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Yesterday was a ‘William day’ as he had slept over, so me and him spent the whole day playing, or baking, or mooching in the garden, or reading.

The day started early, at six o’clock, and I knew I had to get up because William was loudly declaring that he was hungry. He was very excited to see that we had those little packets of cereals and he could hardly wait to choose which one he wanted. In the end, he opted for a mix of three of them……. made me smile. Of course it was allowed. It’s Grandma’s rules, isn’t it?

Naturally, we spent some time space travelling in the ‘Harry Potter’ cupboard, along with a clutch of cuddly toys and Glo sticks – and, of course, the obligatory snack. I mean, who doesn’t love a bit of ‘whooshing’ to another planet? I had a special ‘booster’ cushion that I think I was supposed to use for all the ‘controls’ on it, but I sat on it instead – floorboards ain’t half hard these days! William didn’t mind – he’d got enough controls inside the ‘space ship’ to keep him happy.

Here we are, hatch door open, having landed on Mars and about to get out to investigate the unknown territory……

Later on, we made some butterfly cakes and had great fun doing that – William chattering all the while about the lovely butterflies we were creating. Afterwards, he asked if he could have an episode of one of his TV programmes. As we’d had a good hour and a half of TV in the morning (I was just resting my eyes on the sofa after breakfast) I thought not. William pulled a face. “I always have an episode when I am bored,” he stated. Oh.

Well, we can’t have boredom, can we? We spent a little while in the garden investigating the pond and the insects and bird feeders – both of us shocked at the damage the blooming squirrels had done; and then, once inside the house again, we got out a load of books and had a happy three quarters of an hour browsing through them. Ah…..bliss. Just the way I like to spend my day. Heart full to the brim with love.

Bless him, William didn’t want to go home and would have stayed another night if he could. But I had booked into a trial of open water swimming at Cliff Lakes with Linda and Anita, so another overnight stay wasn’t possible.

Open Water Swimming? Moi? Erm……. that was something different!! I have to say, it wasn’t too bad. Anita and Linda took to it like ducks to water, but I had to make a fuss. Oh, Lord, if only I could take things in my stride…… anyway, I did a partial submerge but decided the water felt too chilly and I wasn’t confident in my swimming all of a sudden, so I ran to get a wet suit.

A bit of acclimatisation with a helping hand from one of the lifeguards (well, shouting, actually……”Lie on your back! In a star! Lift your hips up! Put your head back! Hips! Lift your hips! Stop moving your hands! Keep still!) and I managed to swim fairly reasonably, up and down the lanes we’d chosen to swim in. We’re going to go again.

Last night was Quiz Night and I arrived half-way through, much to John’s disgust. Without me there, he’d been having a whale of a time and was a very happy bunny. “I’ve been free…..” he said. Hmmmm…. right…… I offered a tart reply. Freedom? That’s not allowed is it?

Today, neither of us has felt great. I hit a low a mood – not sure why – and John hit a stumbling block on his car repairs. “I’ve been trying to do the trim,” he said, “but it’s not gone well. I can’t see, I can’t breathe and I’m dizzy when I cough or stand up.” Off to the doctors tomorrow then.

Meanwhile, the original Kenilworth Sleaths are enjoying themselves in the summer holidays. Yesterday, they had the obligatory visit to A&E for a repair to Freddie’s head, which he had clonked on the radiator. He’d been bouncing on the bed. Now what have I told him about little monkeys bouncing on the bed?

However, he’s better today, and a very happy chappy taking a turn on a quad bike with Daddy. Honestly, his helmet is almost as big as him! Just wondering if I should suggest he brings the helmet home with him for when he is bouncing on the bed……. gosh, I love that boy.

Take care everyone. God bless.

Just poddling along y’know – then, out of the blue, one of your grandsons bats his big blue eyes and says, “Can I have a sleepover at your house, Grandma?”. Well, not today I suggest, because we’re all in a bit of disarray. “The ‘Blue Room’ where you sleep is full of stuff.” I reply. He sidles up to me and says silkily, “I could help you tidy it up?”

