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Our beautiful granddaughter, Lily, is sixteen. She has just finished her GCSEs and, as we all know, such an event is celebrated with a Prom. A few weeks ago, I asked her if she’d got her prom dress. She nodded. “What colour have you got?” I wondered. “Red,” she replied. “Send me picture?” I asked tentatively. She nodded again, “Of course I will.”

In the end, Lily didn’t have time to share a photo of herself and it was Paul and Harriet who sent us a couple of photos this evening before she set off. Oh, my heart…… stunning. So, so beautiful. No longer a girl, but an elegant young woman – confident, relaxed and looking happy. If she permits it, I’ll share a photo of her tomorrow. In the meantime, I am hoping that she has a cracking evening out tonight.

In the other Kenilworth Sleath household, celebrations started today for Thomas’s birthday. He is two. We aimed to go over just after tea to say ‘happy birthday’ to him but, one way or another the arrangement didn’t quite work out, so I met him (and Danielle and Oliver) at The Children’s Play Village near Warwick for three quarters of an hour. Ooooh, we didn’t half have a bit of fun.

We had ‘afternoon tea’ with wooden cakes and cloth sandwiches, washed down with imaginary tea in carved cups and saucers. We then rushed to an imaginary fire in the fire engine and nee-nawed down the road. Thomas didn’t think much to my driving and gave me strong instructions on how to handle the steering wheel…….. both hands Grandma, for goodness’ sake!

Afterwards we went shopping in the supermarket and bought some ‘bread’ and a ‘banana’ and a ‘joint of meat’. We took our shopping over to the ice cream van which we commandeered before doling out ice creams and lollies to each other and Mummy. I was clearly the assistant…… oh, my heart…….

Back at the ranch, John has been beavering away and creating the birthday cake ready for the family party on Sunday. Can’t wait. It’s coming along very nicely. He’s also been creating a mess in kitchen that neither of us can be bothered to clear up. Maybe tomorrow?

In other news, we have had tradesmen here today. First thing, before I set off for my yoga class, the local carpet shop owner came round to measure up the dining room. I left John supervising proceedings and, while he was at it, to measure up our bedroom, too. We aim to choose flooring tomorrow. We’re SKI’ing now, don’t you know …. Spending the Kids Inheritance……hehehe.

Just after lunch, the doorbell rang and it was the scaffolders. Yippee! As quick as you like, the four guys bustled about and took the whole thing down and away with no fuss at all. Well, I say no fuss – there was a bit of sucking of teeth as they said that the tiles were like biscuit and would inevitably be broken. They replaced what they could with the spares they’d brought and then said they’d tell the boss in the morning before they whisked themselves off, looking forward to their weekend.

I took the scaffolders cups of tea and coffee and found myself paddling my way through a very large puddle of water that had accumulated on the lawn. We were puzzled. Did we have a lot of rain in the night? I hadn’t heard anything – and anyway, the rest of the garden wasn’t wet. Then the penny dropped…… oh……ah…… I’d left the tap on all night from watering the hydrangea. Oops.

Take care everyone. There’s a COVID wave – 1 in 35 people infected now – so get your masks out. God bless.

Susie Dent’s Word of the Day (again) is ‘stiffrump’ (18th century): a highly obstinate individual who refuses to budge.

Oh, and by the way, what did everyone think about the by-election results then, eh?

How absolutely blooming marvellous to have a Skype session with Graham and Gail this morning. It’s been a while since we chatted face-to-face and so we had a lot to talk about – not least about their rather exotic holiday on Christmas Island to celebrate Gail’s 70th birthday in April. It sounds like they had a really good time. And they deserved it after the horrible year they’d had.

They both looked really well and were on top form, so the two hours we spent nattering away was a real delight. We only said our goodbyes because it was getting late their end and they had to be up early the next morning. Here’s to the next time!!

