Lost

It's quite ridiculous just how lost I feel today without my car.  I wasn't happy with the way it had been repaired after the accident a couple of months ago and today it has been taken back to the bodyshop for them to try again.  I have known for some time that today would be a car-less day but it really is quite silly just how many things I have wanted to do already this morning, things that either require a car or that I can just about cope with on foot but would be so very much easier with wheels.  Of course, what I should be doing is relaxing and enjoying life at a slower than usual pace.  But that is easier said than done!

~~~~~

Wimbledon is all done and dusted for another year so the Old Bat and I can start planning a trip to visit friends who moved there from Brighton to be nearer their family.  I'm told that one can see the All England Club from their flat.  The Henley Royal Regatta is also over now.  These are two quintessentially English events in the summer season - especially Henley with striped blazers and panama hats very much in vogue for the men.  Wimbledon always means strawberries and cream as the tennis is always on just about the same time as English strawberries are in season.

I bought some strawberries only yesterday but they were very disappointing.  I know it's late in the season but I had hoped for better.  The supermarkets seem to stock mainly the Elsanta variety which we don't think worth bothering with.  This variety has presumably been developed for its looks and its long shelf-life: pity they bred flavour out of it.  One variety we found last year which we liked very much was Camarillo but I have seen none this year.  Instead I have bought Sonata - pretty good - and, yesterday, Capri.

What I will not do is buy strawberries grown in such faraway places as Spain and Israel.  I have even seen American-grown fruit on sale.  And strawberries grown under glass just don't have what it takes.

In some ways it's a pity the strawberry season is so short.  On the other hand, it means we don't get bored with the fruit.