July Financial Round-up

Awful news of the tinder dry Heathland fire on the Suffolk coast around Dunwich. The caravan site where I stayed last year was evacuated and National Trust land and part of RSPB Minsmere destroyed. I hope they can get it under control. So much of the area along the coast there is heathland including a lot of land around Sizewell Nuclear Power Station!.....worrying times. My Youngest Daughter and EGD are about 5 miles south of the fires but if it got to them the power station would be in danger too. 'Luckily' huge swathes of land have been cleared for the new railway and  associated Sizewell C works between Leiston town and the fire.

*******************************

 State Pension is paid every 4 weeks and July is the month for me this year with two payments which always makes the bank balance look very good......for a while.

In 2025 July was my lowest spend month and I hoped for similar in 2026 as the only known extra above all the regular monthly outgoings was the virus protection for the laptop.

Just the usual income of State Pension, County Council Spouses Pension and interest on savings.

The regular monthly outgoings are Council Tax, Broadband and phones, diesel for the car, charity, the variable monthly electric bill, plus  the annual lap top virus protection those totalled  £413.

Smaller expenses were for a new frying pan - the second I've bought in a year as the first replacement was dreadful. Bits used in the bathroom, cholesterol reducing drinks and paracetamol in the 'Health' column and a few car boot finds for grandchildren, Sunflower Hearts for the birds and Finally I ordered a pack of six new filter cartridges for my water jug.

My personal expenses were just exercise group, a couple of secondhand books from the library 'For Sale' shelves and the new Black n' Red note book from a boot-sale (to use for accounts when I've finished the one in use) that I mentioned at the start of the month.

Food spending for at home was around £128 (including visitors), plus there was also some food/coffee out with and without family ..........so not a cheap month foodwise at all. 

image from google freepik

Pennies Pinched.................

• I've gone back to making 400g loaves in the bread machine rather than 500g, saving money and calories. Still 50/50 wholemeal/white flour and a good money saver.
• Climbing French beans from the garden
• Courgettes from the garden
• Cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse
• Beetroot from BiL's garden, I gave him a packet of seed and he sowed an extra row for me.
• Few figs from the garden before wasps moved in
• No books bought online
• No 'products' bought
• No clothes etc bought
• Used saved apple peelings and the too seedy raspberries to make 3½ jars of compost/mixed fruit jelly
• Saved all of 19p by clicking the "no hurry" button when ordering the water filter jug cartridges.
• Dishwasher only used every other day
• Washing machine just used once or twice a week and washing dried outside of course.
• Make sure to always get refund on car -park ticket by spending £5 in Asda when going into town.

And Looking forward........................

August is another month with only one known extra above all the regular payments, that's for half year sewer and water charges. Last year (and February this year) this was a big bill because I'd not realised there was a problem with the bathroom loo.....which I got fixed in March...........so hoping for something a bit smaller this year, although it's £97 for standing charges per half year without even using any water! Google AI tells me  the average cost for 1 person, with a water meter for water and sewer is between £350 - £450 per year, I hope I'm at the lower end of that total. "Water poverty" is counted as spending more than 5% of total income on water and sewer bills, and the way water bills keep rising and summer droughts, we'll all be there soon.

St Mary's Church, Barking (The One in Suffolk not Essex!)

 St Mary's Church Barking is at the end of  the aptly named Parsons Lane, a narrow road a mile from Needham Market, and is Huge, yet the actual village of Barking is over a mile away, set around a large green or Tye and has a population of just 400.

The reason the church is so big is because it once also served Needham Market which has always been a town. Later a Chapel of Ease was built in Needham to save the population the long walk. I wrote about St Johns Needham Market HERE way back in 2019.

A very wide central aisle, side aisles, Clerestory windows and side chapels, both with parclose screens This church has everything you would expect in a large  town church.

Including a Rood Screen still standing

The South side chapel has matching parclose screen

and on the other side chapel too, with remnants of colour

This could be the coffin bier that had to be pushed all the way from Needham Market along a causeway (corpse way?) for burials in Barking churchyard. The line of the path across fields out of Needham Market can still be seen on overhead views of the town.

The font has a Very fancy carved wood cover

Beautiful stitched altar cloth and interesting reredos set on the window sill of the East window.

