Sun-drenched, and Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

The Dell area of the land of the Great Green Barn

17 June 2025 (Tuesday)

I had a pretty decent night's sleep, and was up before the alarm went off at 6 o'clock this morning. It was going to be a Vanessa day so I generally set an alarm for these days, otherwise we only ever set the alarm if we’ve something that we NEED to be up really early for.

The day is already warm, and on the way to hot, and by the time I've had a cup of tea, a little wash, and had my bowl of cereal, it was time to get in the car and get down to Shamley Green.  Richard waved me off at the front door, as he normally does.

My first stop was at the local garage.  We had more than a sixth of a tank but less than a third of a tank. Now, Richard never likes to get too low on fuel, and much prefers to keep the tank full… “Just in case”.  In this rather bizarre world that we seem to be now living in, “Just in case” seems to be a good reason for doing things, so I filled up Fenella, and then went on my way. 

Now the journey to Vanessa, particularly on a weekday, can take anything from an hour and a half to two and a half hours, and I had no idea that today was going to be one of those longer journeys. Oddly, for once, it wasn't actually the M25 that took up most of my time, though there were quite a few speed restrictions along it, but thankfully everyone seemed to be driving pretty sensibly and the flow kept on moving so I wasn't really delayed on the M25.  The M3 and the A3 also were both pretty OK, so neither caused any time issues either.

The issues this morning were leaving my area to get to the M3, then getting off the A3 and going my usual routhew through Guildford; satnav was redirecting me as there’d been an accident, so further down the A3 I went, and found myself going down towards Farnham and then round to Godalming to actually get to Shamley Green.  So yes, it turned out to be one of those two and a half hour drives, well, almost two and a half hours… And the sunwas beating down on Fenella, so it was sticky and hot...

When I got to my destination, I parked up, and then went to find Vanessa.

She's moved from one barn that she used to live in into another barn, and also often goes for a walk with her cat around her property first thing.  Or she’s at her desk in her office, which has also moved barns recently, or might be over at the shop doing things, or speaking to the various carpenters or workmen that might be on site.  Today it took me a good 10 to 12 minutes to actually find her; she was at the shop sorting out cardboard.

The thing is, with our main suppliers, we have an arrangement that at delivery they take back any of our packaging from previous deliveries that they can recycle. However, any cardboard needs to be flattened, any containers need to be stacked and contained, and any plastics need to be in a box and clearly shown to be just plastics. Also, what we can't do is put the packaging of one supplier to be taken away by another supplier. This means that as we have three main suppliers, each supplier’s packaging needs to be contained within a separate pile or area .  With Suma delivering today, we had to ensure that there was only Suma packaging to be collected at the point of delivery.

Additionally, Vanessa had also agreed to meet Debbie of Debbie's Jams to get our latest order, and the meeting point was about 20 or 30 minutes away from where the shop is. She was also keen for me to go with her, though someone would have to wait for the Suma delivery. Fortunately, Suma turned up really pretty swiftly within the time it had specified, and we were able to take in the delivery, give back the packaging and then get on our way for the Debbie's Jams collection.

The rest of the day was very much as is normal, and there was also an Afternoon Tea in the Great Green Barn which I helped Vanessa set the tables for and get ready for. She and another helper did the main serving of the afternoon teas, which allowed me time to get to her desk and to the For Earth’s Sake shop to do some additional work that I needed to do.  I did take a few minutes out to have some quiet time in the Dell, which was delightfully sun-drenched with lovely cooling dapled shade too; I decided to take some footage of the Dell and environs in which I work, as several people have asked in comments on A Week at the Plot.

Vanessa was going off to see Derren Brown in Woking, so with her picnic packed and Vanessa ready to go, I left around 5:15 and it took me until 7 o'clock to get home. I really had to take a round about route too as again I was being diverted by my Google navigation system; quite a bit due to congestion, roadworks, and an accident.

Sun-dried Tomato Pesto ingredients

Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

I got home knowing Richard had made some Sun-dried Tomato Pesto as I’d seen a post about it on Facebook. He'd also done a video of him making it, so I will link to it.  He cooked some wholewheat spaghetti and was soon spooning some into my bowl with some salad, and some grated cheese; we sat down and watched some TV whilst eating our supper. I have to say, the pesto had a really fabulous umami taste to it, in fact it was quite a taste sensation and there's definitely some left that can be frozen and then defrosted at short notice to bring about a really swift and tasty meal again.

We watched the last episode of the current series 6 of Canal Boat Diaries, and as when a series that I've enjoyed comes to an end there's a little bit of sadness, in some ways almost a tiny bit of bereavement that that show is over. Hopefully, it will be recommissioned and Robbie Cumming will be able to show us his future journeys as he’s done for the last six series. 

We started watching something else, I can't actually remember what it was, and then with Richard dosing on the sofa I decided to finish an episode of Endeavour that I was halfway through.

It was then time for bed, and a few pages of Louise Penny’s How the Light Gets In before lights out.


Weather:  Hot, reaching about 28°

Breakfast:  Bran Sticks, yogurt, and banana
Lunch:   Veggie Breakfast from a garden centre
Supper:  Richard’s Sun-dried Tomato Pesto with wholewheat spaghetti, cucumber and tomato - plus some grated cheese