Thistledown and Ice Cream

 Schools are finished for the long summer holiday so I expected the weather to turn wet and horrible this weekend. And sure enough,  thunderstorms are forecast for Monday and showers all next week - I'll get those cards made that were on yesterdays post! Thank you for the comments about them and to the many comments on my post about the Commonwealth war graves. Please go back and read them from around the world if you didn't see them all.

So what's been happening this week (After tennis) promised not to mention it again so it's whispered in small letters.

Last Monday was quite breezy and all day the garden was filled with thistledown and as it was hot doors and windows were open so very  soon there was nearly as many inside. The hedges, shrubs and cobwebs  caught so many and indoors they also found all the cobwebs that I miss - like under the wood-burner!

Here are a few caught on the cobwebs on the whirly washing line

On Tuesday a butterfly that hadn't visited so far this summer popped in. A lovely Comma and then  there was rain in the evening - not a lot but every little helps.

 

Great British Sewing Bee is back on TV. I watch in envy at what they can whip up in 30 minutes - it would take me that long to set up the thread!

On Wednesday I had the last of six in the arthritis management and exercise course. My knee is definitely feeling less painful - especially at night - but stairs will still be a problem - if I had any to use here. Starting in six weeks time I'm going to do another more general exercise thing for another six week course called something like 'move and thrive?' Free again and run by the same young physio fella and same exercises as the eight we've been doing but with a few extras thrown in - cycle and treadmill. I forgot to ask how long it lasts each time - much less than an hour I hope - not sure how I'll get on either. 

Friends from Essex visited on Thursday for a couple of hours. I don't see them as often as when Col was alive and we were at the smallholding- we had a good catch up as they hadn't been up since November.

Friday I decided on a trip down to the sea before the weather changes- hadn't been this year at all. I underestimated just how hot it was so after a walk along the prom - the big wheel was shut - I'm still waiting to go on it sometime, and  a whippy ice cream  I went into town where it was even hotter and popped into the huge second-hand bookshop where I found an old Nevil Shute book.

Then home again through the horrible roadworks over the Orwell Bridge - which have been holding people up for weeks.

No plans to go to Felixstowe again this year - it's not worth the hassle. The A14 has become a real problem - as busy as any motorway but only two lanes and numerous junctions, frequent accidents and incidents.

At home the garden was once again full of thistledown - I reckon it's coming from the huge field down the road that's going to be a building site sometime next year - unless the company that own it sell it on again. I know of two new new housing estates nearby where building work has stopped -money problems with both is supposedly the reason. The government say how many houses are needed and have to be built but when 100s are built at the same time there's not enough people to buy them! 

Whoop Whoop, new series of Karen Pirie starts on ITV Sunday evening!  based on a book by Val McDermid (I've never been able to get into her books for some reason) . Better re-watch the first series as it was on in 2022 which seems an age ago now.

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