It looks as if there was once a window here on the north wall of the Chancel.

Just one stained glass window in the church  - in the bell tower, seen through the bell ropes.

Huge old chest for all the parish treasures and records - three locks was quite common, therefore needing three key holders to be present.

It really is a surprise to get to the end of the narrow dead-end lane, turn a corner and find this huge church.

 

The 2nd and 3rd Food Shops of July

 I said "no more food shop posts" but the photos were there so might as well use them.....filling a blog post again.

Second food shop of the month was on the 11th

 Asda first then Aldi. I'd put ice packs in my cold box in the car so the Asda things were OK while I did a whizz round Aldi before heading home.

There were so many things missing in Aldi, which is unusual. I don't know if it was because I was so early or their deliveries were late or the shortages talked of  for months have finally happened.

1kg Nectarines £2.39; 6 apples £1.39;  6 ordinary meat sausage rolls £1.55; 2x dried prunes @ £2.49 = £5.58; 2 x decaf ground coffee @ £2.49 = £4.98; Extra Mature Cheddar 400g £2.49; Large pack of back bacon £4.69;  Tortilla chips 57p; Pack 6 mini cheese bakes 99p; Peanuts from car boot sale £2. Not in the picture are two things from Asda as they went straight into the freezer ...... Flora cholesterol reducing spread £4.60 and Linda McCartney burgers £2.48.

Total Spend £31.71.

I bought 2 decaf ground coffee as they've not had any the last two Aldi visits. I wanted Aldi's pack of 6 cheese and onion rolls but they didn't have them or the vegetarian frozen sausage rolls either - so got ordinary meat ones which aren't so good (I put in freezer and use two at a time as the main part of a meal with vegetables, they are handy for a speedy meal). I usually get a pack of the cheap  bacon bits from Asda, but they didn't have any so spent out more on a huge bacon at Aldi which I split into smaller packs before freezing.  All in all my spend was more than it could/should have been.

Just to make things worse the car-boot sale peanuts had to be thrown out, even though they were still in date. As soon as I opened a pack I could smell they'd gone a bit rancid, and one mouthful told me I was right. (No point keeping them to take back as the guy selling isn't always there and it's really a case of 'buyer beware'.)

 Running total for July £26.80 + £31.71 = £58.51

3rd Food shop on the 18th

All from Aldi. Carrots 44p; cherries 65p; mini potatoes 59p; nectarines £1.39p; 2 x peanuts @ 59p = £1.18p; pack 6 jammie cartwheels 99p; extra mature cheddar £2.49; multigrain crackers 85p; eggs £1.49; 4 pints semi skimmed milk £1.65p.

Lovely to get the cherries from the "supper six" fruit and veg offers, I love them but they are usually so expensive to buy. This packs usual price is £1.39.

Total spend £11.88

Running total £58.51 + £11.88 = £70.39

The 4th  July shop has already happened and photo to follow......maybe. I thought that would be the last shop but the birds have munched their way through all the sunflower hearts very fast so I need to go into town on market day and that means paying £1 for car park and having to spend £5 in Asda to get the parking fee back so there will be an extra food shop after all.

Library Book Photo for July

8 books of crime fiction that I'd reserved turned up all at once on the mobile library last week- Not cancelled due to excess heat this time....thank goodness.

I'm hopeful that most of these are readable, but there are a couple of new authors there ( I've already tried the BLCC by Joseph Shearing and found I didn't like it) and two books of short stories which are usually quickly read. Which might mean reading from my shelves before the mobile is round again toward the end of August.............depends how hot it is.................forecast is for high 20's ℃ or low 30's℃ this week again and into August, it's just so very odd.

I've still got 20 books reserved and waiting, either  for the library to get them into stock and/or for my turn on waiting lists. Several will arrive by the August van visit. What is really annoying is that some were so slow to be bought by the library that my reservation had 'expired' before they even had them in stock - and I've had to re-reserve. It means I went from nearly at the top of the waiting list to the end! I've now found out how to make sure that doesn't happen again.

 Last months library books were these two photos below and I read some but abandoned many for various reasons - usually they just didn't appeal once I got started. 

