Saturday

I finally managed to get organised and take a few photos of the empty River... apparently it is not due to an exceptionally low tide but they have actually been emptying this stretch of river to do some maintenance work. It looks strange, and muddy and interesting and it was full of birds and the remains of shells probably fished out by said birds (and surprisingly very little rubbish); I could have walked from Marble Hill Park to Radnor Gardens in the riverbed (had I been wearing wellies).
It was quite a busy day; after the walk with Eddie (the weather is still dry and pretty warm considering it's almost December) me and V. went to see a house for rent as we're keeping our options open... we really liked it, wooden floors throughout - the old type of honey-coloured floorboards - good kitchen and bathroom, two bedrooms of very good size and a paved little garden at the back. So on the spur of the moment I decided to put an offer and now we're waiting to hear from the estate agents. Then we went to Hounslow for a bit of shopping which, as usual, turned out to be mostly food: three big bunches of lovely spinach, a small case of clementines and three mangos for just £1 and very sweet, we had one in the evening and realised we haven't had one since we were in Costa Rica two years ago....
Then we bought quite a few spices at ridiculous prices in the local supermarkets; for food this is a brilliant place to come, the fruit and vegetables are always fresh and spices and oriental ingredients so cheap....
We also found and bought a lovely jumper and a satchel for V. and then, at Tiger's, could not resist
getting a couple of Christmassy bits and pieces and a small tin of Danish butter biscuits.

We came home loaded, turned the heating on, had tea and butter biscuits and played Scrabble and Mancala before watching a bit of TV under our mega blanket munching Haribos gummy sweets... lovely day!