We were both up early this morning, not only because we were going to be talking to G & G but because the Electrician Cometh. We were having a Smart meter fitted. I was half expecting some sucking of teeth and shaking of his head when he saw where the mains is situated, but John, being the amazing man that he is, had spent a good few hours creating a safe cabinet for the electrics the other day, so it was all hunky-dory and the electrician just got on with it. He had been and gone before our Skype session and we can now see how much electricity we are using – how good/scary is that?

After lunch, I felt a bit neither here nor there and a little bit melancholy, thinking of things past. So I went outside and pottered in the garden for a while. The tidying up of the hedge soothed my soul and I felt better for having breathed in the oxygen and the scents generated by the garden.

John, meanwhile, was getting on with the cake. And it’s going to be good. His work so far is very promising. “I’m ready for the cake board now,” he said, “if you can find it for me, please?” Ha! Find it? A new name for Hunt the Thimble?

When I cleared the dining room, I was pretty good at making a little list of where things had been stored. But the cake boards? Apparently I had omitted to record where those were. I checked in the cupboard in the Main Guest Room, rummaging in the boxes there. Nope. I sought them in the boxes in the Attic Room. Nope. How about the boxes above the cupboards in the kitchen? Nope – not there either.

I did find them in the end. Under the stairs, in a box in which I’d chucked the very last few bits out of the dining room cabinet. No record made of what was in the box or where I was storing it…… no wonder it took ages to find the darned thing!!

This evening, we sprawled in our chairs and rested our weary bodies. John was feeling exhausted having expended lots of energy thinking about the cake and then actually creating the vision; and I was just plain being lazy.

As I took the bins out this evening, though, and turned back towards the house, I felt grateful that we have such beauty in our lives, such as these wonderful pink roses – grace, happiness and gentleness.

They reminded me of the beginning of Lockdown when we stood under the roses waving to family and friends at the end of the path, socially-distanced, but full of energy to face what may come. Who knew then, the impact that ‘shielding’ would have on us?

Take care everyone. God bless.

This morning, after I’d done my daily yoga session, we were off to Heartlands for John’s immunoglobulin infusion. On the way, we discussed the making of Thomas’s birthday cake. He will be two on Friday and there is a ‘tradition’ of Grandpa making the birthday cakes. Having felt unwell yesterday, John had made no start on the cake and, with a hospital treatment session booked in for the whole of this morning, it felt like Grandpa was going to be cutting things fine.

No worries. I’d had had a long conversation on WhatsApp yesterday with Christiana, who sent through her tried and tested recipe plus an illustration of how to make the cake. In good hands, I suggested to John that I make a start on it this morning. And, do you know what? We have the basis of a cake. This may be as surprising to you as it is to me – I rarely bake cakes and those that I have done from scratch in the past haven’t turned out well, but this one did. Thank you Christiana.

It’s a colourful cake with pink, green and vanilla sponge – and John made its twin this evening, just as successfully, so tomorrow he has somewhere to start on the sculpting of the cake. Fingers crossed it all works well!!

Home from the hospital, we both pottered about a bit with this and that. And then, when we were sitting in the swinging chair in the garden having a bite to eat at lunchtime, I mentioned that the builders, working on the house next door but two, were chucking out the last of their cement into the skip at the end of the day. “I think I’m going to ask them if they’ll let me have a bucket of cement so that I can mend the rocky slab on the patio steps,” I said. John wasn’t totally convinced it was the best idea, but he didn’t stop me. So guess what we did this afternoon? Under John’s supervision, I re-laid a slab and pointed it.

I am now officially a ‘Jack-of-all-Trades’. From mixing and baking a cake to mixing cement and setting a slab – who’d have thought it? Mind you, I am not sure how long the repair will last. It might succumb to little boys running up and down it within one visit, but we’ll see.

I watched the tennis on TV while John made the second cake this evening and then, having exhausted ourselves with our creativity, we both sat down to watch a documentary this evening. Aaaand…..breathe.

Take care everyone. Covid’s about. Try to avoid it if you can and wear a mask in indoor spaces. Who knows what it’ll do to us and our beautiful children in the long term if we catch it more than once? God bless.