Details of all the books I read were copied from the July books read list onto last Wednesdays post  or on the separate 2026 page. I read one from my shelves, picked up another from library shelves when I took some back and another for 50p from the books For Sale library shelf.

The Tree Lore book didn't have any mention of  Horse Chestnut Trees to add to info for my Following a Tree posts and I flicked through Tonics and Teas but nothing appealed. Evergreen was yet another book I just skimmed through, it was about 'finding joy in the seasons'............. I wasn't in the right frame of mind!

Rain!

 The weather forecast was for possibly a few showers but actually we had several minutes of proper rain on Sunday morning.

Enough for it to run off the living room roof into my water butt. I filled up two watering cans and a bucket while it was pouring in.

Enough for it to run down the road - although not for very long

And then it moved away to the East, it looks as if further South and North missed out. Son and family were camping with friends in Norfolk, I hoped it stayed fine for them there.

After the rain stopped things warmed up again and now it's back to near heatwave conditions for the foreseeable - high 20's℃ all week and into next week too.

After my lunch as I was feeling better than I'd been for a  couple of weeks. I thought it was about time to up my game and went out for a bit of church visiting to make some future posts for the blog.

Horse Chestnut Tree Mid July

Despite our "prolonged dry weather - one step below drought conditions"  here in Mid-Suffolk, the Horse Chestnut tree I've been following through the year is still looking green and not much leaf fall......compared to the Lime trees in the Churchyard near me which have lost so many leaves already, they blow along the road in the wake of the cars and trucks, looking more like Autumn.

The conkers are getting bigger and it looks as if there will be plenty to collect later, although I don't think children play conkers anymore - it's probably too dangerous for the 21st Century!

The blotches of the Guignardia Leaf Blotch fungus disease on the leaves  (luckily not affecting tree health)  don't seem to have increased too much from my June photos, perhaps the dry weather has stopped it spreading. 

The photos from earlier months are HERE for comparison.

Apologies for lack of replies to comments recently. Still not much to write about so I'll be back Monday.

Car Boot Sale - £1 Spend

 Found a few weeks ago = Top Trumps Marvel Heros cards for next visit  of any of the Grandsons and brand new George (Asda) Sunglasses labelled at £5. Both of these were 50p each

The sunglasses are good but when MGS was here he said he'd didn't like Marvel Super Heros anymore! 

 Eldest daughter and the boys stayed  by the coast for a couple of nights and then came here for a night before heading back to Surrey for their hectically busy summer holidays. Neither OGS or YGS were into Super Heroes either - 50p wasted! It's complicated keeping up with changing favourite things!

YGS  is off to proper school in September. That's all five at school between reception and year 6 and all growing up so fast.

 

I've Been Reading

 The July list copied from my Books Read 2026 Page...............

• Dorothy L Sayers - The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. Crime Fiction (Published 1928) Lord Peter Wimsey finds the body of ancient General Fentiman. How did the General die, who is Mr X why  is he difficult to find and which of the General's heirs, also members of the Bellona Club, is lying.
• Heather Peck - Death on the Norwich Express. Crime Fiction Novella. (Published 2024) A DCI Greg Geldard story. The sudden death of the passenger in the seat opposite seriously disrupts DS Chris Matthew's journey home.
• Carlos Whittaker- Reconnected. Non Fiction (Published 2024) In the summer of 2022, podcaster and author Carlos Whittaker spent 7 weeks entirely screen free splitting his time between a monastery, an Amish Farm, and home with his family. A mix of experiment with guidance ideas.
• Heather Peck - Secret Places. Crime Fiction. (Published 2021) This is the first in the DCI Greg Geldard Series and is set in Yorkshire and then in Norfolk. A chance visit by archaeologists to her smallholding uncovers an old secret bunker and a skeleton. Tristan Smith , goat farmer, cheese maker and weaver knows it is nothing to do with her but tracking down the previous owners takes Greg down to the Norfolk broads.
• Sara Woods - Bloody Instructions. Crime Fiction. (Published 1962) The first in a long series of books about barrister-sleuth Antony Maitland and his Uncle Sir Nicholas Harding. Who stabbed mild mannered solicitor James Winter and why do two accounts of people seen entering the building seem to differ?
• Rhys Bowen - The Rose Arbor. Crime Fiction (Published 2024) It is 1968 and a village, abandoned since the war, seems to hold a memory for Liz Houghton, a journalist who accompanies her police friend Marissa to Dorset in the hopes of finding a missing girl or details of other children missing since wartime evacuations.
• D.E.Stevenson - Kate Hardy. Fiction. (Published 1947) The arrival of writer Kate Hardy to the Dower House in Old Quinings has the whole village talking. Kate bought the house without visiting and is escaping from her selfish sister and niece. She is welcomed by many including Mrs Stack who helps with the cleaning. When Mrs Stack's son Walter returns from the war he finds readjustment to village life very difficult but finds a friend in Kate.
• Jessica Mann - Funeral Sites. Crime Fiction (Published 1981).Phoebe Britton dies in an accident in the Swiss Alps but that doesn't stop her husband, Aiden, on his progress to being Prime Minister. After her funeral her sister Rosamund realises just how far her brother-in-law will go to secure his ambition. Rosamund has to go on the run as she has information about something that happened when Aiden was at university twenty years earlier.

