Overcast.

A lot cooler today. The local children are still going to school so the holidays have not yet begun, this week I would have thought. The two young lads from along the road were playing football on the grass before 8.00 this morning. Oh the energy of youth.

Once I was up and about I could smell woodsmoke and a look out of the window  showed where somebody was having a bonfire. I know we've had some rain but I would have thought that there was still a high risk of burning embers setting any grass alight. I kept an ear out for the sound of fire engines but nothing untoward happened. A few days ago a large area of Wanstead Flats, the common land near our London home, burnt for several days and was the largest grass fire ever seen in the capital.

Poor old Peter has not had a good day today mainly due to a lack of sleep caused by his arthritis. The first thing that happened was that he went to collect the camper to take it to a place where he could steam wash the underneath. No problems with that but as he left the farm he had to pull over to let a tractor pass and caught the side of the camper on a stone projecting from a wall. That left a big dent in the door and side but on the good side the garage that is going to do the underneath with a hot wax sealant tomorrow will repair the ding too. Peter parked the camper in front of our garage and as a courtesy knocked on the neighbour's door (that's the other side to the ones that are on a cruise) to say he would move it if there wasn't enough space for her to get into her car in front of the next garage. That was fine but she took Peter in her back garden to show him some of our roof tiles that had been replaced by the ex-owners in another bodge job. Instead of using the metal clips to hold the tiles in place he had stuck them on with cement. This he did in the pouring rain so that by the next morning half of the cement had fallen out onto our neighbour's little greenhouse and now a lot more of the cement has come away. It would only take some strong winds to blow down the heavy concrete tiles either straight through our conservatory or the greenhouse next door. Fortunately our local handyman can do the job and can get onto our roof from the neighbour's garden but that's one more thing to arrange. On the plus side at least we found out before any damage happens. Finally to end Peter's happy day a plate slipped out of his hands in the kitchen and smashed to pieces on the marble floor. Hopefully he will cheer up when he sees the frozen leg of organic pork I was given tonight.

I on the other hand have had a good day. It's day 3 of my 3-day cleaning schedule which is the bathroom day. I was standing in the shower so that I could clean those hard to reach corners behind the curved glass doors when I realised that the silicone? strips running down the glass doors could be easily removed for cleaning. Good news indeed as there were stains and some mould growing  on these strips. I have a mould and mildew spray which enabled me to clean off the worst stains. I left the strips off to dry but I may have another go at some of the stubborn stains. I find cotton buds very useful for cleaning awkward corners (but never ears). The camper is parked here for tonight so I was able to put in a lot of things that will stay in there; cutlery, bedding etc.

This evening was choir night and as it was the last practice of the (academic) year we all brought 'nibbles' and stopped singing half an hour earlier than usual for more socialising time. Everybody is so friendly and easy to chat to. I was talking to one member about camper vans and when I said we were going to start off by going to Dartmoor he immediately recommended the area and camp site we had already picked out. 

Waking up from the corner where my friend had dropped me off I heard a piping and saw a seagull sitting on top of a roof with a fluffy youngster, about the size of a large grapefruit begging for food, next to it.

PS. The cleaning schedule is day 1- hoover and clean downstairs, day 2 - ditto upstairs, day 3 - bathroom. I do this twice a week so the place stays presentable with just a little effort each day. The house is so compact that I can hoover both upstairs and downstairs with the hoover plugged into one socket and on dry days I've even been able to hoover the first three steps in the garden.