New assignment

This morning after breakfast I wrote a draft of next Sunday's sermon. I'm standing in for Emma at Saint Peter's Fairwater. It'll be my first visit there. I had a phone call from Kate, one of the St Peter's wardens, to brief me about the service. 

Then, I hoovered carpets and washed floors, before cooking lunch. I had an idea to make a pasta dish using the coil in the bag mussels. First I made a creamy mushroom and onion sauce, cooked the mussels, added them to the sauce with the penne. It turned out quite well, but the sauce was a bit too runny. I'll know what do do about this next time I try it out.

When I went down to Blackweir Bridge on my afternoon walk, I spotted a cormorant swimming upstream underwater, but out of camera range unfortunately, likewise a jay in a wooded stretch by the path where I've not see one before. A little later, I saw a thrush feeding on the ground and got this photo. The first white chestnut candle blossoms are appearing now on trees in the park.

After my walk, I read the last chapter of 'Cancion de Noel'. I'm also making progress with 'Invierno en Madrid, though I still have a couple of hundred pages left to read. 

I spent the evening after supper watching episodes of a French crimmie set in a mental hospital, plus the initial episode of a new action drama offering on 5USA, 'Blacklist' which proved to be as improbable as it was convoluted, so clever it was hard to make sense of. Well, that's one to omit from my 'watch list', I reckon.