Not Much Happening

 I'm going to have a bit of a break from blogging until I can think of something more exciting than a picture of shopping!

Sport Report Catch Up

I forgot to mention yesterday about the final days of Wimbledon. The Wheelchair Men's Doubles final gave Brits Alfie and Gordon another title - well done them. I think that Alfie was then exhausted for the singles final as he was beaten by Tokito Oda the number one seed in two easy sets.

Brit Henry Pattern was one of the pair winning the Men's doubles with Finland's Harri Heliovarra. There was talk of doubles matches getting less coverage ...........

In July 2026, the ATP Tour proposed controversial sweeping cuts internally termed "Product 28" for implementation in 2028. The plan could slash doubles draw sizes in half and heavily reduce the revenue share for doubles players to reinvest in singles.

As someone said......  playing doubles is what most people do in clubs and schools and is still popular to watch at the Slams. It's all about the money. 

The men's final on Sunday was a tough match for both men I think, as it went to tie breaks in the first two sets, then Jannik Sinner seemed to dig in and won the next two sets to retain his title from last year. I don't know if Sacha Zverev was affected by a nasty fall, he said he wasn't but ..............

And I heard that Andrew Castle and John Lloyd who have been rolled in as BBC commentators every Wimbledon for donkeys years are being pensioned off - I didn't mind them but I know some people weren't keen.

So all over for another year 😢

Just that football match tomorrow night then - and that will (probably) be the end of my Sports reports 2026 except for  the cricket test matches against Pakistan next month.

BUT Only Connect and University Challenge were back last night for quizzy Mondays - so it's not all bad news!

Books for the Country Diarist

 Short of things to write about on the blog so here's another list of reading ideas from the Country Commonplace Book by 'cosy' youtuber and book reader Miranda Mills. (https://www.youtube.com/c/MirandaMills) She's much too cosy for me to watch more than a minute! I won't be buying her second book.

I've only actually read two of these although once owned two others and I have read Mark Cocker's second diary about Claxton ( Still own a copy of  A Claxton Diary). 'Country Diary of an  Edwardian Lady' is everywhere secondhand and I still have a copy here. The two old diaries by the clergy are classics but I'm afraid I've not read either. 'All Around The Year' by Michael Morpurgo was a good read from not so long ago when Little Toller Books reprinted it. 'Notes from Walnut Tree Farm' is one I ought to have read as he lived not far from here. We had a copy once  and I'm sure Colin read it years ago.

Like the other lists in Miranda Mills' books I don't know her criteria for her choices. I'm sure over the years I've read many other diaries about country life.

Random Round Up of a Hot Week.

First of all apologies for the comments I didn't get around to replying to....The day just went.......whoosh!

It's quite strange in this country to go to bed knowing the next day and the one after and another after that will be dry and sunny and even more unusual to know it will be really hot. 

This week has been like that and more the same for next week too - I am thankful to be able to do very little - even avoided going out really early for shopping. I was sad to have to cancel a lunch with cousins but the heat is getting to me more this year than ever before.............an age thing I guess.

The dustbin men have been starting work early due to the heat and my bit of the village is one of their first stops so they've been coming not long after 6am but it wasn't them that woke me on Wednesday morning, instead a man on a ride-on mower went into the churchyard to do the paths - I looked at the clock - just after 5am - he really did want to get it done early!

