This Week.................3rd Saturday in July

Many Thanks for comments yesterday.  The greenhouse looks good, I was a bit worried that it would stick out like a sore thumb in the garden but because its at the side by the shed it fits in well. 

Such awful devastation caused by floods in Germany and neighbouring countries and so many people dead. I joked about the yellow weather warning for rain here the other day but it looks as if those poor people could have done with some serious weather warnings over there. Although how they would have prepared for 3 months worth of rain falling in just a few hours I don't know.....It's frightening.

Flowers on the table this week are a cheap bunch of  Alstromeria from Morrisons padded out with bits from one of Hydrangeas........... the one that looked badly damaged by frost in early May.

 

I've now gone two weeks without swimming. Tut tut! although I'm only 2½ miles further away from the pool than I was at the cottage it feels much further and the amount of lane swimming sessions were cut  plus the price has gone up so I just seemed to go off it all. School holidays start next week so they will have more family sessions and fewer lane swimming opportunities. Despite the ending of regulations they are carrying on the same with booking for swimming at set time slots and restrictions on the changing rooms. Looks like they have no intention of getting back to pre-covid normal.

 

I've read a couple of books this week but given up on  more. Someone commented on the library book photo post that they had just read .........The Lip by Charlie Carroll and enjoyed it but I found it was about a young girl who had watched her mother jump off a cliff not long after her father died (at least I think that was the story - I might be wrong!). Decided I didn't want to read about her hiding and watching people even if the book brings attention to the difficulty of living in Cornwall when houses are so expensive caused by the incomers. Also gave up on Elizabeth Gifford - The Lost Lights of St Kilda and Rose Macaulay - Crewe Train.

 

On the other hand I enjoyed a book that wasn't in the library book photo because I picked it off the shelves in Stowmarket library after a blog post by new blogger Hilary (Trips, Books and Hedgehogs).

The book was  by Ruth Hogan - The Keeper of Lost Things. Fiction published in 2017.  Anthony Peardew was once a well know author of short stories and has spent half his life collecting and lovingly caring for things other people have lost. As he approaches his last days he leaves his house and the collection to his assistant Laura - giving her the task of finding the owners of all the Lost Things. This is a gentle story of co-incidence and serendipity which I enjoyed.

The other book I've read was one of Donna Leon's crime fiction books set in Venice......Falling In Love. I came late to this series and have only read about 8 out of 30, the library have lots more in stock and I tend to request one when I'm short of ideas for crime to read.

Now I'm reading quite a fat non-fiction book(unusual for me) it's called 'Islands of Abandonment' by  Cal Flyn.about................. abandoned places:ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man's lands and fortress islands - and what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its place.

 

It's always good to find people who like similar reading matter so I'm enjoying Miki's Blog "Farms on my Bookshelf"  She's written about Copsford, the book I thought was a lost treasure when I  found a copy  (it wasn't a lost treasure at all!) Here is where I wrote about the reprint.

It's handy being 3 minutes walk from the hairdressers as I can wash my hair before I go and then Kirsty can cut it wet which is so much better and costs me less than having it washed there. It needed cutting especially if the weather really is going to get warmer at last. I asked her what were their plans for next week when things could perhaps get a bit more normal, she said they've had no advice and really don't know what to do for the best and will probably go with whatever their customers want.

This week I am grateful for

• No problems with the greenhouse
  
• Enough fine weather to get the patio weeded
• Good books to read
  

Have a good weekend..............a heat wave is  forecast  for Suffolk (that's 3 consecutive days over 27℃ apparently) .............so  I shall go to boot-sales early then stay at home, slap on the Factor 50 and return bronzed and tanned on Monday! 

Sue

The Greenhouse

My neighbours at the cottage struggled for a week when they got their greenhouse and it nearly ended in divorce  but on Tuesday a man came and, all by himself, put up my greenhouse in just under 5 hours.

He said he'd been doing the job for 25 years so knew all the possible problems.

I've moved in the small bit of metal staging I brought with me, the 2 Pepper plants that aren't looking too bad, the 1 Aubergine which hasn't grown much, the straggly tomato and the Very Small cucumber plant that obviously didn't like being outside.

Next year I'll be all ready for getting started much earlier and the concrete base won't look quite so stark.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue 

 

 

Recent Car-Boot Finds

 Recent boot sales involved lots of looking but not much buying (good!) Firstly Needham Market on Saturday - not many people selling as rain was forecast yet again.

 I found a pretty silver Saxifrage for £2 which will go into one of the bowl shaped pots on the plant stand and the cheese grater (50p) I needed for grating the wax blocks to make some wax-wraps

 

The Sunday Car Boot at Stonham Barns was busier than it's been for several Sundays, there was bright sunshine early which must have drawn out the sellers. I bought this big new holdall to replace something similar that I used for clothes during the weeks in holiday lets as I don't possess a suitcase. I crammed so much weight in the old one that the handles broke.The old one had been Col's hospital bag - always half-packed right ready for all the trips he had in ambulances - so it had been around for several years.

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Also bought a small punnet of gooseberries for £1 (mourned the smallholding days when I picked lbs and lbs of gooseberries to sell!) to go in the freezer to add to the strawberries for better setting jam. I found a small oblong terracotta planter - meant for the plant stand but it looked all wrong beside the round pots so maybe not.

(must do something about the weeds on the patio!)

 

Finally (said I couldn't resist craft bits!)  I picked up these for 50p each. Each page in the pad of Hunkydory has die-cut card toppers and extra bits that fit just right on the pack of 20 cards - which are an unusual size.

 

Back Tomorrow

Sue