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

End of June Financials

The usual income of State Pension, Suffolk County Council Spouses Pension and interest on savings.

I'd hoped for a fairly low spend in June with only three known extras. The garden waste bin was up £2 on last year to £66 for the year - they empty every fortnight all year round. The car tax which suddenly appeared last year (previously the age and engine size of my car meant I didn't pay any) stayed at £20.The dentist was for a check up and x-ray and was £84 - he said a nine month rather than a six month check up would do, which is good. The regular expenses were Council tax, charity donations, phones and broadband, one lot of diesel for the car  and monthly electric bill. That lot came to around £550.

Food spending for home -already mentioned- plus  things for doing pickles totalled £106.93. There was also one meal out with YD and EGD, a KFC after the dentist and just the one whippy 99 ice-cream (sadly!)

Personal spending wasn't too bad (no books!), there was the annoying £5 wasted on the  card making kit, a hair cut and 2 new Puzzler books - I ordered a 16 x 16 Sudoku puzzle book online as there is only one of these puzzles in the Take-A Break Puzzler and I always turn to that page first. It takes me days to sort a 16 x16 so I think the new book will last me months!

Incidental spending was mainly small stuff including screen-wash for the car, sunflower hearts for the birds, a new plastic stool for the hallway (£4.99), bits for bathroom and kitchen- including useful car-boot finds - and the window cleaner came round (£10.00). While Amazon had their Prime Special Offer Days I bought Ecover Laundry Liquid and a different sort of Dishwasher Tabs. I'd almost come to the end of my last Smol orders - now cancelled due to their new delivery costs.

Small Savings..............

• Didn't go out much in the heat 
• Bread loaves from bread machine as usual 50/50 Wholemeal/white flour
• Washing machine used only twice a week
• Washing dried outside
• Raspberries from the garden ( had to stop eating them -  they were upsetting my stomach so they're in the freezer for adding to the fruit peel to make 'Compost' Jelly sometime)
• First cucumbers from the garden
• First courgettes   ""     ""  ""
• Dishwasher only used every other day.
• Taking advantage of the Amazon Prime-Days savings for a couple of things.
• Reading library books and from my shelves for free. I read 13 books in June - due to the heat!
• Useful kitchen bits..... scourers etc found at boot sales.
• New sunglasses from car-boot sale for 50p! (Still with their Asda George £5 label)

Next month...............

 July in 2025 was the month with the lowest spend, can I do even better this year? The only known extra is for Virus protection for the laptop - there are no birthdays or other big bills due and fingers crossed I won't need to spend much at all.............especially if we get more very hot weather that keeps me indoors rather than out on adventures.

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

An awful start to Wimbledon for British Players and Jack Draper had to pull out as he'd had a return of injury. Then there was the Cricket third test against NZ - another loss. Plus the brilliant Ben Stokes deciding to retire from International cricket.....with test matches against Pakistan still to come. Maybe the English Footballers will do better? 

Not much of a Summer of Sport to write about this year!

Back Tomorrow

Final Food Shop of June

Might as well do another food shop photo to round off the month................

The world and his wife were outside Aldi at 8am on a very hot morning waiting for it to open to get shopping done and home again.

I was there too - lots of empty spaces in the fruit and veg section due to a late delivery but I got the things on my list. I noticed the icecream/ice lolly freezers were decimated!

Left to right. Bunch beetroot £1.39, Tender-stem broccoli £1.45 (their heads of calabrese were looking sad and yellowing just like the week before).1Kg nectarines £2.39; 6 mini apples 99p; mango 69p (one of their on offer special 6 - they are usually 88p); 2  peanuts @ 59p = £1.18; crumpets 45p; 6 medium free range eggs £1.49; 4 pints semi skimmed milk £1.65; ground coffee 1 decaf and one normal @ £2.49p = £4.98; mayo 89p; and off the edge of the photo is a pack of six small packs of mini cheese bakes 99p.

Total for these was £19.19p

For the month ..............£50.42 + £13.35 + £19.92 + £19.19 = £102.88 - Much the same as May even though I'd been hoping for less.

