Dry.

Cloudy, then sunny and then cloudy again.

Peter went out rowing again this morning. It was windier than yesterday which made the rowing harder much to Peter's delight. While he was out I used the heat gun on the last of the paint on the lip of the window sill. While it didn't make the job easy it was certainley easier and the shave hook was a better tool for the job. It's now all ready to be painted once the builders have finished.

Then I did some gardening working on the soil in the bed by the bricks I laid yesterday. Turning the soil over gave me the opportunity to take out the remaining roots, break up the lumps of clay and mix together the soil and compost I'd dumped there. I brought most of the remaining pots up from the front garden and put them on top of the soil for the moment to discourage Speedy and any other cats from using that nice clean soil as a toilet.

We had a little time to sit and enjoy the view before packing up our stuff for the street party. I didn't take my camera as I'm not confident taking photos of people especially when I don't know them hence no photos. It was a very pleasant street party with bunting strung around the houses and gardens and a section of the road unofficially closed to make room for tables and chairs. It had quite a festival/Bohemian vibe with maybe 30-40 people, mostly older generation with a few younger children. My Rocky Road hadn't turned out too well. They only had the very large tins of Tate and Lyle golden syrup in the supermarket so I made the mistake of buying the supermarket own brand which turned out to be too runny and as a result the Rocky Road was very soft. Althought I took along a packet of wet wipes I didn't dare offer it to the various young children running around in bridesmaids/party dresses. Their parents would have loved having chocolate all over those I'm sure. There was also a minor mishap at our table. We were sitting with two of our neighbours plus their dad in a motorised scooter when he got confused by the controls and ran the scooter into the table. Half over went the table until it was stopped by Peter with the rest of us grabbing the cake stand, drinks and bottles several of which landed in the Rocky Road. Some still got eaten but the remainder is back in my fridge to be eaten in small portions. Order was soon restored after much laughter and not too much damage to food and drinks. The street party was a combination of celebrating the summer solstice and the recent easing of the lockdown restrictions. It always makes me sad to think that from now the nights will be getting longer though the summer proper is yet to come. It was really nice to chat with more of our neighbours, one lady even came running after me as we were leaving to ask about the muslin curtains in my study as she has just moved into her house and would like something similar.