of the chilly breeze, another round of drinks more chat about the differences between life here compared to where my companions live. We talked about blogging, of course we did after all it was blogging which had brought us together. Time was passing hunger pangs were making themselves known so we decided to have a meal, although there were some interesting dishes on offer none of us were in the mood for these, I plumped for a jacket potato with fresh beef chilli topped with cheese. Both my companions plumped for hoisin duck wraps but ended up with baguettes.

Eating did prompt us to discuss the diet plan we had been on last year and agreed that while we have continued to try keeping to the diet plan in the year since we had started we had slipped in our resolve but do try to avoid bread where possible. My female companion told me about her experiences of trying to cook dishes from her native country whilst here and how difficult it is using the ingredients available.

I did enjoy our time together but all too soon it was time to part company as my new friends had another hour to drive before reaching their destination for the night. Driving home I was enjoying the space on the roads with such little traffic, very different to my normal drive home among the rush hour traffic. As I was passing the city a car came speeding past me, its occupants waving, together we raced up the hill and down the otherside until I reached my junction and waved goodbye for the final time.

I wonder if any of you can work out who my companions were. Trixie is banned from answering.