Well the sun is out late Sunday afternoon and that is another weekend done.

Supper tonight is a chicken casserole and its smell is now filing the kitchen as I write ths. The doors are open and the heavy breeze outside is catching at the smells and all I can hear is the wind in the trees.

The sage outside the kitchen has come into flower and it seems that every blue petal has its own bee tucking its head in and then out again to another one looking for nectar. I bet their honey will taste good.

The weather seems to have done the plum tree good as all the branches are weighed down with fruit. We missed them last year being in Ireland and the squirrels had them all. Hopefully we will do better this year as we are going early so we should be back for the full heat of August.

The casserole has been made with a kilo of chicken thighs browned in olive oil and then put to one side whilst I softened diced celery, carrot and onion. A couple of chopped cloves of garlic were then thrown in together with a couple of bay leaves and some sprigs of thyme. I then stirred in some flour and let that cook for a minute and then stirred in half a bottle of red wine. The chicken was put back in anmd it has been cooking for an hour.

We will eat it with new potatoes, salad and the three pieces of purple sprouting broccoli that I have managed to grow.