Clean or Pass

Mr Smith is still away playing golf in Majorca so the early morning dog walk was all mine.  The Common was covered in mist which made it look rather like the setting for Macbeth.  The dog and I walked through Burnham Woods to Dunsinane taking care to avoid any old hags en route.

I had a brilliant idea of how to get the housework done.  In true Julie Andrews style I invented a game called Do or Pass.  I wrote down all the ghastly tasks, put them in a bowl and asked the Apprentice to pick one out.  If he didn't like the task he was allowed to pass it back to me.  In the end he got cheesed off with this and just did all the tasks.  Cor, he's so brill.  We now have a beautifully hoovered house, a leafless garden, a clean staircase, a simmering curry and a sparkly kitchen - I did that bit.

In France Mr Smith became a squirrel and gathered a billion walnuts which he then brought back to England. This sparked off a walnut shelling contest last week.  We found a recipe for coffee and walnut cake which involved 3 oz of walnut bits and several half walnuts for the top.  It is mighty tricky getting your walnut out whole then carefully splitting it without breaking it.  After much walnutting I got it down to a fine art and, along with a mass of broken bits, managed 12 beautiful walnut halves.  The BB came along and ate them.  I have now made the walnut cake as a "Welcome Home, Tiger Woods" surprise but am still working hard at the whole ones.  I might just pop out and buy some.  He'll never know.

And what shall I cook tonight?  The dog and I will search out those hags this afternoon and get an Eye of Newt recipe.