Hot.

Most of the day was very hot though by late afternoon it had begun to haze over and feel warm rather than ultra hot. Late last night I was up watching TV (waiting to take more tablets) when I noticed a flash of light outside. I assumed it was the streetlight at the bottom of the garden turning itself off but an hour later when I was upstairs the flashes happened again. Trying not to drag the radio off the bedside table, ear plugs still in situ, I peered through the curtains to see sheet lightening flashing over the hills to the north. It wasn't the best of views otherwise I would have been tempted to stay up watching the storm. There was thunder but no rain here. A bit later one rumble lasted a good 10 seconds. Nice.

There was more excitement here earlier yesterday evening. We were heading off to bed when the doorbell rang. Thinking it was our neighbour I stuck my head out of the study window to see what was going on. Not my neighbour but a chap dressed in black work clothes. Reflecting on it today I could have gone into panic mode  thinking he was a local community policeman bringing bad news. But those thoughts didn't cross my mind at all. It turned out he was also a neighbour, from the beginning of the Close, regarding his cat. It had been missing for two days and he'd just located it locked inside one of the garages. He could hear it and see it so had gone round to the corner house to ask them to let it out. However the house was dark and he couldn't get an answer. The neighbour in-between was out (watching the sunset over the sea) and her daughter couldn't shed any light on where the corner house people were. The chap was following my suggestion to leave a note when the door was answered by the lady of the house. Her husband was at work, in a local care home and wouldn't be back until today. Anxious to free his cat the owner drove to the care home for the key and all ended well. But that wasn't the end of the incident. I'd carried on hanging out of my window and chatting and it turned out that the chap knew Peter from his skittle playing days. That was at least 20 years ago but the story doesn't end there. This chap lived with his brother on his parents' farm not far from us. The parents, I knew the wife in passing as she was also a supply teacher, went off for their first weekend away from the farm leaving their sons in charge. Through no fault of the lads the hay stored in the barn ignited spontaneously. Peter had been involved in ferrying people up the long farm track to help and also in getting things out of the barn. Small world.

Today itself has been uneventful. Nothing more thrilling than the recycling men coming and a fair amount of chatting with the neighbours. I had another attempt to photograph a flying bee. This time there were plenty of frames with a bee in but the ones that had a flying bee had focussed on the flowers not the bee. Better luck next time.