We got through the exercises at our Keep Moving Group. .......all windows open and much water drunk. Two other ladies led the exercises - it was too hot for me. I set up my phone for the 10 minute meditation and then went and sat out in the porchway to cool down. Several people have dropped out recently - perhaps it's only because of the heat and holiday season - I hope they return.

As I shut the living room windows very late Thursday evening I noticed a sort of dark patch on the grass(not good enough to call it  a lawn) so went out to look and YES - a hedgehog, first I've seen here in 5 years.  

I have 10 billion wasps eating the pears on the small pear tree - there were lots of pears - soon there will be none.

The climbing French beans are producing a few beans - very tasty.

I've not done a Being Grateful list for ages....... since March in fact, but this week I'm grateful for..... 

• Enjoying watching tennis on TV without having to be there in the heat.
• Being retired and not working in the heat.
• Stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer so I didn't need to go out shopping ....in the heat.
• The library books that I have here to read, indoors out of the heat.
• The bread machine that makes my bread so easily even when the weather is  hot.

Bit of a theme there!

Not sure if anything is happening this weekend but tennis is on TV for sure although Arthur Fery's  brilliant run at Wimbledon was ended by Sascha Zverev who's 6 foot 6inches tall with a massive serve  and - hooray- Jannik Sinner beat  Djokovic  setting up the Sunday final that I have no idea who will win.

 At 11am in the men's doubles wheelchair finals Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid are aiming for yet another title to add to the 24 they already have!

And there is a football match tonight - but it's after my bedtime again.

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

Imitation is the Greatest Form of Flattery

 Actually the saying should be 'the sincerest form of flattery' but either way this is what my Mum used to say when my little sister was doing that awful copy cat thing - repeating everything I did or said OR when I moaned about someone at school getting the same something or other.

Here it's me copying Sue in Lancs as I'm extremely short of bright ideas for blog posts.(Sorry Sue!)

Sue's post was through her day in photos...........and here's my day - Wednesday-  in photos.

Washing out early...........

Greenhouse stuff watered early too............

Breakfast of prunes and nectarine, marmalade on home made toast and a frothy coffee. 

( I got worried one day this week when my frothy milk poured onto my coffee just sank and vanished. I found myself googling "why is the frothy milk not staying frothy?"...............and thought........... good grief woman.... what a trivial First World Problem!)

Wordle in 3.

Ingredients in the bread machine 50/50 wholemeal and white flour.

Main meal...... half of my homemade pizza with salad of lettuce, cucumber and courgette (softened in the microwave) with balsamic vinegar. I drink just water with my main meal.

Bread out of the machine.

Watching the brilliant tennis

And then.........................

........................... I forgot to take any more photos....duh! but I had  a coffee - decaf un-frothy - and biscuit mid afternoon, the rest of the pizza with an apple later. 

Then couldn't resist taking a slice off the new made loaf, very soft and difficult to cut,  and having a holey peanut butter sandwich for my supper. With more coffee - again decaf un-frothy.

The washing dried easily, was got in and sorted and I watered the greenhouse stuff again late evening.

Then I went to bed with one icepack wrapped in a tea-towel and my two cooling gel pads which had been in the fridge all day.

Today it's THE semi final, there are two but only the first has a young British  guy playing! As for the second SF - it could be either of them but Djokovic is desperate for a record breaking slam win and I think he'll somehow beat Sinner.

The 'Fery' Tale Continues!

 That is the most dreadful pun which they used on the BBC and I'm sure will be sports page headlines today.

So well done once again to Arthur Fery who beat Flavio Cobolli in three straight sets to win and get himself into the Semi Finals. The third set was odd as Fery won 6-0 which seemed much too easy, almost as if the Italian slowed down and gave up.

He plays the  German, Sascha  Zverev on Friday. Zverev is second seed, much more experienced, so it will be a "whole different ball game!"

Sorry!

Nothing else to write about. Too hot to think yesterday, but thank you for all the comments that I didn't get around to replying to. Supposed to be even hotter today.

A Nice Find

 I love these Oxford Black n' Red note/account lined books - they have hard covers and are casebound like a book so last well and are very expensive if bought in a stationery shop.

