Phew!

Not heat.
Activity.
I arrived home from Bicester yesterday evening to find a note on the door from Tom, asking if I'd like to go down to visit JR in Cambs today, as he had a collection to make in that direction.
At the end of July I went down to Colchester & on to JR's with Andy & Tom to collect G's triumph from JR's barn, in place of G, who had forgotten that he had made the arrangement, & was in Bournemouth. - we had a great day & I offered my services for future trips.
This was the follow up.
I cleared the diary - I had intended to go to NW church to do my arrangement for this weekend's Flower Festival - found Tom's phone number, after 3 calls, & accepted the offer.
Tom was good company & we talked for the 4 hours non stop
JR looked well & was lucid this morning - Brian, the gardener & Sarky, his carer were there.
This afternoon was surreal as he could remember nothing - his clothes, shoes, home ("not mine") or people for quite a while.
I had invited his friend Mary for tea, she came bearing freshly baked rock cakes & JR enjoyed hearing us chatting.
Home by 6.00pm, time for a nice cup of tea before going to Jan's to put together the ads for our forthcoming church events - barn Dance, Valuation Lunch, with Charles Hanson, Entrepreneurs' Sale & Christmas Tree Festival.

Tomorrow I have to do my display for the Flower festival - Bible Stories, before collecting J & Th from school in Solihull.
I'm doing "Jesus in the Wilderness" - a tray of sand with cactus, breadcrumbs/fruit, pebbles & JC with stone, marking off the days, brightly lit with a halogen bulb.
I'm not good at flowers!
I have yet to find the pebbles in the garden, dress the small artists model to transform him into JC
& organise the lamp - I'll need to be up early! 

America's Cup.

I know nothing about it, but it's on the TV, following the news at lunchtime & looks amazing - enormous catamarans literally flying, with men in black scurrying all over them.
You can't afford one W.

No tennis today as it was raining.
I was in Coleshill so shopped for milk & maltesers, which somehow took over an hour, & came home, cooked & ate my dinner - stir fry with steak & a mountain of vegetables, because I was hungry & have a PCC meeting tonight at church.
I'll make some biscuits  do coffee, to make it a little more pleasant/civilised - I have to make a malteser cake for T & KP anyway, then I'll go in the garden, including mucking out the chickens - I promised Jan as she thinks that they smell.
They always smell.
They're chickens.

No blog yesterday - too tired after taking Family Service, which is always demanding, then morning Prayer then to Cornfields for lunch, with some friends/neighbours.
Back in time for a cup of tea with Jan & Chris before going back to church to take Evening prayer.
I have to admit to standing at the altar delighting at the cleanliness of the place.  
I'm sure that there were still some large spiders joining us for worship!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Gleaming!

I've cooked for myself tonight - the first time for months - fillet steak stir fry with a bucket load of vegetables.
Scrummy.
This was the conclusion to a tiring day, spring cleaning the church, not exactly from top to bottom, as it's impossible to reach the top of anything, but we did clean all of the windows.
It's a great improvement, & displaced more than a few giant spiders.
The men strimmed the churchyard & I provided the cakes to keep up morale.
I went on to Morrisons when I finished at tea time, hence the fillet steak.
Olwen came round to borrow cake tins to bake for a show tomorrow -  we chatted for far too long, hence I still have a bit of work to do on my sermon - Family Service done & dusted - Paul's letter to Philemon -  the shortest of his letters, written about his runaway slave, Onesimus - Phil & Os for family Service.
All good fun, I hope, followed by pop & cakes.

The rains have come.

At shortly after 6.00am.
 It was dry when I came down this morning, shortly afterwards the rain started hammering on the conservatory roof , by 6.30am there were puddles on the yard & I needed to wear my wellies to release the chickens.
It has rained on & off all day, which is brilliant because:
1. the garden was amazingly dry & the plants suffering.
2. the chickens had taken to dust bathing on the borders
3. I have needed to water the garden every evening for weeks - at least this has been good  for my right arm as I've pumped the water from the well most nights & used a watering can.

