No Dinner

Today having dawned crisp and clear, I circumperambulated Cannon Hill Common, my companions, as in Telegraph Woods yesterday, being magpies and squirrels scuttling about.

In Maycross Avenue a new set of paving was about to replace a front garden.  The pavement was disturbed and carried a series of markings the like of which I have often seen in cities.  I imagine they are alerting paviours to utility pipes that must be preserved.  The exact colour scheme escapes me.  Perhaps white or blue for water, and red for electricity.  Next time I see the road up I will check.  That won’t be long.

Three, silent, unexcited, and rather beautiful dogs waited in Cannon Hill Lane.  When their proud owner emerged from the Mini-Market he informed me that they were not huskies, but the larger Alaska Malamuts.

I was just in time to see caterers providing ducks with the last crumbs of their breakfast.

Four years after his death, Mr. Marshall’s memorial bench bore its usual vase of fresh flowers, roses this time, augmented by a container of cyclamen which should survive the winter.

As I returned down Cannon Hill Lane, a young boy, cycling up and down the pavement, had me wondering whether it was half-term.  I don’t think so.

Back in Links Avenue I struggled to get my head into crossword clueing mode.  Jackie has told me that, under the Minstead regime, as she, who will be retired, will be in charge of the kitchen, I will get no dinner until I have written a clue.  Maybe I should take a leaf out of my friends Maggie and Mike Kindred’s book and work steadily through the morning, but as I start my day with a ramble I can’t see that happening.

This evening I did have some dinner, on three counts; the first is that I cooked the sausage and gammon casserole I took from the fridge this morning; the second is that I made very good headway with the clues; and the third is that the new regime hasn’t started yet.  With our meal Jackie drank Hoegaarden, whilst I enjoyed Muriel, which, I hasten to add, is a superb 2007 reserve rioja purchased in the co-op, and well recommended.