I’m afraid I am no match for a smooth-tongued, blue-eyed boy. Obviously, William has come for a sleepover….. and……..ooooh, I love it!!!

For the last couple of days we have had the cabinet maker in, fitting the new cupboards in the dining room. Sawdust everywhere. And, in response to last week’s carpet fitting in our bedroom, I have spent a little while cleaning and putting furniture and clothes back in place in there.

Of course, I had a mad moment and thought I’d wash all my scarves (of which I appear to have many), so that they’d be nice and fresh in the chest of drawers. Bedding and last week’s clothing to wash, too, so I was busy. But never, ever too busy to say ‘yes’ to the grandchildren coming to stay/play. It’s what grandparents are for, after all, isn’t it?

And here’s the blue-eyed boy himself, saying ‘night, night’ to Thomas, Mummy, Daddy, Chester….oh, and Oliver.

Meanwhile, John is also poddling along, but not feeling quite so chipper. His back is hurting him; his breathing is currently shot with an extra infection of pseudomonas; and a change of catheter today introduced some pain that he’d not had before. All in all, John isn’t feeling great. Didn’t stop him welcoming William with open arms mind you, and begin the initiation on the intricacies of car restoration……

Take care everyone. Count your blessings if you can. God bless.

It’s been a few days since I blogged. Mostly because I have been feeling weary and too tired at night to tap away at the keyboard – and had no inclination to start the blog earlier. Ah, well – I am sure I’ll feel better again soon. Fingers crossed.

I suppose weariness is no surprise given that we’ve been moving furniture out of our bedroom ready for a new carpet to be laid, and been painting the skirting board and the windowsills. Not only that, but the upstairs seems to be in a permanent muddle and I’m overwhelmed with it now!

Anyway, the carpet was successfully laid on Thursday and we are delighted with the result. John thinks I should repaint the walls now though, to match……

I spent a little bit of time putting furniture back into the bedroom on Friday, but I abandoned the job half way through the day because I had an appointment at ‘The Spa’ in Leamington. Hehe. How very lovely. Courtesy of Harriet and Paul’s Christmas gift of a voucher, I took myself off there to have my hands and feet sorted and a splash of paint put on my nails.

It was really lovely. Ellie, our granddaughter, works there as a receptionist and it was smashing to see her all professional in her workplace.

Meanwhile, John had been tinkering with the car a little bit, watching TV a little bit and then running me backwards and forwards to the garage while the VW was in for a service. Things are very expensive these days, aren’t they? And about to get more expensive as the chap at the garage had some ‘advisories’ for me. New brakes and tyres…… eeesh.

Yesterday we dolled ourselves up to the nines to go to my friend, Anita’s daughter, Jo’s wedding. What a lovely time we had. And how beautiful everyone looked. Gorgeous dresses and suits everywhere in evidence. But in particular, the bride – and Anita herself – stole the show.

Jo came into the hall on Anita’s arm and how poignant that walk down the aisle was. So dignified, elegant and proud. I don’t think I was the only one who had a tissue to hand.

The ceremony wouldn’t have been complete without a mention of Jo’s Dad, Ian, of course, and on the back of the order of service there was a tribute to him, ‘In Loving Memory’, with a quote from Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s ‘Good Omens’:

"Don't think of it as dying" said Death.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush."

Crikey – that brought on a few more tears. Memories of a very dear friend and knowing how proud he would have been of his very successful and beautiful daughter.

Regrettably, as now seems to be the usual, I failed to take loads of photos. We were so busy nattering to people that I quite forgot to get the camera out until the last minute, so no photos of Jo in all her beauty, but I did manage to snap Anita, in all her beauty, with Ian’s aunty and cousin……

However, lots of people did take photos of Jo, didn’t they? Here is the happy couple, Jo and Rob, both looking radiant.

We stayed overnight at a Premier Inn near the wedding venue and on the way back home today decided to call into the Heart of the Country shopping mall on the A38, where I happened upon a Seasalt shop and bought myself a few new tops. Nice.

“Straight home now?” I asked John, as I joined him in the car where he’d been patiently waiting for me. “Yep,” he said, “Getting tired now.” I agreed. Me, too. So we set off…. only to think that the furniture shop we wanted to visit was in Tamworth and, as we were nearby……. well, shall we call in?

