Lunch on the patio

We woke up to the most marvellous blue sky this morning and the sun shining in through the window. I had set my alarm for early, keen to get going as I had a lot to do. In the end, however, I waited until John brought me a cuppa, and I didn’t winkle myself out of bed until just gone 8 o’clock.

I left John in bed to nurse his problematic ribs and research possible diagnoses and cures. I hurtled through my list of jobs as best I could, for I had an aim in mind. The aim was to get a bag packed, the car filled with petrol and food prepped ready for an overnight stay ‘oop North’ tomorrow night.

Naturally, I only did one out of the three planned tasks. The packing and petrol-filling will have to wait until tomorrow. We are going to Withernsea Lighthouse to look at an exhibition of shards of exquisite pottery, found on Withernsea beach, and their equally exquisite facsimiles, created from cloth and stitch. It may not sound much but I am really looking forward to it.

By lunchtime, a lot of my jobs had been completed, so I plated up a lovely lunch and we sat outside on the patio to eat it. Oh, my. We enjoyed that. The warmth of the sun on our faces, the freshness of a lovely salad, a soft breeze and the gentle birdsong was just lovely. We both felt a relief to be able to sit out at last and not feel the cold. The only thing missing was a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio or Chablis – now that would have just rounded it off.

After lunch, we hopped in the car, put the roof down and drove over to Kenilworth, with the wind in our hair, to drop a parcel in to Harriet. She was at their old house, which is not yet sold, accompanied by Ellie. They were having a clear out, tidy up and clean round. All to get it ready for an Estate Agent to come and take photos to get it on the market.

They were pleased to have an enforced break though, and we all sat outside in the garden, sunning ourselves and idly chatting as we did so. It was delightful and easy. Loved it.

Home again, and I left John in the lounge, armchair tilted back ready for him to settle into, while I sat at the computer upstairs and cobbled together tonight’s quiz for which we were Quiz Masters. I had started setting the quiz a few weeks ago, but with one thing and another, we had aborted our Quiz Master’s responsibilities while John was in hospital and I hadn’t picked it up since. It worked quite well though, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves this evening. I certainly did – but then, I am always delighted to see my friends. But a question: Without looking it up, do you know what the collective noun for a group of giraffes is?

On a different note, there’s just 42,302 people who tested positive for the Coronavirus in the last 24 hours, I understand. (Please note the sarcasm….) Nothing to see here, clearly – except that even in Balsall Common the incidence of infection has doubled in the last week, with 30 cases in the village now. Coventry has suspended bin collections for garden waste due to so many of its staff self-isolating, too.

49 people died with the virus in the last 24 hours; and 15 people died in hospitals on 12 & 13 July.

More and more people are being admitted to hospital with the virus – on 10 July there 538 admissions.

But hurrah for the NHS which battles on with the vaccination programme: 87.2% of the adult population is now vaccinated with a first dose, and 66.7% have now had both doses.

Take care everyone – it’s a jungle out there. God bless.

Note: No Blog tomorrow.