Here comes the sun.

Apparently, summer starts on 1 June. It certainly did this year & we are now on summer day 4, with more warm weather promised. I even donned shorts yesterday morning, anticipating a morning of tennis. Unfortunately, this was cancelled as we didn't have four to play as some were on holiday. What else do you do pn a hot day, when you have been twarted? Housework - penance for believing that you should expect more. Actually, I needed to empty the large "Noble chest", as Keith was coming to repair it, ready to take the family archives. This got me going on scrubbing, washing & sorting, I worked my way through th scullery & kitchen, like a whirling dervish, with pleasing results. I dressed properly & went to Solihull to pick up J & Th from school, tea, after which I did a G & nodded off on the settee - along with a tired Th, before coming home for warmer clothes & out to dinner with a friend. A beautiful morning, woken by the cuckoo at very close quarters about 4.30am, so the chickens have had an early start to the day! Perhaps they'll manage better than the one egg today!!

Hangover, what hangover?

Well, the girly bring a bottle party went really well - about 20 of us, all having a good time, chatting & never a mention of church fundraising - a few other hair-raising tails though! I did do a sell on the church toilet twinning as I had a certificate on the toilet door, in readiness. The food was scrummy & the birthday cakes - one for Olwen & a second for Mia, Jan's Norwegian wild blue (?), 4 yesterday - one coffee, one lemon, teuned out brilliantly. All tidied up & the dishwasher on by midnight. The sun came out, eventually, so the doors open to the garden, even if we didn't venture out. A beautiful morning - washing & chickens out before 6.00am, a sermon to write & shopping to be done for tomorrow's lunch - Phil coming with friends, to catch up on the village news, after his sojourn in Tamworth. G off to Thailand tomorrow am, via MG for lunch & a chauffeur to HRW. Sounds like a good weekend. Quandry, should I use last week's "Trinity sermon", with which I was pleased, to explain the trinity to NW, or write the planned one on the centurian & his slave? I think that I may have to go with option 2, having done the planning, to get it out of my head. Enjoy your weekend, especially those for whom life isn't just one long holiday!

Pom, pom, pom......

Busy making pom poms with J & Th, it being yet another wet & windy day, just enough respite for a spin around the garden on the jeep. Actually, it is brightening up & a dry evening is promised. Hurrah! I arrived home this morning, a day later than anticipated as the wet weather yesterday meant that tennis would be off, so I went to Lincoln for the day, as B was there for a meeting. I had a great day, despite the day-long deluge & fear of being swept down Steep Hill, from the Cathedral in a tidal wave! I did the shops, coffee, twice, & went to communion at lunchtime, whilst in the cathedral, before meeting B again at 4.30pm By then the rain had just abated, so we had a good drive home, the a healthy M&S dinner & snooze on the settee whilst watching TV. Being entertained by J & Th today, trying to keep G awake - a full time job! We shall deliver J & Th home later - after boiled eggs & soldiers,(chickens have obliged) then go to see "Gatsby" - G off to Thailand & all destinations East from Sunday, so the last outing for a while. Girly party tomorrow evening, so a little light housework & some baking on the cards.

Summer!

A glorious day & a promise of more to come. I made the mot of it by writing my sermon - Trinity Sunday - first thing - then heading for the tennis club for 11.00am. My first Saturday visit this year, so a little trepidation. I needn't have worried as there was a junior tournament on, so no play & a lot of difficulty getting out again - a single track road with a right hand, blind bend half way along it, log jammed with doting parents in their large cars! I went to collect dry cleaning - closed due to unforseen circumstances, but did manage to make a hairdressing appt for Friday pm, ready for the girly, bring a bottle/nibbles party. Hair in real need of attention, not having been cut for a couple of months, pop to Morrisons, then home. I made a cappucinno & lounged in the conservatory with the Telegraph for half an hour, in the warm - bliss! I only have a paper on Sat, saves on time & money! I love my new coffee machine - my daily coffee now replaces wine, which I really don't miss & feel much better for abstaining. I gardened until nearly 7.00pm - hoed all of the borders,started on the last one - the big one at the top of the garden & collected all of the wood brought down during the week of rain & high winds - yesterday, CPH, 16 & 6 degrees, BHX, 10 & 4!! A hot bath, to deter post gardening aches & pains, then dinner - G watching racing at Mira all day - home about 6.00pm to mow outside lawns with puny Flymo as the mower is still away having a bracket fixed. Seem to have missed the Tudors on TV altogether - sleep seems preferable to viewing any of the available programmes. The Co-op have McV choc digestives half price - beware! JS have Yorkshire tea bags, 240 for £4- eh, a bargain there!

The volvos have it

the beauty treatment, that is - both vacuumed & shampooed to within an inch of their lives, then polished with a wash leather, shortly before the rains came & the bits blew off the trees all over them. Not to be beaten, when G had finished rodding the drains (no euphanisms there - a minor pongy problem from bathroom to laundry), I hosed them off again before returning them to their more usual parking places down the drive. Problem solved - wet but clean. We park them out of the way of the view from the kitchen window, so that we can watch the birds & animals in the field - more for me than G as he spends far less time at the kitchen sink. Hardly any at all, in all honesty, so I suppose it's for my benefit. A cold day with winds & rain - not at all spring-like. Tomorrow is exactly a year since we were in Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, the place of the battle which eventually saw the french leave Vietnam for good - 1950s? A place full of bomb craters, tunnels, museums & memorials, not to be forgotten. I feel the need to shop tomorrow, having a 20% off M&S voucher & coffee vouchers, compliments of aj & needing a pair of jeans that fit. Ventura Park here I/we come. Probably, I. A brilliant programme on Anne Bolelyn tonight on BBC2, with Hilary Mantel, Phillipa Gregory, David Starkey & others - another, on Thomas Cromwell tomorrow, I think.

Can you put a name to these????

Cluck, cluck, cluck.

Overnight rain but a dry if chilly day. I took Cluck & two rubber eggs to school with me, to take assembly, to start of their Global .... week. it all went well & Cluck behaved impeccably! I dashed home to change, then went to play tennis, a little shopping in the Co-op, then home to cook lunch - poached eggs. I didn't feel too good, so had a nap in the lounge after lunch, whilst pretending to watch TV. By 3.30pm I roused myself to make a cup of tea & get into the garden for a couple of hours. I weeded the rockery, accompanied by the chickens, before cooking dinner - cold chicken with sweet potatoes & cauliflower cheese. A brandy & hot bath was planned to make me feel better, but didn't work, but a chat with aj has helped & I've come to bed. I think I'd like a week somewhere warm, being pampered, with good company. Any ideas?