We did. And bought ourselves a new dining table and chairs. Delivery in 8 to 10 weeks. “And that’s good.” said the salesman patting himself on the back for such a swift delivery time….. really? Fingers crossed it all works when we get it in the room!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Happy Anniversary to us! We can’t quite believe that we have been together for 55 years and married for 48 of them, but here we are. Goodness, we’ve seen and experienced lots of things along the way and we’re still making the most of it as best we can. Marvellous.

We celebrated with breakfast in bed this morning and cream cakes this afternoon. Paul bought us a bottle of champagne to imbibe this evening while we did our quiz, but we decided to keep it for another day. We’ll prolong the celebrations as long as we can!!

Our plans for the day were not really much in the way of high jinks – more ‘more of the same’ really. My plan was to paint the door surrounds in our bedroom so that they’ll be spruced up and in keeping with a brand new carpet that the carpet fitters will bring tomorrow.

I did get on with that job, but abandoned the idea of trying to get a second coat on, despite having said to John that I’d stay up to finish it ‘even if it was two o’clock in the morning’. And the reason I abandoned it? The opportunity to spend time with Paul and Freddie, of course!!

Oh, bliss. Paul phoned to say they were on their way and we set aside everything else to spend a lovely afternoon together. We all nattered and played and laughed and were just beautifully companionable.

And how Freddie is growing up. So articulate, explaining what he’d done and seen at Legoland where he’d been yesterday. So lively and lovely, as he worked out how much pocket money I would give him for his upcoming holiday. So interesting, as he played some more on the calculator and discovered that the phone in portrait showed the standard calculator, but what fun to turn it sideways for the scientific one!

We had a game of chess at which he beat me and was thrilled with his efforts, before we went upstairs to the computer where I was still setting up the quiz. Amazingly, he knew the answers to a few of the quiz questions. I mean, do you know what an axolotl is? Apparently there’s one in Minecraft, so Freddie did.

When we’d finished putting the last few questions into the quiz, I showed Freddie the e-jigsaw I like to do and so he had a go, too. He thoroughly enjoyed the fun of pitting his wits against the clock. Oh my, I did enjoy my time with him and Paul, and feel so grateful for the years of marriage which have given us these blessings. Lucky, lucky us.

This evening it was Quiz Night and we were Quiz Masters. I’m always nervous about getting the balance right in the quiz and wasn’t sure if I’d got this one right. It turned out that one or two questions had clearly been chosen from left-field. But, despite that, the score was pretty respectable at the end. And we stayed on, chatting long after the quiz had ended. We had fun. Thank the Lord once again, for friends and family.

Take care everyone. God bless.

…. we had a very nice weekend, thank you!

We spent the weekend at Malcolm and Caroline’s in North Dorset travelling down on Friday and arriving about tea-time. The journey was quite good on the way down thanks to the SatNav. As we neared our destination, a message flashed up on John’s phone: ‘Car crash’. Oooh, right….. but the SatNav steered us all round to avoid it, ensuring we came off the A303, wriggled round a few back roads then came back onto the A303 to very empty road. Not a car in sight behind us. Good for us, but obviously not good for the car crash victims.

Malcolm and Caroline were the perfect hosts and made us feel very welcome, providing great food, decent drinks and great company.

On Saturday we had a potter into Sherborne, tootling up and down the main street, browsing the shops and then the Abbey. I was very taken with the Abbey and felt very at home there.

A little light refreshment was required after all our exertions, of course, and we popped into a coffee shop, where they had a very pretty courtyard at the back. We were out of luck with regards to a cream tea though, as we had left it a bit late in the afternoon. Never mind. We’d choose something else. Dorset Apple Cake? No, sorry, that’s off, too……. Chocolate brownies and toasted teacakes were on the menu, however. Caroline declined the offer of anything else, but Malcolm had to wait hours for his teacake. They had forgotten to put the order through. Hmmm…. there was a bit of argy-bargy about that.