I was up early this morning to make some cakes - iced fairy cakes with M&Ms & rock cakes - to take some to Phil, the rest for those coming to clean the church tomorrow.
I visited Phil in his new home, which is great, & chatted for over an hour, then went on to Solihull for an appointment at the bank.
Later I had coffee at M&S, courtesy of aj's vouchers, before going on to collect Jessie & Thomas from school & make the tea..
Home by 7.00pm having bought only pens for church & nothing from the list.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       thishasbeenood

At home.

It was a cold morning - minus two degrees at 6.00am when I released the chickens, followed by a lovely sunny summer's day. Unfortunately, I had Sunday's services to prepare, so had to settle for working in the conservatory, in shorts, with the doors open for much of the day.
I sorted the family service - Paul's letter to Philemon (Phil) about his slave Onisimus (Os) to get him off the hook for possible theft & absconding.
Os may be the Onisimus who ended up as Bishop of Ephesus, which would explain why this very short, personal letter ended up in the New Testament.
I have the sermon to complete as I was side tracked, phoning all of the church cleaners to remind them that we are doing a "spring clean" on Saturday.
I'll provide the coffee & cakes.
I updated the Mid Advent Christmas Tree Festival paperwork, saved the changes, then lost the changes.
Where are they?
We have a barn Dance planned for 26 Oct & Charles Hanson doing a Valuation Lunch on 28 Oct - advertising to be done.

It was well after 5.00pm before I finished & got into the garden.
W & B were pulling my leg at the weekend about hoeing.
I didn't like to let them down, so hoed & tidied all of the borders , trimmed the edges & started to remove the long grass around a group of trees - still plenty more to do but the little mower may work once the long dead grass has gone, if only I can start it.
I watered with the annoying hose pipe that comes off the tap in full flow, got the washing in & then it was dark by 8.15pm - I am always surprised at how quickly the "nights draw in2 as summer comes to an end.

Lots on tomorrow - coffee with Phil in his new home, a visit to Knowle Auction house, an appointment at the bank & J & Th to pick up from school..
I need to take Phil a cake, so had better get up early, bake & iron, before I go out.
   

Back to school.

T & KP both looked brilliant this morning in their new uniforms - shirts tucked in & KP in a skirt!
They were pleased to see their friends & looking forward to the day.....& lunch!
Aj & I had  coffee then pottered around Bicester, then on to Kenilworth en route home.
We had a snack in the Kingsway café - a café run by Christian volunteers for the local community, had a potter around the shops & then on to Kingsbury for Aj to collect her car & get off to York .....two days late!
I came home, had a nice cup of tea & had a sleep until tea time.
I've caught up on e mails & watched Doc Martin on TV - the wedding.
I have to make the bed up - I wish I'd remembered sooner!

Hot hot hot!

That's aj's car - she left for home yesterday afternoon & reached the M42 before the radiator sprang a terminal leak & warning lights flashed.
she made it back to Kingsbury Garage, where I picked her up at tea time.
Consequently, we are both in Bicester, having had a good day in Oxford with T & KP - the last day of their school holiday.
We travelled on the upper deck of a double decker bus, visited the Ashmolean, had a McD Happy Meal (of course)  & pottered around the back streets, looking at colleges & beautiful buildings, before the return journey.
We are all pretty tired as it has been a warm, close day & we've walked a fair distance.

The birthday lunch on Sunday went well - the greandchildren all played together brilliantly after being car parking attendants in the field, all wearing hi vis jackets.
It was great to see all of the "sons" & partners/wives together - only three of the eight offspring absent.
Not bad considering the pressure on time in the summer months.
We had a final evening with W, Mk & family before they left for the airport after lunch on Monday.

Life will return to what is now "normal", by Thursday - at least the lawns haven't grown, in fact they look pretty good. much to the surprise of a few friends.

Three services to prepare for Sunday & cakes to make.