With photos of the food shopping all month I could see what fruit and veg I'd had during the month, seems like a goodly mix.

 A Cauliflower.                                        Apples

Tenderstem broccoli                                Nectarines                                

Beetroot                                                   Strawberries

Potatoes                                                    Mango

Carrots                                                      Prunes

Cucumber                                                 Canned peaches

Salad Leaves

Head of calabrese

Peppers

Onions

Mange Tout

Frozen Sweet potato Fries

Frozen peas

Canned tomatoes

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

According to the Met Office forecast the exceedingly hot weather has gone and yesterday's high was 26℃ rather than the 37℃ of Friday. The coming week should be in the mid 20's too but  the long range forecast says we may well get another hot week in July.

Back Tomorrow

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.

Debenham Art Exhibition

As usual I went to Debenham Church to have a look around this years art .

Also as usual the sun was shining making a lot of reflection - so the photos are poor. I just took a few photos of those I liked the look of.

I went first thing Saturday and there are many red dots so Friday must have been busy with buyers which is good .

First one below  is  Helen Maxfield who always has Linocuts in all the local art exhibitions. Someone has bought several of her work here.

Colin would have liked this one below of horses ploughing - he preferred pictures with people in them rather than just views. These four  are water colours by Jim Lait except for the fishing boats which is acrylics.

Two watercolours below by Frances Barthorpe.

These two below are lino cuts by Gillian Thornton

Below in soft pastel is a very unusual view of trees called 'Just Look Up' by Teresa Seals.

I didn't realise this was paper collage until I enlarged it here and I've missed the number so not sure who it's by.

Love the colours in 'Autumn Squash' by Stella Burgess in Acrylics

Below.............I liked these miniatures in Watercolour and Gouache by Wendy Gooch. Anyone of them would have added nicely to my 'art wall' but not at £160 each. I looked her up online and she is well known in the world of miniature paintings.

The catalogue says this one below is a 'Reduction Lino Cut' . It's called One Sunday in Summer and is by Patricia Woodward.

Three fun chicken paintings. Watercolours by Claire Weeks

So many talented people!

It was so hot on Saturday morning that it even felt really warm inside the church- I was glad I'd found somewhere in the shade to park and glad to get home again.

Back Tomorrow

The Third Food Shopping Trip of June

Filling a blog post with shopping photos seems to have become a regular thing. That's the problem with not going very far or doing anything exciting.

So here it is ..........last week's  Aldi food shop and some things from Asda to get my £1 car park money back.

From left to right - pack of 4 nectarines £1.39;Cauliflower £1.19; Beetroot £1.39; Tin  Sardines 47p; Carrots 1Kg 69p; Potatoes £1.05; Butter £1.99; 400g Extra Mature Cheddar £2.49;  6 Eggs  £1.49. 2 Willow Spread @ 97p = £1.94; Castor sugar £2.25. Not in the photo are 1 dozen small bottles of lemonade that I keep in the car £3.58 - they will last until the end of the year or even longer.

Total £19.92

The Aldi shop came to several pence more than I wanted to spend because the calabrese that I'd planned to buy looked horribly yellow and unlikely to last long so I got a cauliflower instead (40p more). Their small 44p packs of carrots seemed to be very poor -  small  wrinkled things  - they wouldn't have kept well either and their baby potatoes (75p a few weeks ago) were only in larger packs for £1.05 - in fact their choice of potatoes and pack sizes was well down on the usual.

I'm not sure what had gone wrong at Aldi because as well as the calabrese head turning yellow and the small carrots looking old, when I started to cut into the cauliflower only a couple of days after purchase it was  going mouldy and black inside. I was only able to get one meal from it.

Usually their fruit and veg is pretty reliable - I wonder if they'd had problems with in- store temperatures. If they did last week it will be even worse this week because the extreme HOT 'Amber Alert' weather is due to land on us today. Yesterday wasn't too bad there was a bit of a breeze but  I was glad I didn't have to go far - just a 100yds up the road to get a much needed hair cut and then to the other side of the village to the pharmacy at the Health Centre. I took my bike - it was cooler than walking and it's downhill on the way home.

