Hello people,
I'm not even going to start with my usual "it has been a while" thing as that seems to be the case all the time.
Things have been pretty hectic in at Stav Towers over the summer. We took in a young lass who had issues at home. It was meant to be for a few nights but turned out to be around 6 weeks in total. Thankfully last month a foster place was found for her and she's all settled in.
As if things aren't busy enough with work and family, the opportunity arose to join a Degree Apprenticeship. Being an absolute numpty I joined up and started in September. It's a bit of a mouthful in that it's titled Digital Technology Solutions Professional (DTSP rolls off the tongue a little easier). I've always struggled with coding so it was the obvious choice as that's its focus. It's hard work but jolly enjoyable. It has a specialist focus on data analysis and for the past few weeks I've been doing things with data using Python. It's all a little "witch craft" still but mega cool.
Other than that there has been much cooking as per usual. A recent favourite is Spanish Chicken Stew - it's absolutely delicious and perfect for this time of year. I think next time we'll make it a fish stew cutting out the chicken and chorizo. Youngest still wants to mostly eat plant based/pescatarian.
The beauty of this stew is it's a case of chopping stuff up, lobbing it in a pot with stock and leaving it to do its thing. My kinda cooking!
Talking of youngest, she turned 12 this week. How the hell did that happen?
Lola's leg is doing much better now and we've managed to avoid surgery so far. She's on an anti-inflammatory with her food and it makes the world of difference. However, we still take it easy and avoid the beach as the unstable ground seems to aggravate her knee. Our Saturday morning walk is now around the local cemetery which sounds a bit dark, but it is so peaceful and stunning this time of year when the sun is low.
It's rather lovely that lots of the older generation seem to walk around that way too. We've met some interesting people who love to stop and chat. Many of them seem to be alone after losing their partners and are well up for a little company. It's a great place to hear stories and meeting those who have spent time in the merchant navy always ends up with a few giggles.
Lola loves them too as they seem to be over generous with the dog biscuits!