I found this one for 50p...car boot sale of course. The person selling had lots of new stationery items but nothing else I needed  or even wanted.

It's A5 and will be my new accounts book when I have filled up the one I'm using.

Stowed away I have one of their books with the A-Z pages and when I get around to it I shall copy all the 1,000s of books in my old and tatty Book-of-Books-Read into the new shiny one but as that will be a job taking weeks (months?) I've not started yet.

******************

Yesterdays tennis saw Sinner win easily but Djocovic had to battle through 5 sets, including tie-breaks, and I thought he was going to start moaning again as he started to limp and had the trainer on.

Today it's Arthur Fery playing again - can he get through? We shall see. He is playing someone he has previously beaten so there is hope. I'd missed seeing Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool are into the quarter finals of the men's doubles, that's today too and Henry Pattern and his Finnish partner, who are ranked#1 are already through to the semis. I've been watching mostly on Red Button for choice of courts and that means I seem to have missed the newsy bits that are between matches on BBC1 and 2. 

June Library Book Photo - Several Days into July

Blimey yesterday was HOT AGAIN! Even the breeze was hot. Set to be the same all week - too much for me now - funny how not so many years ago I loved the heat, now I can only tolerate it by doing nothing. Although I did get started with another batch of compost (AKA mixed fruit) jelly, to be finished today once the sun had gone from the kitchen window.

As I mentioned before, the mobile library was cancelled two weeks ago due to the heat but Rachel rang and said she would send my reservations to Stowmarket Library for me to collect but when I went into town a week later they still hadn't arrived. Of course notification arrived the next day to say they'd finally got there (the afternoon after I was in town of course!)

I did a detour on my way back from visiting YD and picked them up. More non-fiction than usual and only two crime.

On the top is a book I reserved out of curiosity after reading Deborah's (Country Ways and Cottage Days) post about the Welsh herbal online course she is doing (and I hope she is OK as she's not posted for several weeks).

Then left to right ............. Tree Lore ( no idea why I reserved this as I've got several 'tree' books of my own). Dean Street Press have reprinted many of Sara Wood's crime fiction, dating back to the 1960's. I read some of her later books as she was still writing well into the 1980's . I suggested the library buy some and they bought the first one, saying that if I liked it I could suggest they buy more!

'Theo of Golden' is another book that I have no clue why I reserved it - did someone mention it? did I read about it somewhere and what the heck is it about anyway? I'll let you know.

'Secret Places' by Heather Peck, I plucked from the library shelves having found her novella in this series to try when I was there last week. It was a good short read so I looked to see availability of her other books and spotted Stow had this one on the shelves.

'The Enchanted April' by Elizabeth Von Arnim was suggested to read after I read 'Elizabeth and her German Garden ' in May.

'Evergreen' by Lydia Millen is "Inspired by the seasons, 'Evergreen' is the essential guide for anyone who is looking to bring more joy and more happiness into their everyday."

I'll let you know how that pans out too!

'Reconnected' by Carlos Whittaker. He is an American author, podcaster, instagrammer etc- well known apparently - I'd never heard of him. After working out how many hours, days and years of his life he spends connected to a screen he tries 7 weeks without a phone - two weeks in a monastery, two more weeks  on an Amish farm and four weeks at home.

I've started this already and he makes some good points.

There are already five books for me sitting in the mobile library depot ready for the July visit to the village....all crime....good.

***********************

What an A -MAZ-ING game of tennis yesterday evening. Arthur Fery just kept battling and took it to the 10 point tie-break in the 5th Set and WON! So exciting to see, although I hardly dared watch at the end . He plays Flavio Cobolli in the Quarter Finals on Wednesday, someone he has already beaten this year in the first round of the Australian Open.

Looking forward to it.

Meanwhile it's back to the other half of the draw with Jannick Sinner and Djokovic playing. I expect both to win their games and meet in the semi finals.

First Food Shop of July

 This shopping-photos-to-fill-a-blog-post is getting to be a regular thing - I'm just not having enough adventures and with the weather forecast telling us we are in for another week of very high temperatures I doubt I'll be going far this week either.

