Cool

i slept reasonably with only a little shoulder pain.
The early day was not very exciting. It had rained overnight, but how much, I can only speculate.
I got my act together rather slowly, starting with a phone call to Honda about the annoying service warning light. It is booked in next Friday.
Loren arrived whilst I was on the phone. Bad news for her, but good for me, is the fact the sale of their own house has fallen through, so they are in need of new buyers. Urgently. Or they will lose the house that they are set in buying. Oop north. I felt for her.

She busied herself cleaning and I went out with H, to Pangbourne, where it was chilly but pleasant. I parked in the free park and the pools and puddles in the meadows have subsided. Most of the mud around can now be described as sticky. The inland sea near Blewbury has almost entirely evaporated since I last went by, over a week ago,

We had a brisk walk along the river but the meadows are still craving the mower. Usually the powers that be are pretty good with this at Pangbourne, but the grass is quite tricky for walking at the moment. Tussocky and lush with underlying very damp ground. Even I know that a good mow would help it dry out:

The river has been downgraded to yellow warnings, but no moving boats were visible. H paddled briefly but I did not encourage this due to the presence of ecoli. A boat dweller had posted that their cat had been seriously and expensively ill with ecoli. Presumably picked up from the river.
Some swimmers passed me wrapped up in their dry robes – brave souls – don’t think I would want to swim in the Thames at the moment due to all the pollution.

I then took myself off to Didcot for a chlorinated swim. This was pleasant enough as long as I kept out of the way of the large group of neuro-divergent/ disabled swimmers. They have absolutely no sense of personal space or sense of responsibility for their actions. And the noises they make can be sudden and surprising. A bit like being in a zoo. But perhaps I am too unkind, because they were having fun, which is what matters. Even if I did get kicked twice.

I was home in no time at all and watered the plants, put up the whirligig clothes dryer in the garden for the first time this year. That was a bit bold of me. No excuse for not hanging washing out and more. I will miss T because he always used to bring the washing in, sometimes before it had had a chance to dry, and he folded it up nicely too.

He also used to tidy the hose up after I had used it and the mower cables too. I used to deliberately leave them lying carelessly so that he had something to do.

The plant pots were actually quite dry, despite heat rain the night before I went away. That’s the problem with plants in pots- they need water. It can be quite a soothing job which I enjoy doing when I have plenty of time. It was another one that T used to do although he sometimes drowned them.

But I have quite a colourful display line, if you like yellow.

The rest of the late afternoon passed in oblivion … and I got myself to bed after 21.00.

Yesterday was Tina’s birthday. Today it is that of Cretan Chris, and, Sir Billy Connolly. Happy birthday to all.

Thought for the Day