Yawn Yawn Wakey Wakey 2025

Have had pizza, home made passata, plenty of garlic.... however, I look like I'm pregnant with triplet pizzas
Still sitting outside.
Marathon watering from the stream.
For the first time today, there are no clouds.

 

Sounds yummy @Penny_Forthem, I'd love to sink my teeth into a pizza right now as we've just had a thin day. Perhaps pizza tomorrow!

We've also done a marathon watering session tonight to empty two waterbutts in anticipation of the builder needing to move them tomorrow. He wants to investigate the roof downpipe's soakaway and check if it's properly fitted and piped away from the house. We've got four downpipes so four soakaways, one on each corner. Haven't a clue where the rainwater goes, hopefully down the hill!

Sounds really good lunches @Obelix-Vendée and @Busy-Lizzie, I'm quite envious, although I don't think I could manage four courses any more.

 

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Hello everyone. Welcome to another day. It was another toasty night but the fan helped so I didn't have too bad a sleep. I think I need to stop watching the news in the morning as it is enough to wear out even the most positive of us all.
Looking out of my window, there appears to be a bit of a breeze and the sky is pale grey. Not sure what that is presaging but I hope to do a bit more in the garden. Its green bin day tomorrow so I might even get my second green bin filled. I have a thuggish Japanese anemone which is striving for world domination and I need to show it who is boss!

 

@Penny_Forthem it sounds as if you and OH are enjoying yourselves and I could eat a pizza at any time of the day - not sure about the pregnancy aftermath though! I find that I just cannot eat the amounts I used to a few years back (which is probably just as well to be honest) and I prefer 'grazing' these days and only when I feel hungry. I only eat two meals a day.

 

Good morning to you all!

Lovely morning for a bike run with Fizz at 7am - it was already 22°C and 23°C by the time we got back (30 minutes). I need to vacuum and wash the floors before it gets too hot. There are a few black and white bunny rabbits that whoosh out from under the couch if there is a draught!!

A couple of swallows have come back and are swooping up and around. I wonder if they are looking for a final nesting spot.

I haven't actually seen many butterflies this year. I am sure that when I plant out my brassica next week, there will be the cabbage whites aplenty!!!

Not pizza today @Penny_Forthem but a tomato and basil open tart with some cheese to use up before it walks out of my fridge by itself!!

 

Thanks for your comments, everyone. It's interesting that now is a good time to spray.

My steps have sleepers bedded into a soil bank to create steps approximately. 3ft square, the depth of the sleepers. No cement, tarmac, etc. The ends of the sleepers butt against a wall on one side and a dry stone wall on the other, and have been down for about 20 years. I topped the steps with gravel and sprayed weed killer on them each year.

My bank is probably 200ft long, although I am not asking "the man" to strim the whole length, about 3/4 of it. I thought £30.00 per hour plus £10.00 for petrol and travel seemed about right for down here. There is a drop of about 4ft into my garden on my side and another drop of about 6ft down into the field on the other side. He will need to walk along the top of the bank to do the job, about 4ft wide. Not easy. I feel my problem is he did not seem to listen to what I was saying to him, he was focused on his own ideas of what he thought needed to be done.

Very hot here, it was 34o in the conservatory at lunch time. Too hot for me, watched Cricket 100 in the cool.
I phoned a friend who is waiting to go into hospital on Friday for a knee replacement. She is very nervous as she had an adverse reaction the the anesthetic when she had a previous operation. She has been on the weight control injections to get her weight down, she has lost 4st. so fingers crossed she will be OK during this operation. The siude effects of the injections are very unpleasant.
I managed to water the patio, conservatory and greenhouse earlier and picked my first half dozen ripe tomatoes. I also murdered 6 very young runner beans to have with my dinner in the evening. The first of this year's crop. Having had to untangle the hose and drag it the length of the garden, I was bushed.

It is overcast and pleasantly cool at the moment, but more heat to come later. Enjoy your days, everyone.

 

Good morning. Cool here at a mere 25C with clouds. The radar says it's raining but it isn't. I'm off to do some planting as I'd rather water plants in the ground than in pots where their roots can get baked by day.

No other plans other than retreat on Friday - national holiday for Assumption - and set to get to 39C again but feel hotter. The beaches will be rammed and I suspect tomorrow's SM raid will be a tad busy too.