Despite the wait and John taking a trip up the step and then thwacking Caroline in the eye as he fell, we enjoyed the surroundings and the chat.

On the way back, we took in a visit to the pub, The Buffalo. I mean, it would have been churlish not to, wouldn’t it? It was quaint and old-fashioned but lovely.

We had thought we might stay until Monday, but John’s hip was giving him jip and his eyes were sore, too. He had forgotten his specialist eye serum and by the end of the day he was struggling to open his eyes, so we thought it would be best come home on Sunday. But not before I’d visited the stables with Caroline to see her horse!!

On Sunday morning, we left the men at home and drove up to Shepton Mallet to see ‘Red’. What a lovely horse he is. Glossy and looking as fit as a fiddle. Caroline groomed him and said, “Do you want to brush his tail?” Erm…. me? Oh, OK then. I was brave and brushed his tail. Although, to be honest, I didn’t need to be brave because he was as good as gold.

Caroline took him into the indoor riding area to lunge him which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. Once again, he was as good as gold. Smashing.

After lunch John and I came back to Balsall, only to find Jack still at our house. Having fed the cat he was thoughtfully watering some of our plants. What an amazing boy he is! Can’t do without him!

Today we have tinkered about at home – me slicing up carpet to get at the skirting board in our bedroom to paint it; and John having another look at his car.

The only mar to our enjoyment was a phone call from the urology nurse telling John all about his results from the biopsy. Yes, it is prostate cancer. We knew that. It will need more intervention now. We didn’t know that. It’s classified as T3 cancer and on the Prostate Cancer Gleeson Score it is 9. Hmm…… the nurse was very good at explaining it all and said that his case has been referred to the oncologist who will be in touch. Soon we hope? “In due course.” Ha! I wonder how long that will be?

Take care everyone. Prayers appreciated if you are so inclined. God bless.

Not only is the weather on the change – turning from hellish temperatures to more reasonable ones today – but things are afoot at home, turning hellishly old-fashioned and worn-out décor into something more reasonable.

Obviously, there’s still much ado with the dining room, but that wasn’t it today. Today it was the turn of the bedroom. I was bold and ordered a new bedroom carpet a week or so ago, which has now arrived in the showroom and is pencilled in for fitting next Thursday.

We were delighted to hear that the guys from the shop would move the furniture and take away the old carpet for us before the fitting. That would save a lot of work for us, wouldn’t it? Possibly…….

Thinking ahead, I planned to paint the skirting board before the new carpet arrived. And what does that entail? Ha! Moving the furniture, of course! In order to have fluff-free paint I need to cut back the edge of the existing carpet by an inch or two. Hmmmm….

So that was me, this afternoon, emptying chests of drawers and then shifting them and their contents into other rooms. Nearly there, just a couple more to go. And then there’s the bed, of course. Wonder how we’re going to get on shifting that? I am sure it’ll be all fine…..

The dining room is still at the bare wall, newly-plastered state of affairs, of course, with the emulsioning being held off until the cornice is fitted. It would be wonderful if the cornice was fitted before the new cupboards arrive, so that I can paint the walls and ceiling and not drip it all over the brand new fixtures. But is it likely to happen? Perfect timing? Fingers crossed, but I’m not holding my breath.

However, I did manage to treat the horrible knots in the wood surrounding the windows and doorway today, so that’s one step in the right direction. Tally-ho!!

John was still faffing about with his car and doing a lot of thinking today. Every piece he touches seems to present a problem and he’s got to find the part from some dealer or other on the internet, or he’s got to make it from scratch in his man-shed at the bottom of the garden. And it’s exhausting – thinking – isn’t it?

We also spent a little bit of time fiddling about with the solar panel set-up today. The alarm on the system kicked off again, so there we were, crawling into the loft once more, and on the phone to a disembodied voice advising us what to do….. Managed it, but we’re waiting to talk to the battery people to find out why it keeps bleeping at us. That’ll be one for next week probably.

So there we are, a change is as good as a rest, they say. I am sure they didn’t mean this sort of change though – ‘cos we couldn’t half do with a rest! Still, it’s mostly our choice, so can’t complain.

