There was sunshine today. Couldn’t quite believe it. And not only that, the thermometer rose to 21 degrees. Goodness me, we were fairly basking in a heatwave….
Not that I did much with the sunshine. John was keen for me to do some more clearing out of Mum’s bits and bobs so that I could fill up the skip a bit before he asks them to come and take it away. So I did that, from indoors, of course.
Then there was going to be the excitement of looking after Freddie this afternoon, in which we were going to go to the park, play in Katharine’s Wood and then buy an ice cream – except that when he arrived, he didn’t want to stay. He just wanted to go home. Oh.
Ah, but Harriet had things to do, so I suggested I go home with Freddie instead of him staying at ours. He was happy with that, but there wasn’t very much outdoor playing…. there was playing on the tablet – Minecraft be the game, and then a bit of watching TV while he snuggled under my arm. Bless him, he was tired after a sleepover with William.
I did manage to get outside in the garden while I was cooking the tea this evening, though. After a pause on the ol’ gardening recently, I thought I might dead-head a few plants and pull up a few weeds. What I hadn’t bargained for was the poor hydrangea being absolutely smothered in bindweed since I last looked! So that was what I did – tried to disentangle it a bit. But who was it who told me to stop worrying about my bindweed, eh? That’s what I want to know!!! I’m going to get the weed killer out…..
John has had a busy day. While I was sorting out junk, he was pulling the trailer tent forward to get a better look at it and wind it down ready for a jet wash. On his way down to the man shed at the bottom of garden to collect the jet wash, he cleared away all my painting materials too, because I think the utility room is finished. He then brought the jet wash machine up to the front garden before he thought he ought to have a bit of a rest.
When I got home from looking after Freddie, I found John fast asleep in the lounge. Apparently he’d been there for most of the afternoon. Anyway, he decided to set on and do the jet washing of the trailer tent then. Little did I know that this was in preparation for its almost immediate departure from our house for ever.
John’s phone rang while we were having tea. It was someone enquiring about the trailer tent. “Gosh,” says John, “I only advertised it an hour ago.” Eh? Then there was Ding! Ding! Ding! as his phone pinged every few seconds with someone texting him asking if it was still available. The first chap who’d phoned was on his way. He arrived about three-quarters of an hour later and drove off with the trailer in tow.
Well, Blow me down!! I hadn’t even known that John had advertised it until there was a flurry of activity….. “We didn’t check to see what we’d left in there…” I wailed. “Well,” John reasoned, “I don’t suppose you can even remember what was in there now, and you haven’t wanted it for the last three years, so….” Hmmm…. I suppose he had a point.
On a totally different note: we won the cricket!! Yee-ha! I thought I’d do my ‘hour-at-the-end-of-play’ routine and settle down with a cuppa to watch the last hour or two of play. But where was it? What’s this? This is India’s first innings they’re showing. Then the penny dropped. We must’ve won. And indeed we had.
We watched the highlights in the end, and crumbs, what a morning session it was. The bowlers did incredibly well and bowled beautifully. The Indian batsmen had no answer and so were all out before lunch. Nice result for England, thank you very much.
More success at the Paralympics for the Brits, too – with gold medals for Tom Young in the 100m sprint, and also for cyclists Neil and Lora Fachie. Amazing stuff and so exciting.
But there’s still the horrors of the situation in Afghanistan and the COVID pandemic. No let up in big volumes of people testing positive today (32,406) nor deaths (133 in the community) – which is far too many.
With the heatwave set to continue with a high of 20 degrees here in Balsall Common tomorrow, I hope you all enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend. Stay safe everyone. God bless.