Stay hydrated folks - we're definitely not used to high 30's ℃

Back Tomorrow

The Summer Solstice

  I've now written about the Ogham Tree Alphabet and this book  many times on the blog. It's been very useful book for filling blog posts!

But there's one  plant mentioned in the book that I've not written about before...........The Heather.

Heather represents the Summer Solstice, which was yesterday and instead of a bright early sunrise with the heatwave there was mist hanging around and even some spots of rain just after 11.

1,920 × 1,080

Heather represents the letter U in the Ogham Alphabet and the number 18. It also means solitude.

Last September I took a photo of the glorious purple heather on the heath near Dunwich 

And picked a sprig for luck which sat on the dashboard in the car for the next month falling to pieces until I realised it would make a blog post.

Each heather plant looks like a tree in miniature, with a gnarled and twisted 'trunk' up to 18 inches tall. Bees love the nectar of heather flowers and heather honey is prized.

Back Tomorrow

Under the Weather...............

....................is, when you think about, a very strange saying . Most weather comes from above so we are always under it.

Anyway, I've been under it all week. Just feeling bleurgh...........not seasick (or any sort of sick!) like the original meaning................

The expression has maritime roots. In 19th-century sailing terminology, sailors or passengers who felt seasick or ill during rough, stormy conditions would go below deck to hide from the elements. By doing this, they were literally going "under" to escape the bad weather, which eventually transformed into the idiom we use today.

I even missed Keep Moving Group, which is complicated because at the moment I take the attendance chart, take the money and pass it to the Village Hall treasurer, buy/take the milk for coffees, find the meditation thing on the phone and lead half the exercises. I seem to be the only person who doesn't have holidays or Tuesday doctor/hospital appointments and goes regularly to the Group, so  have been lumbered with all the jobs. I took everything to the hall, apologised, and left it to everyone else to sort out and went home again!

Last weekend I mentioned hoping  the weather would be fine for the men's tennis at Queens club so it was on TV to watch  and it was fine and due to feeling grotty I was able to spend all afternoons watching it - which wasn't really as planned........................ I should be careful what I hope for!

Plenty of reading has been done too. I've now read all of the Inspector Ramsey books that Ann Cleeves wrote in the 90's before she wrote the Vera and Shetland series and read this...........

In this book the author does five walks around different areas of Suffolk and writes about the authors who've also walked/written/lived in those areas, from the C17 right up to date................

"...nor had I made allowance for the endless switchbacks and the roads reduced to single file and the mess being made of this part of Suffolk by the building of the Sizewell C nuclear power station.............the thousands of trees that have been felled............how to restore the generations of creatures that would have lived in them " Did they at least allow the archaeologists to have a look round?" I asked our taxi driver as we went past more skinned earth, more red and white tape curving in the breeze, and he said yes, they did, and very glad he was of it, the archaeologists being the only ones who drank, who needed lifts to and from the local pubs. Those building Sizewell C, he said put not a penny into the local economy:not in the shops, the pubs, or the restaurants. They sit in their block-booked holiday cottages all week then disappeared at the weekends..................."

 (it's the archaeologists who've kept YD in work and partly Son too of course! Local people have had a love/hate relationship with the Sizewell Power Stations since the 1960's. The only new shop to open in Leiston is one selling Hi Viz and work gear - while many others have closed.)

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

 

Anyway, I'm fine again now but still doing nothing because the much, much warmer weather that had been predicted for a week arrived yesterday. Positively HOT. I got the grass cut early and then stayed inside with the doors and windows wide and curtains closed. I watched young Arthur Fery get knocked out of the tennis. If I go out over the weekend it will be early - to an Art Exhibition in Debenham Church  and car boot sales too of course. The  semis and finals of the tennis to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the Wimbledon qualifying and the Eastbourne tournament on BBC red button next week .................by choice rather than necessity.