On another note: it’s all getting expensive, isn’t it? You know, the things you normally buy but don’t think about too much. A spot of shopping now seems to regularly cost me £35 instead of the £20-£25 I used to spend. And petrol? Nearly had a heart attack filling the Eos up today!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Who’d have thought we’d feel cool when it was 25°? Currently basking in the ‘chill’ of a 10 degree temperature drop and feeling grateful for it!

Yesterday was very warm again and, as I stepped out of the house, it felt like an oven had been switched on and was blasting me. That didn’t change all day and I was pleased to scuttle indoors to try and keep cool.

It was William’s end-of-term farewell show yesterday morning and I had been invited to watch. I had wondered whether they would go ahead given the heat, but they did, and it wasn’t too bad – although there were one or two red faces among the children after they had performed!

The show was so good. So exciting to see the children all come into the hall, their eyes anxiously searching out their Mums, Dads, Grandmas, Grandpas and siblings, then their faces beaming as they found them. William was no exception and our hearts soared as he entered the hall grinning from ear to ear. What a cutie.

Here he is offering a shy little wave to us, having sung the final song for which they sang their hearts out going for ‘Gooooooold…….!’ and receiving a gold medal for all their efforts. It was lovely.

Afterwards we went back to Michael and Danielle’s where we cooled down with an ice lolly and a rest on the sofa. We had a little play but it was fairly lacklustre on all the adults’ behalf. The heat overnight had done Michael and Danielle in, having had to tend the children for half the night – and I am sure I was just feeling my age……. or was it the heat?

A propos of that…..Susie Dent’s Word of the Morning today? It is ‘forwallowed’ (15th century): exhausted from tossing and turning all night. Hmmmm….. I quite like that one! We were definitely forwallowed yesterday – and again today……

On the way home from Michael and Danielle’s I called in to the Co-op for a few groceries and understood why people might want to spend longer than normal in there. It was definitely cool……

After lunch I decided to rest some more…… inspecting the backs of my eyelids for a change. John, meanwhile, was shifting furniture. We had taken delivery of Harriet’s father’s desk a while ago but hadn’t put it in situ. John rectified that and shuffled his desk and the new-to-him desk around to settle the space. His former desk is now in pieces awaiting a new home……

When I woke up, I did a little bit of painting on the window frames in the dining room. Primer, on some bare wood, which hardly took any time at all, but I did spot some knots in the wood which I hadn’t dealt with, so it’s back to the drawing board on those…… plenty of time, I tell myself, plenty of time……

Meanwhile, although John had spent some time watching TV in the afternoon, he had been very busy in the morning mixing concrete and finalising the security post in front of the garage door. Unfortunately, this picture is a ‘before’ one in which none of the dressing concrete had been mixed and laid, but you get the gist……

We were up quite early this morning, making the journey over to Heartlands Hospital for John’s regular treatment of immunoglobulin. We had both had a rotten night’s sleep one way and another, so John enjoyed an all-morning snooze while he had his treatment and hoped that the rest would work wonders on the dodgy hip he now finds himself with. He can hardly walk – it’s a bit stop, go, stop, go, stop……I blame the furniture shifting yesterday……

At home I did a few chores and ran a few errands before it was time to go back and collect the ol’ man. “I’m thinking of going into Leamington this afternoon,” I said, as we drove home, “I want to look at some dining tables. Do you want to come with me?” John thought about it for a nano-second and came back with a firm ‘no’. “You have a look and then report back,” he replied. Okay. Probably best.

So that’s what I did this afternoon, before calling on Paul and Harriet on the way home to see how they were. Paul seems to be well-recovered from Covid, and he confirmed that it had been a mild dose this time. I did my usual clucking and told him he still needed to take it easy. Do you think he’ll listen to my wise words?

John spent the afternoon in the garage, sat in the car seat, tinkering with the Lotus again. It’s such a labour of love – but frustrating at the same time as he searches and researches parts to fit the defunct, and often very fiddly, pieces on the car. It ain’t easy!

And then this evening was a lovely Quiz Night. Albeit we were tired and perhaps not on top form, but it was just lovely to see everyone again. Everyone else was on top form though, because we achieved a creditable 81% score this week. Not too shabby, eh?