In between yoga sessions, medical interventions and my prayer group meeting today, I spent a happy, if warm, hour or two in the garden this afternoon. Some of you may remember when I first started writing the ‘Lock Down’ blog, I felt beleaguered by the bindweed taking over the garden. Several people offered advice. Fed up with hearing my regular angst over it, they said ‘let it go’……

Ha! Thanks for the advice folks. It’s now all over everywhere.

Anyhoo…. since we haven’t been very busy in the garden this year, in addition to the bindweed, we seem to have got ourselves a wild flower garden. The creepers are not simply restricted to the bindweed; I found lots of Herb Robert, making itself very much at home, joining hands with the bindweed and joyously poking its little pink flowers through the newly-planted (well, last year) hedge.

Tormentil, too, so aptly named as it snakes through the rose bushes and my lovely Phlox, and cheerily torments me with its little yellow flowers, like buttercups.

Then there’s the Lesser Trefoil, which is a little b****r to get rid of, crawling along in every nook and cranny that it can find and obstinately hanging on for grim death as you try and pull it out.

Self-heal may be pretty to look at but that, too, is tricky to remove….

But then! A sweet find of wild strawberries crawling along the back of the house, with yummy fruit to eat. Don’t mind if I do.

And of course, several ‘lovely’ nettles – also edible. Not crawlers or creepers but bold, nasty things that leap out at you when you least expect it. I slashed them down. Nettle Soup, anyone?

John, meanwhile, spent the morning trying to create a safe environment for our mains electricity, which comes into the house next to the loo……we’re hoping to get a SMART meter fitted on Thursday, but we’re expecting some sucking of teeth and shaking of heads ~ we’ll see.

Having successfully finished the safety job, we were due to go over to Solihull hospital for John to have a pre-op assessment. Momentarily, we thought we might not get there. John was in pain from his ‘bag-for-life’. We phoned the community nurses to ask them to come and sort him out. Got the answering machine.

The painkillers worked sufficiently for us to get to the hospital and he was whisked away by several of the nursing staff to have various checks made. One of which was his blood pressure. ‘Oo-er’…. they said…. ‘it’s a bit low. Have a couple of glasses of water’. That did the trick.

While I was waiting for John, I phoned the community nurse again and spoke to one of the team. “Yes,” she said, “we are aware of John’s situation. Yes, we’ll send someone round” Ha! We always live in hope but……that was a ‘No Show’ wasn’t it? Maybe tomorrow?

However, as we were driving home, I asked John how his pain was. “Not too bad. It’s gone off a bit.” he said. Ah…… the penny dropped, was the pain related to being a bit dehydrated, we wondered? I have force-fed John water ever since and his pain has lessened. Phew.

Susie Dent’s Word of the Day is the 19th-century ‘hingum-tringum’, meaning ‘barely presentable’, or just about hanging together. Now then, who or what can she be referring to, do you think?

Take care everyone. Make the most of the weather while you can. God bless.

Note: The photos are not my photos. I forgot to take any as I was weeding. They are ones I have picked from the internet.

Herb Robert from Wikipedia; Tormentil, Lesser Trefoil and Selfheal all from the Wildflower gallery; and the wild strawberries from Wiktionary.

With the rise in Covid we invited all the family to take lateral flow tests before we went round to Paul’s for Sunday lunch this afternoon. Everyone showed a negative result, so we went and had a lovely time. Paul and Harriet’s house is so airy and we were all pretty well spaced out, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the dreaded lurgy wasn’t lurking in the shadows today.

Before we went, both John and I were like dormice. John stayed in bed and I wrapped myself in a blanket on the sofa while we hibernated for most of the day. John is tired after all his exertions yesterday with fitting the under-cupboard lighting, and I am just plain fed up again.

Who knows where this mood comes from? I don’t – but I don’t seem to be able shake it off. It’s all very well for a little while and I can skim over the surface but then it comes back again. Grrr……

I suppose little things can trigger a low mood and perhaps a contributory factor was that we found our newly-fitted solar panel system had thrown an alarm again this morning, so it’s not working. I tried to phone the electrician but no joy today, so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. More Grrr……

Ah, well, fingers crossed that we both feel better tomorrow. We certainly enjoyed seeing the family today, who always uplift our spirits, so I’m hoping we’ll go to bed on a higher note.

