Saturday 27th June

Blog readers from countries that regularly have hot summers must be fed up with reading about our English 'heatwave'! So I'll apologise to them in advance - here are more words from the 'record breaking temperatures' of our unusual  week in June....................................

 It was a shock on Tuesday morning to find the water pressure was really low- down to a dribble - and then I found a text message from Essex and Suffolk Water saying there were problems in the area. That wasn't ideal to read on  what was expected to be a Very Hot day! Luckily when I make my evening coffee I always fill up the filter jug in the fridge so had plenty of water for drinking. Also still have water in water butts so used a watering can to fill the cistern for loo flushing - thankful for  a toilet with accessible cistern when the en-suite was changed.

The water was back to normal by midday for me and earlier in some places. The primary school was closed due to the water problems and the moans on the 'Next Door' website were ridiculous (People saying " they wouldn't have closed the schools in MY day" etc) but having children in school even for a few hours on a hot day without a water supply would have been a nightmare and there was no way of knowing when it would be normal again.

I went to the next village to see who turned up to the Over 60's Keep Moving Exercise group and most of those of us that did arrive decided it was too hot. There were a couple of the new people who reckoned it wasn't too hot but as they don't want to have any involvement with the running of the group they couldn't really complain! They've started their own group in their village anyway............... so can do what they like in the heat there!

The qualifying for Wimbledon (or possibly the Eastbourne tournament - as I'd been watching either/or depending who was playing) might have been affected by the heat too when their automatic line judge machine refused to work for several hours...........it wouldn't have happened if they'd still had human line judges! I do feel sorry for the poor ball girls/boys who have to stand there holding an umbrella over the players at the changeover breaks, it's about time someone invented a sunshade for their seats that could come up and cover them and then fold back down again while they were playing. 

It's been lovely to see Jack Draper back from injury and playing well at Eastbourne, he is the main "hope for the future!" Three British guys got through the Qualifiers for the Wimbledon main draw - well done to them. All together there are 21 Brits in the main draw, mostly qualifiers or given wildcards. Hopefully some will go further than the first round.

It all starts Monday.

Anyone else enjoy watching Countdown on Channel 4? The standard during this week of quarter, semis and final of this series was incredible. How the winner could get the conundrum in 3 seconds every time - I have no idea. 

Thursday was better with a nice breeze blowing through the bungalow with doors and windows open everywhere.  I got the few bits of ironing done and remembered ironing at the smallholding dressed only in underwear. I had the ironing board upstairs then and in a chalet bungalow upstairs was often unbearably hot. There's hardly any ironing now - I don't miss doing shirts.

Friday was the hottest day here for sure - even without a thermometer to tell me. The was no breeze and the air was just like a brick wall.

Wet tea-towels are my new keep cool accessory - draped over head and neck! I still have no fan - I did buy one a few years back when it was hot but it was so noisy and clunky I passed it to Son to sell at their yard sale. I'm sure fans just move the hot air around anyway.

There's a Sale Trail - garden/garage/yard sales in a nearby village today but doubt I'll go to look if it's still 30° +.

So that's the news from Mid-Suffolk-in-the-heat - with commiserations for people in New Zealand who are having a vicious winter.

Thanks for comments yesterday it was too hot to hold the lap top to reply!!

Have a good weekend. I'll be back Monday.

Other May and June Car Boot Finds

Apart from the £5 wasted  on the card making stuff, car boot sale finds  have been useful or interesting  and mentioned already but several times I've come home with nothing except knowing I've had a bit of early morning exercise!

There are just a few find photos that got left on the camera............

£1 for two pairs of ladies gardening gloves - Xmas presents for sister and sister in law to add to the hampers.

4 Plastic Sundae glasses were 50p each. 

The grandchildren have had "ice cream sundaes" from ice cream sellers that are just ice cream and a sauce. "That's not  a  sundae" I said, "One day I'll make you a proper ice cream sundae" . So now I can.  ( Except  when all 5 are here at once!)

Pack of razors 50p - I used to have an Electric Lady-Shave but it's recently died - it was only 25 years old! I need a new one.

A new pack of 20 notecards with The Edwardian Lady paintings were £1, from house clearance people again. They will probably be a Christmas present

Almost full pack of sponge scourers 50p.

That's about it.

Back Tomorrow

Library Van Cancelled

 I was hoping to pick up at least 7 books from the mobile library today but Rachel rang yesterday to say the van was off the road and wouldn't be round. She's put my reservations ready to go on the delivery van to Stowmarket Library where I'll pick them up next week.

I'd already run out of library books so had been reading from my shelves anyway - and had already finished this very old (1947) small book that had been on my shelves a while - but where from and why?

I answered the first question by looking at my accounts on Amazon and Abebooks and found I'd bought it from the latter last August. But Why? and How did I know or find out about it? Because it isn't even listed in Josephine Bell's list of publications on Fantastic Fiction.

Josephine Bell was a well known author of crime fiction from the 1930's to the 1970s and BLCC reprinted one of her books in 2020 but that doesn't explain how I knew about this book in 2025... it isn't even one of her crime fiction.

After a bit of googling I came across a mention of it on Scott's Furrowed Middlebrow blog  (much missed since he moved to Portugal) about his favourite books of 2024

This is part of what he said then..............

This is the first of Bell's non-mysteries I've read and I enjoyed it tremendously. Tracing the fictional mid-sized town of Haverington through the war, beginning to end, it offers a fascinating glimpse, á la Winifred Holtby's South Riding, of the practical logistics of wartime—accommodation of refugees, rationing, bombs, and all. Its flaw for me, probably introduced by a publisher who felt the logistics themselves wouldn't sell books, is a melodramatic romance element that's rather drab, but it's nevertheless a fascinating read.

That must be where I found out about it.

I enjoyed it too as the details about village life through the war and the machinations of the women in the WRVS is interesting. The in-fighting and back biting reminded me of the much more well known book 'Nella Last's War, The Diaries of Housewife 49'.

Now to pick another from my shelves to read....................

Thank you everyone for comments yesterday on the Art Exhibition. There were over 400 pieces on show so I only photographed a few.

Another hot one today - hope you are all managing to stay cool enough. I had the front door propped open for a through draught yesterday and couldn't believe the amount of traffic going by - I think everyone who would normally walk to school, shop, doctors etc was driving with air-con on to keep cool! Or maybe I don't notice it when doors and windows are shut.