Take care everyone – now that this particular heatwave is over perhaps we can enjoy some time out in our gardens. God bless.

Despite the heat yesterday, I drove over to the campsite where Michael and Danielle were staying. I went early because they had decided it was too hot by lunchtime to stay on. They were camped alongside the River Avon and there were plenty of entry points for a bit of paddling. So we were in.

Being as blind as a bat, I couldn’t quite see the tiddlers swimming about in the river, but Danielle assured me there were some there. And she was right. It wasn’t long before William and I found them. And excitement of excitement, William caught one in his net.

Naturally, we weren’t quite prepared and the bucket to put it in was on the shore. William very carefully carried the fish in the net, nurturing it all the way and he was delighted to plop it into the bucket of water and excitedly tell Mummy all about it. Such fun.

I had left John having a lie-in, and he was just getting up when I got home. However, we were so warm by lunchtime that we really thought it would be best if we didn’t do anything much at all. So we lazed about, watching a bit of TV and generally congratulated ourselves on being so sensible. Hehehe.

Of course, today has been even warmer than yesterday. I wasn’t sure exactly what the temperature was outside, as both of our indoor/outdoor weather stations seem to be on the blink. I had a bit of a fiddle with them and got them working for a while but they soon nodded off again and refused to tell us consistently how hot it was. According to one of them at one point it was 31°. Believable. The other one, placed in direct sunlight against the hot bricks of the wall, reckoned it was 57°….. blimey…. no wonder they were on the blink. Unbelievable?

The floor fitter arrived early this morning and got on with fitting our new floor in the dining room. We are both pleased with it and think it will look very good with the cupboards we’re having fitted and the décor we have chosen. Fingers crossed anyway!

We spent the morning pottering about with one or two jobs – a bit of a tidy-up; phone calls to the consultant’s secretary about the prostate biopsy and another one to the dentist; a bit of washing; and feeding water to wilting plants.

I was thinking I might nip up to the shops, but the morning wore on and it was clearly too hot to walk and I didn’t want to take the car, so I rummaged in the fridge for something to eat. In the end, I made Gazpacho soup. It was so cool and refreshing that we finished the lot!

Just after lunch, the scaffolders called in. When they had come to scaffold up for the solar panels, quite a few of the tiles were broken, so they came to ‘make good’. Pffft! They did what they could but didn’t get the job finished. “Ah, well, you see, we’d have to take the ridge tiles off to get at those…… so I can’t do anything about them.” Humph. John will be on the phone to the scaffolder’s boss tomorrow…….

This afternoon, John tinkered on the car. The garage was the coolest spot in the house. I, on the other hand, was a lady of leisure. Margaret came round to watch Downton Abbey with me, as I’d still got it rented. We popped open a bottle of Prosecco and, ensconced in the best seats in the house, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The film was even better the second time round!

This evening, alternate to our Thursday evening once-a-fortnight-chat, it was the college crew get-together on Zoom. The aim of the game was to get everyone together, as Thursdays seem to be proving impossible. Ha! Mondays are impossible, too. There were four of us this evening – sickness, caring duties and committee meetings all got in the way. Never mind, maybe next time?

Covid is enjoying the warm weather, too, and the stats tell us that 1 in 19 people have now been infected. Paul still says he’s not feeling too bad, so fingers crossed it stays that way.

Mask up everyone – the variants are enjoying the repeated infections! Loving it, in fact, and morphing into something new each time. Grrr……..

Take care everyone. God bless.

Sorrel in the garden: now that’s alright isn’t it?

In the spirit of trying to change things a bit, I booked onto a retreat and a ‘Quiet Day’ today, with ladies from the Mothers’ Union. Ha! Never thought I’d be involved in that particular branch of activity from church but the opportunity to sit and do nothing really appealed.

We were located at Temple Balsall where, in the olden days, the Knights Templar had their Preceptory. There is a fabulous church there, wonderful grounds and a lovely old Hall in which we held our service before fanning out into the estate to meditate or pray. The weather was glorious which enhanced the experience of course, and the atmosphere wonderful.