Take care everyone. God bless.

I visited Mum this afternoon and took her some flowers from the garden, a box of chocolates and some little Battenberg cakes. She was delighted with the flowers and put in her two pennorth in helping me arrange them. The stalks had minds of their own and it all looked a bit tangled, but we both thought that the display had brought the garden into her room.

Her eyes lit up when she saw the edible treats and said, “Oooh, little Mr Pickling cakes! I love those!” I couldn’t help but laugh – not exactly a Spoonerism, but close.

As is Mum’s custom whenever she receives a gift of something to eat, she said, “Well, I won’t have one now.” It’s never quite clear what she is saving the treat for, so I suggested we open the box of chocolates anyway to look inside. Once the packet was opened….. well, we tucked into them of course!

We had lots of singing ‘Que sera, sera’ and lots of giggles as Mum settled into a comfortable position on her bed. We had lots of repeat performances with a favourite question being: “Where do you live now?”

She enjoyed looking at all the photos of the family but really had no idea who anyone was. She wondered if I was still married? Oh, this is your husband? He looks a nice man.

She loved looking at all the children and oohed and aahed over them, delighted at how good-looking they all are and wondering where Freddie’s red hair had come from. Oh, and was Oliver my son? In the explanation, I talked about the children being her great-grandsons and their parents being her grandsons. “I’ve got grandsons?” she exclaimed. “Really? I’ve got grandsons? Well, thank you. I am so pleased to have grandsons.” Bless her.

But really, she was on top form and we had a lovely time together – including Mr Pickling.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, John has been busy all day fitting some new LED lights under the cupboards in the kitchen. Easy to fit, as the strips of lighting have double-sided tape on them for simple attachment to the cupboard surface. Ha! That bit was alright but hiding the electrical wires and hot-gluing them to the underside of the cupboards resulted in a lot of: “Oooph!” and “Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” – it transpires that hot glue is painful on the skin…..

We went round to Pete and Dawn’s this evening, which was lovely. Just what was needed for cosy chat, laughter, fun and a balm for the soul.

And there we are – another day done.

Take care in the big, outside world – there’s a wave of COVID happening right now with a 43% up tick in cases in the last week. God bless.

Despite the breeze today, the temperature rose as the day went on and we were scorched. I did my best to stay out of the sun but I did potter in the garden this afternoon.

John was very successful in staying out of the sun as he spent all day in the garage – more tinkering. I think it’s going quite well despite a few setbacks, and he seems quite excited at the progress he is making. Every day he says, “I’ve got to get it finished!” and I nod, hopefully.

We were both up quite early and I toddled off to yoga this morning. I have to confess, I was a little anxious about how I would get on as the Friday class is a bit more challenging – and I seem to creak in every joint these days. However, I managed to keep up – and Jaime always gives us options if something might just be a bit much for the crocks or beginners in the class. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and felt much better than I did yesterday. Not yet best, but better.

This afternoon, while John continued his long stint in the garage, I decided we really ought to plant the tomatoes he was so keen to buy a couple of weeks ago. I doubt that they’ll do much good now, but I’ve planted a couple of them anyway.

I also thought I’d have a bit of a tidy up on the patio. There was debris everywhere and, of course, lots of ‘remains’ from last week’s barbecue – not least the volume of sand that had found it’s way out of the sand pit.

I must confess to getting a bit disgruntled now though, as the scaffolding is still up from the installation of the solar panels last week. I am not that much of a complainer when it comes to tradesmen because we know what it’s like but, not only is it taking away the light from the kitchen, which is dark at the best of times, but it’s in the way. I’ve ended up putting the Growbag with the tomatoes in at the front of the patio, rather than snug against the wall. The company that did the solar panels has told John that the scaffolding will be gone by Wednesday of this week. I hope so!

