Very Hot.

Once again it's been a swelteringly hot day. Plenty of vehicles and sounds of activity from next door. After he'd been to town Peter dropped in on them to see how things were. Paul, with his arms fully bandaged was working away against medical advice and the pleadings of family and friends. People have rallied round to help with the clear up. A lot of horse tack was lost in the fire but the local saddlery has almost been emptied by friends/riders buying replacement tack to give to Paul and Sarah. Sadly the horse that was burned had to be put down in the night, not because of its burns but its lungs had been affected by the smoke.

I have been working outside being careful with the time I spent in the sun and applying sun-cream to the bits of me that have had enough sun ie. face, neck and the backs of my hands. In order to even up my old-lady tan where I have big white areas from my t-shirts, I allowed myself some gardening time in a low backed swimsuit. Yesterday (this was before the fire) I waited until the postman had been before changing into my swimsuit. Imagine my surprise when a van parked at the top of the drive and a young man got out. I would be perfectly happy wearing my plain black swimsuit on the beach but it seems different in the garden. I stood up clutching my basket of weeds to my middle which made me feel a bit less exposed. At first I thought he had come to take down the old estate agent's sign which is still there but no he was from a broadband company. It didn't sound like our broadband company but I know that BT has recently split into 2 separate companies and yes we're always having problems with our broadband. I blurted out that I would call my husband and raced into the house to change into shorts and t-shirt, a somewhat more respectable outfit. It turned out that he had been called in for next door so off he went.

Another thing I did yesterday was to sort out the garden table. My plan to use up the last of the boiled linseed oil on the table was an epic fail, as they say. The linseed oil had been for sealing the beech wood work surfaces in the kitchen so I thought it couldn't be too different to the teak oil I buy for the garden furniture. Well it was, the oil didn't soak into the wood but formed a tacky surface. I tried wiping it off with methylated spirits and even acetone but they  had no effect. I thought I might have to resort to scraping it off with a sharp knife but luckily when I tried using wire wool with water and detergent that did the job. Now I'll have to buy some more teak oil to restore the table.

It sounds like this hot weather may last another day before reverting to rain and/or thunderstorms. Last night I was jolted awake by several flashes of lightning that lit up the sky. There was no rain or thunder but I still went down to disconnect the phone line and the broadband hub.