Yesterday was my 20th anniversary of moving to this country: 20 years of living every day under the same roof as Kelley.

We spent the entire day eating more than was strictly necessary: a fabulous 3-hour lunch (leek and potato soup with creme fraiche and huckleberry coulis; duck breast with dollops of pureed pickled carrot, faro and other delicious things, some kind of chocolate and tangerine cakeness with a sorbet, and pear and, again, other yumminess), with, naturally, cocktails and a great wine (a 1998 Saint-Estèphe; don’t remember the label–but it was a tarry, wild, autumnal kind of wine, very different to the structured hauteur of the Pauillacs we like that are grown a few miles away). Espresso, of course. And hours of conversation.

Yesterday also marked (eh, more or less) the 3-month anniversary of the launch of Sterling Editing. Sterling is doing well, we’re helping a lot of people, so we drank a toast, and marvelled at how fast we’ve established our business routines, how strange–yet how familiar–it is to work with one another this way, how we’re getting to use our very different strengths to the fullest in service of a mutual goal.

Basically, we spent the whole day feeling very pleased with ourselves. Life is good.

This morning at breakfast I ate my luxury version of porridge: steelcut oats cooked slowly, oh so slowly, in water, with a smidge of salt added in the bowl, chopped walnuts, and a handful of dried fruit (today all we had were raisins, but anything–apricots, prunes, apples–will work), finished with a big dollop of very fresh, very high-fat cream. Yum.

Now I have to make notes for a board meeting (oh, things are getting exciting at LLF; more on that another time) and then, with luck, I’ll get some time to play with Hild this afternoon. Or maybe I’ll, y’know, take a nap…

May your Saturday be a fine day.