I worked my way along the patio, clearing this, picking up that, untangling the other and arrived at the pond. On inspection, it was looking very sorry for itself – the irises are all overgrown and the duckweed was totally covering the surface of the water.

Ha! And the poor fish – I think they have been struggling for oxygen for a while as there was a floater on the top…… But it can’t be all bad, as we’ve still got newts in the pond. I am always excited when I see them! Anyway, I captured handfuls and handfuls of duckweed to clear a space for the fish and cut back a few irises. I will try and have another go in the next few days….. But, phew! There are still some fish left in the pond.

All for now, folks. Hope the night is cool enough to encourage sleep. Take care and God bless.

Susie Dent’s Word of the Day is ‘swullocking’ (19th century) which means stiflingly, searingly hot. I rather like it!

Goodness me, I feel like I’m in the doldrums again. Even when it’s a beautiful day like today! Who’d have thought it, eh? Weird. Ah well, I shall feel better again soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday we had a marvellous trip out in the morning to Shropshire to collect the pieces of upholstery John had commissioned for the Lotus. It was a lovely drive in Harriet’s car, with the sun shining and the countryside wearing her best clothes.

John was absolutely delighted with the work that the other John had done and he came home a very happy bunny. We even stopped off at the Fig and Favour for a bite to eat for lunch, sitting outside, enjoying the weather and the food.

When we got back we nipped over to the Kenilworth Newbies for a cuppa and to keep Danielle company while Michael was working. John dropped me off while he went to the dentist for a filling and then came on afterwards.

The children were lovely to play with again, as they have a new play area – a mud kitchen and water fun (although the water was added after this picture was taken).

William turned out to be a refusnik though, when it came to saying sorry to Thomas for flicking him with a little pipe. The flick wasn’t really his fault – he’d seen a spider and reacted to get it away in a panic. I fear he has inherited Michael’s morbid fear of spiders……. oh dear. Still, Michael manages to control the fear when dealing with spiders, so I hope William will, too.

Grandpa rocked the baby – firstly in his bouncer and then in his pram, and he was highly successful in rocking him to sleep. Then he rocked himself to sleep on the swinging chair in the shade of the cherry tree in the warm sunshine, with the scent of the gorgeous yellow roses that are in full bloom at the bottom of the garden gently wafting in the breeze.

We shot home at tea-time to arrive in time for the plumber to call and review the area in the dining room for a new radiator. We weren’t altogether impressed by him, so fingers crossed he’ll do a decent job. We’ll see.

Last night, being Wednesday, of course, it was Quiz Night. It was lovely to see everyone, but I felt so tired I could hardly join in. I think I must still be feeling the effects of the few glasses of prosecco I had on Sunday….. except it’s continued on into today, leaving me in the doldrums. Grr…..

Anyway today, all day, John has been tinkering on the car. In and out of the house researching things on the internet, then back out again to have another go. He’s been a very busy bee.

I, on the other hand, have slothed both in the garden and in the lounge watching the tennis on TV, and have done nothing all day. This was my intention in an effort to improve my feeling of tiredness. Fingers crossed, I will feel better tomorrow as a result.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine folks. Take care. God bless.

I nipped off to Yoga this morning but, as I set off, I heard an ominous rattle on the car. I drove slowly to the church hall, thinking maybe it was a stick or something. Anyway, the rattle didn’t go away when I was on my way home either, so I mentioned it to John when I arrived back.

Ha! John gave the car a ‘hard stare’ and a rigourous test drive and there was miraculously no rattle. Hmmm….. my imagination?

Anyway, when it was time to collect Freddie from school, I drove gingerly ‘just in case’ – and hey, voila! There was the rattle again. And it wasn’t only me who could hear it – both Freddie and Lily could hear it. So I drove gingerly to their house where we have left the sickly thing, with instructions to the garage to collect it on Monday to take a look at it.

Of course, having lent Andrew the VW yesterday, we were now car-less….. “Erm… Paul? Do you think we can borrow your Volvo for a day or two, please?” The answer was yes, of course we could, so I have driven gingerly home in that one, too, ‘cos it’s not mine.