At least last weeks trip to town was a few degrees cooler than the week before. I went to Aldi first on my way into town and then into town centre for a couple of things including the library, then frozen stuff from Asda that I didn't want to get at Aldi as it would have been in the cold box (even with ice-packs) for a bit too long..

Some things are rather hidden in the photo but this is the complete list...roughly left to right......... Aldi's calabrese still looked yellowing like the last couple of times I've been in, so I got a savoy cabbage instead for the weeks 'greens' 79p; 6 apples £1.39 ; 4 wholemeal baps 69p; pack 2 little gem lettuce 49p; cooking chocolate £1.59; chocolate chips £1.19; cheap choc chip cookies 65p; 3 peanuts @ 59p =£1.77; Soy sauce 55p; tin plum tomatoes 43p; 4 pints semi-skimmed milk  £1.65; Strong white bread flour £1.09; Packet jaffa cakes £1.00; Extra Mature Cheddar cheese 400g £2.49; Soft cheese 89p; 2 packets Colmans cheese sauce mix @£1.00 each = £2; Brown Sugar £1.64; 1Kg Nectarines £2.39; Frozen Fish in batter pack of 4 £2.49; Ice cream £1.62.

Total Spend £26.80

*****************************

Two really good games at Wimbledon on Saturday - there were probably more but these were the two I properly watched. First Arthur Fery battled his way to a win, coming back from being down so many times and finally winning in 5 sets. I think they said the first British Wild Card to get through to the 4th round  in many a long year (or maybe ever- they had too many stats to remember!) Then the Dimitrov/Berrittini match was equally good, I didn't really mind who won.

On Sunday Djokovic won again of course and then Jannick Sinner got through - again not easily. Today Arthur Fery plays Grigor Dimitrov who is getting back to playing after a year of injuries. It could be one-sided as Dimitrov is so experienced or Arthur - who is 12 years younger might be able to play really well again.  

I didn't stay up for the England/Mexico match - I'm not silly! But was amazed to wake up this morning with the radio telling me England had somehow managed to win. That was a nice surprise, I didn't think they stood a chance as Mexico had never lost a game playing in their National stadium.

*************************

I saw my 9 year old EGD yesterday, a month ago we were practising her times tables ready for a test and she did well - getting all right. She wanted me to write some for her to do again but she got the answers quicker than I could write the numbers! I'm glad they learn times tables to be able to get the answer straight away, as we did back in the 60s."Off by heart" we called it. It went out of fashion when my lot were at school. It's quite a useful thing to be able to do at any age, unlike some of the things we did in Maths which were never used again!

Random 'Stuff' on the First Saturday in July.

 Bit cooler earlier in the week so we managed to get through the  exercises at Keep Moving Group. I led some and thankfully another lady stepped in to lead the second half. I just get so hot - my internal temperature gauge is hay-wire!

About 5 months ago the neighbours behind me had scaffolding put up and some guys came along and took down the chimney and then put it back up again. They also took off some of the tiles in various places and replaced felt and batons underneath. They came back weeks later and took off the ridge tiles and then cemented them back on again, took off tiles in another place and then put them back. Then they vanished for months. This week in the heat they (or someone else) came back and took down the chimney and rebuilt it Again. With my living room windows open to keep cool I had a continuous background chat from up on the roof....it wasn't very entertaining but I was glad they didn't have a LOUD builders radio like last time.

It might not seem like it but I have done some housework in between the tennis watching. With windows open so much the window sills get really dusty and lots of flies come in leaving their mark on the windows. The window cleaner only does the outside so it's up to me to do inside.

Another week of hot weather is forecast for next week - no rain. Water butts were all empty again and I've filled up the biggest from the mains. I'm glad I've not grown so much in the greenhouse this year, watering cans seem to be getting heavier as I get older.

Finally.................What's happening at Wimbledon? Last man standing - Arthur Fery  plays this afternoon and the Dimitrov/Berrettini match should be good. Djokovic and Sinner are in the same half of the draw so will meet up in the semis next week? maybe? if they both win Sunday and their quarter finals. I'm so missing Alcaraz and Jack Draper!

I've looked to see what events are on over the weekend but seems to be mainly music festivals, so probably just car boot sales for me then. Oh, my library books finally got to Stowmarket library so I need to go and pick them up today or tomorrow. 

