13 June 2026

Saturday 13th

It's been week of dreary weather, the heating clicked on most  mornings - which means it was very chilly. It soon went off again and wasn't needed for evenings - thank goodness.  I turned on the Queens Club Tennis on Monday but it was raining down in London so no play and a fair bit of rain there and here too on and off for much of the week. The water butts are all full and everything has had a good watering. Yesterday afternoon the sun came out at last and things warmed up to a proper June temperature.

BiL kindly came over to refix one of the curtain pole fixings that was pulling out of the wall. Glad to get that done - it was a two person job. If it had pulled right out it would have landed on my head while I was sitting in my armchair...........I might not have been found for weeks!

I finished reading this book of short crime stories - over 20 authors of crime fiction wrote new short stories in honour of Simon Brett's 80th birthday. He was president of The Detection Club between 2000 and 2015.



 The cold and wet weather means that as well as the baby Blue Tits on the header photo, who are now feeding themselves- I've seen Great Tits feeding their young and there are Goldfinches on the feeders almost all the time. I couldn't be bothered to go into Stowmarket  for market day to get sunflower hearts to refill so just popped to Debenham for the hardware shop (won't do that again - the sunflower hearts were a lot more expensive) and  returned the five library books I'd  finished as some had waiting lists. I also went in the Co-op and got another of the cheeses from the  Croome cheese company to taste test too. (They didn't have the Charcoal flavour........ maybe rural  Suffolk isn't ready for something that weird yet!) 

Hope to get to one or the other of the car boot sales at the weekend - it should be dryer and warmer.

With luck  I'll find something to write about for Monday.





21 comments:

  1. I hope you get to some car boots this weekend. There is a Charity shop one eafch month in Llandod now, so I will get along to that tomorrow. It starts at 10, so will go early. £2 to get in and "only" £10 a car, £20 a van now. They had started it with £15 and £25 but that is way too high, even though it's a charity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A 10 O'clock start is very civilised. They start at 5am here in summer - much too early for me!

      Delete
  2. Looking forward to your cheese report

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's another interesting named cheese - I'll open it soon

      Delete
  3. Yikes, having a curtain pole land on you while relaxing in your armchair is definitely not the kind of "impactful" afternoon anyone wants, so hooray for helpful brothers-in-law getting that fixed! It is hilarious that you mentioned the charcoal cheese because I would have been so curious to try that weird flavor too, maybe Suffolk just needs a little more time to catch up. Hopefully, this dryer weather holds out for you so you can hit up those car boot sales this weekend and score some great finds (and cheaper sunflower hearts for those hungry goldfinches!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just can't imagine eating a black cheese - so wrong!
      Still chilly here - it was supposed to warm up but hasn't yet

      Delete
  4. Like you we are still feeding the birds although we are trying to slowly cut it down. It’s just been so cold and wet and there are so many birds here raising young that we didn’t have the heart to stop it completely.
    Alison in Devon x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've cut right back to Niger seed in the feeder that only the finches can access and sunflower hearts in the starling proof feeder. That will do for summer.

      Delete
  5. Charcoal flavored cheese?? Off to google.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad your BIL was able to fix the loose pole fitting. He seems very capable. It is still hot here and I'm running the AC 24x7. Everything is parched and the pollen is high. Let's swap weather conditions!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He is just like his brother - Colin could fix anything and build etc. BiL has even more experience at engines than Colin had.

      Delete
  7. Good luck at the sales this weekend. I checked my library for that book but it's not there. I was surprised at how many books have the same title but were not the book you featured. Luckily, I could search other libraries in my area and it will be sent to my library soon. What a great library system I have! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love our library system too. With local government reorganisation here in a couple of years we are all worrying about what will happen.

      Delete
  8. As I write today is much warmer and drier, thank goodness. This has been a week, weather-wise! I have seen no goldfinches in the garden yet, though I put out a finch feeder containing some niger thistle seed so I'm hopeful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It took ages for the Goldfinches to find the Niger seed in my garden but now they have they are here almost all the time.
      Good luck with attracting them to your garden.

      Delete
  9. With all the things that need repair around here that require more hands or Im not yetveven aware they need repairingand if I thought too hard, I'd wonder why I haven't had more accidents! You're lucky your BIL offers to help. I appreciate my sister's husbands...his hasn't offered help but to be fair, he likely assumes my kids are available and he's got four busy kids.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have to ask nicely and wait for him to find a time as he's "always so busy" but he gets here in the end and usually stays for a cuppa.

      Delete
  10. You have some of the best pictures of bird at your feeders. Lately all we are getting is crows, and redwinged blackbirds. Greedy things that they are and eat all the food in the feeders in less than a day.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  11. A curtain pole landing on your head would not be pleasant!

    I do like the Croome cheeses I have tasted - they are far too more-ish! xx

    ReplyDelete