It wasn’t the best start to the day really because we had had a hiccup already, by the time I’d set off for yoga. There was an alarm showing on the new solar panels app on John’s phone. Oh, blimey.

I texted the electrician to see if he could advise and, as luck would have it, he called me just before I got home from yoga telling me to give him a call. “I’ll see if I can talk you through it on the phone.” he said.

I scrambled into the loft and switched all the switches he told me to switch then left the system for a while with my fingers crossed. An hour later, I was up there again, on a WhatsApp video call checking all the buttons and switches and levers and so on. We had got it working OK. Phew!!

Meanwhile, John had had an exciting time while I was out. He did his medication routine and then took himself off down the hill to the surgery to take a sample to them. Then he had to make it back up the hill. I am not sure how long the walk took him in the end, but he came home quite chipper. He had done a mile and beaten the hill.

This afternoon John did some more work on his beloved Lotus while I collected the children from school. Freddie and I had a lovely wander across the top of Abbey Fields towards the car, imagining making dens and defending our territory. Here’s Freddie inspecting a branch that might make some good camouflage…

When we got to Paul’s, he was already in and inviting us for tea. “Don’t you remember the discussion on Sunday?” he asked. Oops, no…… I had no recollection of the conversation at all. Mind you, I had had a little bit of fizz by then. “I haven’t brought Dad with me,” I said, apologetically. No worries, Paul would go and fetch him.

So we had a lovely tea round at the Kenilworth Originals – courtesy of Freddie, who made all the pizza toppings. Delicious.

And that’s been us. Thank the Lord for family, friends, good yoga teachers and bailers-out who manage to put us back on track, that’s all I can say.

The news on the new wave of COVID, by the way and just so you know, is that, according to the latest study: ‘Omicron evades previous immunity (even if previously infected) in both antibodies and ‘T’ cells better that previous variants. And reinfection with Omicron doesn’t necessarily stop more Omicron reinfections….‘ Professor Christina Pagel summarises.

I have bought new all-singing, all-dancing masks……

Take care everyone. God bless. It’s a Strawberry Moon tonight and, as I write and look out of the window, it is very, very beautiful. Get picking your strawberries, folks!!

…….a plan comes together.

We had thought that our plan for a barbecue on Sunday might be scuppered by the roofers returning to fit the remaining solar panels but, in the end, we decided to go ahead anyway.

Both the electrician and the roofers arrived just after mid-day and got on quite quickly in finishing their work. We were able to get everything ready for the barbecue and get it lit by the time they had finished. And then we had the luxury of cooking and eating en famille without any onlookers.

We had a lovely time, chatting and playing, eating and drinking together. The weather held fine; the food was delicious – very ably cooked between all the men – and the wine flowed. All marvellous and wonderful.

This is us trying to get a family photo at the fourth attempt. The first three photos all show Michael out of frame or pelting round the back of the swinging chair, trying to get in the photo before the shutter clicked. Made us all laugh – especially me, apparently. I look like I am laughing like a drain in every photo! And, in the final photo, Thomas looks like he’s saying ‘Phew, at long last!’ with Oliver yawning his head off in boredom.

It was delightful to have Andrew home but he went back to Cambridge today. Poor man is exhausted as usual, not having finished work on Saturday night until 2.30 in the morning. Madness.

We had planned to drive Andrew to Cambridge this afternoon, but a suggestion that he borrow my car instead met with favour, meaning that neither of us oldies had to drive and could therefore recoup our strength today.

I have drifted about all day, nursing a slight hangover. John, however, has pottered about as usual and done a bit on the car. He is quite excited because the upholsterer has now finished the interior pieces, that we took to him about six weeks ago, and they are ready to collect. Just got to find time in our very busy schedule to make the run into Shropshire now!

In other news, Andrew spooked us all today. This was the view he saw and photographed outside our back door at lunchtime…… oo-er…….

Take care everyone. Wear a mask in indoor spaces if you can. There’s another COVID wave here now and people are being hospitalised again with this pernicious vascular disease………

God bless.