Social whirl and safety first

Yesterday just as I was putting a banana bread into the oven, I got a text from a local friend whose hermit tendencies even exceed mine, to say she is trying out a new tea, can she come over? I accused her of checking up on me, and said if she waited till 2.30, there would also be fresh banana bread..

So we spent a lovely afternoon catching up, testing the tea and diving into the bbread and saying we mustn't wait another year to do this again.

After she'd left, carrying a large bunch of sage, great cook, my local friend/neighbor/contractor came over to check on the grab bar I'd asked him about. 

It's right at the top of the stairs, where you turn a right angle corner and go up a step , and I had it installed for Handsome Partner when he was still able to do stairs, which I'd set up with bars available on both sides and at the corner at the top.

We installed it exactly where he needed it to be, to reliably find it going upstairs,  that being his blind  side. That meant anchored into hollow wall, missing the studs.Over the years it's loosened, and I wanted it reset higher, to suit me, also anchored into studs, safer.

So here he is, Man at Work, and job done.

He tightened up the other bars while he was at it. He also finally billed me, very reasonably, for the work he did on the deck ages ago. His bill had never reached me, from back in June, so I instantly wrote a check.

Then having exchanged news -- his daughter in Florida is fine, never lost power though rain is drenching down, my other friends ranged from never lost power to lost power, lanai torn away, but people and animals fine -- I picked him a bunch of sage and he gave me a great idea, took some banana bread, then left.

He's a terrific cook and here's the idea: saute a pan of sage leaves to crisp, serve on top of pumpkin butternut squash soup. Definitely going to try this.

Then met another neighbor out doing something in her front yard and we had a hilarious convo about our accidental gardening. 

She got a watermelon growing with edible sized fruit from a pit she'd tossed, and garden balsam, no idea where from, also zinnias from, she thinks, next door. I told her about my inadvertent crops. We both look like good gardeners this year!

All in all, a mad social whirl. I need to decompress now.

Happy day everyone, try to stay safe, dry and don't get all combustible over our various useless policymakers, applicable to practically every country of our readers, except maybe NZ where the sane  Jacinta holds office. 

Here we do have a sane president and veep, but an off the rails Congress, oh well.

Meanwhile in other serious news

I think I know quite a few people who could happily help destroy chocolate rabbits.