Windy.

The wind has been blowing a gale all day. It's a good thing this rose has the ability to hold onto its flowers through the strongest of winds. I've had a bit of an achy day so I haven't done very much except drive into town to buy some wine for a present for the wedding we are going to tomorrow. I had already bought the wine but then Peter found out that they don't like French wine so I exchanged it for the Chilean version instead.

This morning I tried to sort out my operation date as they had sent me a date which happened to clash with our summer plans. Unfortunately the next slot is not until the end of August as the surgeon will be away on his holidays for all of that time but then I would have to take time off work at the beginning of the new term. So we will just have to try and rearrange our plans or else cancel them.

Yesterday's heavy rain combined with a delivery van squashing my dirt diverter at the side of the road resulted in great gouges washed out of one side of the drive. Fortunately having Linas at home meant that he was able to do the hard work of raking it back up once more and topping it up with extra gravel dug out of the stream. Linas also washed out my collection of wine bottles and sterilised them as we are going to have a go at making elderflower champagne. I have made it successfully before but last year's batch went wrong, not quite sure why. We are going to cork them lightly with new corks and leave them in an outbuilding in case they do explode.