Its hotter than ever before. August 12th 2020

 Its hotter than ever before. August 12^th 2020

 

 

I am sitting here in a 30 degree heat waiting for a storm and hopefully some rain to hit Marlow. The thunder has been rolling around in the valley for about an hour and the ominous looking skies over Maidenhead / Cookham way are moving towards us. However I have a feeling that we are once again going to miss out on a good drenching and cooling rain. Which means dragging the hose up the garden again tonight to tend to the parched and dying plants.

 

What’s been occurring let me think. Joyce came to stay with us for a week, which was very nice. We went to the Abingdon arms near the RSPB Otmoor reserve and had a fabulous lunch outside of course. We have done quite a bit of socialising with the neighbours, popped into see Rhiannon on one of her brief visits back here from Tenby and had some people round for supper. We have also been eating out to help out, once at the Crooked Billet (not so good) and once at the Kings Head. Bargain lunches worth making the effort to go out as long as the places are abiding by the rules. Some places are not and it’s going to come back & bite us.

Coronavirus is kicking off again, ok so not in a big way as before but as soon as the pubs opened the idiots were out in force and I have to say its them youngsters again, without a thought for us oldies, they think we have had our lives well sonny Jim just you wait until you are my age then you will realise. We had more respect for our elders when I was that age. Etc etc.  Victor Meldrew.

Some towns have been locked downish mainly up north but Swindon is hovering around the danger zone.

 

We went to Ikea the other day, quite pleasantly surprised by the hygiene standards. Banisters constantly wiped down, handrails and every available touchy surface was constantly cleaned. I hard hardly squeezed myself out of the toilet cubicle before the girl was in there scrubbing and spraying after me and I only had a wee honest.

Well we managed to buy a lot of stuff that we didn’t know we needed and they didn’t have the things that we did need. I had these lovely blue glasses from there and tripped up the garden step one evening, as I am prone to do and broke them. No at this stage I had not been drinking, that was later. Sadly they did not have these in stock but I managed to get some on line later.

 

Weather update, friends in Bourne end, Booker and High Wycombe all reporting heavy rain, flooding, thunder and lightning. Still no rain here, plenty of thunder and lightning though.

 

We have had extraordinary weather this August (up to 12^th); the Monday that Joyce arrived it was pouring with rain miserable and dull, by the end of the week it was so hot we could not go out anywhere. A morning walk was manageable but then it was too warm. Since then it has got hotter and hotter. Yesterday was the peak. Liz & Ray came for lunch and we ended up sitting up the top of the garden under the trees to keep cool. I still don’t want people in the house if at all possible. People say they have been careful and then whist talking to them you find out they have been here there and everywhere and inside others houses.

We have done our fair share of socialising but always with the same group of people and never indoors.

The kitchen thermometer has reached 31 degrees, the temperature up stairs at 10.30 pm is 29. Its up to 36 outside. All the windows and doors are pinned open to allow any breath of air to enter. We had the fan on in the bedroom the other night and I went in find Willow sitting on the end of the bed facing into the full force of the breeze. Hilarious.

We also had to set up the fan in the garden for lunch yesterday as there was little or no air.

I mentioned in my last issue that we had ordered a gazebo. Well it did not arrive; no tracking details for it and was declared lost. So I was refunded the money, ordered another and yes you guessed it the original one tuned up. Anyway it’s been a great success and even we have enjoyed it, we would not have been able to sit out in this searing heat without it. Also we have been able to entertain in the evenings as well as daytime as people now have shade.

We have lovely firefly lanterns and bunting around the gazebo so it looks very pretty and after a few incidents with people and steps we have installed a security light. You can now see our garden at night from the international space station or so it’s rumoured.

 

I was also waiting for a refund for some wrong plants being delivered and they refunded me the whole order not just the wrong plants. So £££’s in so far. Still waiting for the big holiday money to come back in though.

Also we had a visit from our financial advisor so that soon put us back down to earth with a bump. Worrying times ahead as today we have officially gone into a recession.

Quarantine coming into the UK is now required from Portugal and Spain, France is on the cusp of it too. NZ has 4 cases after 120 days with none. It has sent them into a frenzy and panic buying again. Ian is getting twitchy about toilet rolls and pasta. I have to keep a tight control of what goes into the shopping trolley. We are very concerned how this is all going to pan out over the winter months. Which reminds me to book our flu jabs. It is rumoured that over 50s will get them free but I think they will run out well before then.

The one-way pedestrian system in Marlow failed so they have changed it to, keep to the left. It is amazing how many people can’t tell their left to their right. Strange.

We went back to the reindeer farm for eggs and pleased to say the reindeer have completed the moult and are now looking splendid, the antlers are stately and magnificent but we are still not allowed to stroke the deer.

Sunday we went blackberry picking on Monkton lane where there is a plethora of the black beauties, plump and juicy and people don’t know they are there. We scrumped some apples from our neighbours, well we are looking after their cats so its seemed ok at the time. The resulting apple and blackberry crumble was a great success and followed Raymond Blancs method of preparing it and will never do it the old way again!

 

I have cancelled my Gym membership as I am not happy with being inside with a lot of people. Now I have to find something to replace it.

 

I will do another entry this month if anything exciting happens unless I have melted by then.

 

Things consumed.

 

Chicken fajitas with sumac yoghurt and pomegranate molasses.

Paella

Lamb kebabs

Lamb koftas

Prosciutto, Mozzarella and nectarine salad.

Sea Trout

Grilled Mackerel.

Beer braised pork.

Chicken Basque.

Sausage and Harissa traybake with crusty bread.

Blackberry and Apple crumble with Ice cream.

 

 

Tiny spattering of rain so off to feed the cats and water the garden.