Friday 2nd August

 I've been looking forward through the diary for August, writing things in as the appointments, invitations, bookings seemed to keep flying in today. 

A new technique is proving interesting; if I write in big handwriting rather than tiddly little writing, the available space soon gets filled up. The maximum number of entries I can fit into a day is four, and two or three look much neater. This seems to be a good idea for avoiding filling days to bursting point!

Shockingly, tomorrow was completely clear - nothing written in at all! Ah, but then BestBeloved rang the garage to start sorting out when we could fit in getting the car serviced. 

'Could you be here for 8am tomorrow, sir?' Well, that's actually a brilliant result; they had a late cancellation, and we had a spare day. Perfect.

My first sweet pea flower is beginning to unfold. It looks like being a streaky pink and white one. I shall know more tomorrow.

Lunch included home-made potato salad with some of my own home-grown potatoes. Simply boiled, cooled, mixed with one finely chopped spring onion, a small amount of finely chopped dill pickle, and a dressing made of a mixture of mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, a little liquid from the dill pickle jar to loosen it and add acidity, salt, pepper and hot smoked paprika. 

Supper included more home-grown potatoes - but how did I cook them? Not boiled, not baked, not fried, but a mixture of all three. 

I started by microwaving some medium sized potatoes, in order to finish them of by baking them in the air fryer. Probably not for long enough, or hot enough, as they were still pale and hard. At supper time I fetched them out of the fridge and cut them into pieces. Then I gave them a spray of olive oil, and a shake of salt, pepper and paprika, and 25 minute at 180 in the air fryer. Hello, you lovely crunchy crispy morsels of deliciousness! I wonder if I can recreate that on purpose?