Have a good weekend I'll be back Monday.

(Happy 4th July to readers in the USA - some sort of celebration for 250 years I hear - hijacked or not?!)  

 

Had to Choose From The Shelves.

 I took my last two library books back to the library in town and thought my reservations sent on from the mobile would be there, but they hadn't arrived, don't know why as it's a week ago. Instead I hunted the shelves and picked up five books in the hope that maybe a couple might be OK.

Dorothy Sayers - The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Ian Samson - Essex Poison, The Woman in the Wardrobe by Peter Shaffer; Black Sheep by Susan Hill and Death on the Norwich Express by Heather Peck. I've tried Ian Sansom's books before - he wrote a series of crime on mobile libraries which might have been good but the one I tried was dreadful!  and the one by Heather Peck is one of those printed on demand books from Amazon, it looks like a short quick read. The Crime Classic didn't ring any bells but yes, I'd read it already.

It was very hot and stuffy in the library and by the time I got out it felt just right to go in the Osier Cafe in the Church  which is just across the churchyard from the library and get a cool drink.......and a cheese scone of course. 

I read 13 books during June - due to the hot weather and the week feeling ugh. I don't think the July list will be so long. I read three from my shelves after running out of library books but then abandoned three others before I could find one to get into. I've started a collection to go off to World of Books or Ziffit or whatever they are called now - just need to find a suitable cardboard box. I've obviously not been ordering enough 'stuff' from Amazon!

*************************

 Arthur Fery was the only Brit getting through to the third round in the Men's Singles, sadly Jacob Fearnley  and  Jan Choinski were knocked out as was Katie Swan.

 

Another Bundle of Someone's Leftovers!

 I fished these things out of the boxes of one of the house clearance people who were at the nearest car-boot sale on Sunday - they are always at Needham Market but not often at Stonham.

There are two packs of small freezer/sandwich bags - handy for keeping things like an opened pack of cheese in the fridge. Two part used packs of scourers and a new and sealed box of 100 Twinings Breakfast Teabags. I paid £2.50 for the lot.

All useful although I've gone right off tea while the weather is so hot......I'm OK with coffee (and lots of water). It's a good thing teabags keep for years because this is the second lot I've found this year and I already had a big box in the cupboard.

*************************

The only Brits playing yesterday at Wimbledon were in the Men's Doubles. I watched Dan Evans and Henry Searle  lose and but missed the other pair winning then saw Sinner win although I wouldn't say he won comprehensively. Decided to be patriotic and watch football instead, except England were so bad I gave up at 70 minutes and went back to tennis. Then I heard huge shouts and cheers from somewhere in the houses behind me and knew England had scored and then again a few minutes later - a win then................ eventually. I see they play Mexico at 1am our time next Monday, actually in altitude in Mexico City - it will be deafening and England have no chance! 

Back to tennis and geared myself up to watch moany Djokovic play in the hope he would be beaten by the Greek Tsitsipas.............He wasn't.

My latest Pet Hate (and there are many!) is the interviewer after the matches saying "sum up your emotions!" .....Every.........Single........Time.......Grrrrr.

Sweet and Sour Cucumber Pickle

It was a case of use them or lose them because last week there wasn't just 1 cucumber from the greenhouse...................

or two........................

or three......................

but four!

So I bought Cider vinegar and  some celery..............

And turned the largest three cucumbers, one and half bottles of vinegar, some of the celery and a large onion into 5 jars of Sweet and Sour Pickles.

The recipe is on the separate Recipe page. I didn't put mustard seed into the mix this year. Trying to avoid things with seeds in.

Despite giving the 2 cucumber plants in the greenhouse plenty of water, they've started to shrivel. Perhaps the extreme heat has done them no good at all and there might be a shortage of cucs later.....typical.

********************************

Another bad day at Wimbledon. I think just two men through to the second round, I lost track when I abandoned watching for a while  to watch the first two of the new series of Countdown. They used to take a break for summer but now roll right on. I worked out I've been watching this words and numbers game since about 1986. I had a small portable black and white TV in the kitchen and used to watch while getting a meal ready for the children..... it was on at 4.30pm back then. I didn't know what colour their set was until many years later!

Back Tomorrow