Have to say pizza would be very low on my list of dishes these days but OH and Possum like them so they have them when I'm out at garden club committee meetings which end with a pot luck supper which can be interesting as my colleagues all like to be seasonl and inventive.

I hope your swallows do settle @Tui34. They're lovely to have around despite the mess. Ours do a lot of swooping early and late in the day when the insects are busiest and they eat lots of mozzies.

Good luck with all your excavations @lizzie27. Sounds complicated but comprehensive.

You too @Goldenlily26 with resolving your bramble problem. I hope you either find someone more sympathetic to your concerns or that you can keep an eye on this chappy and make sure he behaves. OH is currently clearing a huge bramble thicket that's taken hold between the veg plot fence and the perimeter fence. My knees were done with an epidural which should be less of a problem for your friend than a general anaesthetic.

Enjoy your day everyone, whatever you're doing.

 

Hello all.

I went out in my nightie to do a bit of watering before 8am after which it's forbidden. Then had coffee in bed.

Bedroom was cool last night because of the air conditioner, when we woke it was back to 28C, despite the fan. Can't leave the window open as OH gets bitten. He had put up a voile but the air conditioner tube needs to go out of the window, then the voile fell off.

We now have rain and thunderstorms forecast for after 4pm. They had cancelled them. I hope it's more rain than storm. However forecast was for heavy cloud but the sun keeps shining through. 32° at the moment.

 

Hello all, still trying to keep cool, waiting for the promised cloud and just maybe a sprinkling of rain. Temperature is 37 instead of 40 plus.
@Busy-Lizzie i to get badly bitten so we have mozzie netting at the upstairs windows and a plug in deterrent, we then leave the windows open for a through draft, it works well.

 

@floralies the netting was working. It was a kit with velcro that sticks on the window frame. French windows open inwards. Then it got so hot we wanted to use the portable air conditioner which has a big fat tube that you hang out of the window so the window has to be open but the netting was in the way. The Aircon is noisy so when I go to bed I turn it off and pull the tube out of the window and I shut the window now as the velcro got fed up with all the movement and fell off!

 

@Busy-Lizzie maybe time to invest in a new portable one that doesn't need a tube out of the window?

 

We have arrived!
The view from our little patio.

 

Beautiful @Penny_Forthem, but where are you? I knew you where going away for a short break for OH's birthday but I missed where you were going.

@floralies The air con is fairly new, we bought it for last year's heatwave and it was only that sort available around here. I've seen on Internet that there are tubeless one which aren't as good as they make the room humid, but I can only find them on American websites. I had an electrician round last year to see about a quieter wall unit but he said this cottage has very thick stone walls, extensions and different levels so it would be tricky and very expensive. They need to be vented to the outside.

It's been an HW day today. Hot but not as bad as yesterday or Monday. The forecast storms haven't arrived so far.

 

We have that sort of insect screen too @Busy-Lizzie and there's always one bit that fails to stick properly. I hope you get some cooling and some rain soon @floralies

No rain forecast here despite the radar saying it was wet so I went out to plant. Two hours of pottering about weeding (bindweed nightmare), planting, potting up and on with a teeny bit of rain but not enough to wet my t-shirt. Just as I was popping in two lovely fiery alstromerias it started to rain properly - enough to drip down my fringe - so I've come in and had a shower and scrubbed my feet.

Lovely view @Penny_Forthem Enjoy your visit and happy birthday to your OH.

 

I echo Obelix's sentiments, indeed a beautiful view wherever you are! Happy birthday to your OH.

I didn't sleep well last night because of the heat, despite having two opposite windows open to create a draught. You've started me thinking about getting an air conditioner although noisy ones would put me off.

The builder's cracking on with relaying the paving and has finished the steps and walls. I've had to empty my small greenhouse and small shed and will need to move everything out of the courtyard by Monday as that's his next area. It will all have to go on the front terrace as soon as the mortar has dried - don't want to lug heavy pots up steps to the back garden if we can avoid it.

I'm having my hair done tomorrow as we've our late friend's funeral on Friday. We've been asked not to wear black but bright summery clothes instead which I'm not comfortable with but will comply. I've got a plain dusky blue linen dress which will do, especially as it's forecast to be hot.