All in all, I enjoyed the day – although I am not sure I feel particularly renewed….. perhaps it’ll take a while?

Here’s a pic of the church anyway, and fellow attendees enjoying lunch.

Before I set off for the retreat I welcomed in the floor fitter. He came early to prepare the dining room floor before he fits the parquet on Monday. I am really looking forward to it being done. I am sure it’s going to look lovely. I left John in charge as I was going out, so he too got up early, and he waved me off about half past nine.

Apparently, John spent the day creating a bracket or something that he can’t buy commercially, so when I got home and asked him what he’d been doing, he said, “Welding. Then re-welding and bending bits of metal.” It wasn’t clear exactly how successful he’d been but not overly so I suspect, as he wasn’t exactly excited about it.

The Kenilworth Newbies looked like they were having a ball on their camping trip but photos can be deceptive….. Danielle said that the children were tag-teaming their naps, so no sooner one fell asleep than another woke up…… I think the parents are worn out……not sure they are going to be refreshed from their weekend away. I mean, they weren’t able to get nap in, but I hope they got a beer in to compensate!

I reckon William had the best idea though……

Paul tells me he is not feeling too bad with COVID so I am relieved about that, but even so, it can’t be pleasant with this hot weather. Covid infections have continued to rise, with 1 in 20 people now infected, but this looks like it might have peaked now.

Take care everyone. Mask up if you can. God bless.

There are several key people in our lives – family foremost, of course, but friends are just magic, aren’t they? The last couple of days for me have once again been uplifting in the company of my girl friends. Absolute rocks.

Yesterday, it was the turn of a couple of the college crew. We had mulled over whether to go to the cinema to watch the latest ‘Downton’ film. In the end, I decided I still wouldn’t risk being in an enclosed public place. However, I found that I could download the film from Sky, so Anita and Linda came over to watch it on our ‘big screen’ instead.

We had a lovely time. After a glass of Pimms and a light lunch, we settled down to watch the film with a box of Maltesers and a bag of popcorn to tuck into. The ability to pause the film every so often was also a blessing, as we wondered who was related to who and who the next love interest was. It was a cracking afternoon and I gained a lovely display of flowers into the bargain.

John spent the day in the garage once more – not doing his car yesterday, but still having a tidy up – and he dug a hole. The garage is beginning to look a bit more like now – but the hole? Well, that’s directly in front of the garage door……. what a mystery.

This morning I left John in bed for a lie-in – he’s still getting over his chest infection – while I went off to the campsite at Stoneleigh with Danielle to help set up their tent for the weekend. Originally, Paul was planning to help, as it is their tent that Michael and Danielle are borrowing, but he sent us this photo yesterday, with an expletive accompanying the text………

It turned out that Danielle and I were very capable of putting up the tent as well as minding the baby. Oliver refused to sleep while we beavered away, content to watch from the sidelines for a while and then from the comfort of either Danielle’s arms or mine. Amazingly, the tent was very easy to put up. It brought back memories of when John and I had an ‘A’ frame tent – but that was pretty hard work in those days!

The family are all set up this evening and clearly enjoying themselves so far.

I arrived back from the tent adventure to find that the hole John had started digging yesterday was now even deeper. Hmm…. It transpires that he’s planning to put a security post in place. Having had the car out of the garage ‘on show’ he thought he ought to secure it more adequately. Nothing stops that man. Chest infection or no… he’s still on it.

I was still gallivanting, however. Treated to afternoon tea at lunchtime with my friend, Margaret. How thoughtful she is. “I thought you needed cheering up,” she said. Well, it certainly did that. We had a lovely time and the food was delicious. Yep, the girls rock.

John had not only successfully dug the hole for the security post when I got home, but he’d put the post in place and concreted it in. He’s amazing. Outstanding in fact. I had to go and have a lie down after my exertion of having afternoon tea while he worked on…….

With Covid on my mind and Paul in particular, I hope everyone stays safe. The incidence of infection is quite high just now – hoping I avoided it at the afternoon tea venue……I mean, I had to take my mask off to eat! Hehe.

Take care everyone. God bless.