A walk in the Woods and Pizza with Laura

I wake at seven, after a disturbed night, it was too cold in the bedroom, I had forgotten to switch on the convector heater, that keeps the room aired overnight. I make boiled eggs and rye soldiers for me and a Bakers for Norman, for some reason eggs seem to disagree with him and give him the squits. After breakfast, I prepare a box into which I pack all the things I will need to make Pizza for Laura and Rebecca at lunchtime, including my pizza stone. Then I write out Laura's birthday card, before dressing Normy for our morning walk. We drive to Burton Bushes, where I let him off the lead for a wander through the woods. It is another cold, grey, day and it is a relief to find shelter from the searching easterly winds amongst the oak trees that predominate along then western edge of this small wood. There are clumps of tall daffodils here and there, but they have not yet opened and when they do they are likely to be challenged for floral display by the bluebells, whose early shoots are breaking through the forest floor. Dachshund's love snuffling about through fallen leaves, and the dry wind has made the ones in this wood crisp and crinkly again, I watch Norman checking out the scents, as I sit on Brandon Barker's bench, beneath a natural cathedral made by several large trees. Later we wander round the path that skirts the boundary of the wood and find a display of snowdrops and unopened daffodils within a circle of old, decayed, branches. Clearly this is a spot which has been planted by someone surreptitiously, the snowdrops are now past their best and the daffodils yet to open. Further on we find a holly tree that has part of its trunk growing horizontally, with exquisite fan like fungi growing from it. After an hour of happy pottering, I load Normy into the car and drive to Morrisons, for bread, tomato purée and fresh salad, before driving to Sam's for noon. When I arrive Sam is washing Rebecca's hair and she tells me Andrew is collecting her at one thirty and driving her to Leeds, for the match between Leeds United and Derby. His company have a corporate box and a customer has cancelled at the last minute, so there is a vacancy. Laura is playing at her friend Maddie's and is expected back at one, so after depositing Norman in the lounge, I unload the pizza kit into the kitchen and the Easter eggs and presents on the sofa, safely out of the dogs reach. I give Rebecca her little pink leather handbag to take to Leeds and see she is dressed in the leggings and sweater that I bought her for Xmas. Rebecca is autistic and is very particular about her food, and although she doesn't eat pizza, she loves garlic bread, so the first task is to roll out some dough, brush it with olive oil and garlic, and then put it in the oven on the pizza stone. In fifteen minutes it has baked, and I take it into the lounge for Becky, but it is slightly different from the way I made it last time, so she leaves it. There is no sense in being perturbed by this, it is just the way her condition is. It is now almost one, so I prepare a Marguerita Pizza for Laura, and then Sam tells me that Laura has texted to say she would like to play with Maddie for another half hour, so the pizza is donated to Sam. At twenty to two Andrew arrives to take Rebecca to the match and says he will take her to MacDonald's, chicken nuggets and chips are one of the few other things she will eat. Laura returns, just after they have left and I give her the birthday presents from Next, a blue quilted body warmer, denim dungaree shorts and a pink top. She likes the body warmer, but not the rest, fortunately I have kept the receipts and Sam says she will take her to Next in Hull and let her choose what she wants. I show Laura how to make pizza, she rolls out the dough, coats it with tomato purée, and then decorates it with leaves of Mozarella around an olive centre to make a flower shape. We put it in the oven and it emerges spitting and sizzling, fifteen minutes later. She says that pizza you have made yourself tastes best! I agree, the dough is so easy to make, I can't see the sense of buying them ready made and they never taste as good as fresh baked. After lunch, we watch Pinocchio for half an hour on TV, it is the original Disney, and one of my favourites, the quality of the animation and music is still impressive, seventy years after it was first produced. Sam uses the opportunity to have a lie down, she also had a rough night, due to a stomach bug that is doing the rounds. After half an hour of Disney, Laura becomes bored and wants to play games, and fetches some marbles from Rebecca's bedroom. The game consists of some wooden arches with scores ranging from 1-4, we each have ten marbles and have to shoot them through the arches to gain points. I spent half my childhood playing marbles and win the first game easily, but Laura quickly gets the hang of it and beats me on the second game. After this we play a game called "Who's Who", a kind of twenty questions with characters on cards. Too soon it is time to leave, Sam and Laura are going to Sam's sister, Sarah's house and Norman and I are going to the Wicke's DIY store, to try to buy a replacement fluorescent bulb for the kitchen. We return home for five and find the bulb is the wrong size, but the store is open until eight and I return it and receive a refund. Later I eat some Camembert and crusty bread for dinner and then have a really early night, around eight thirty.