Hot Then Not.

Right up until it began raining at about 4.30 I would have said it was our hottest day of the year.

It was a lovely morning, perfect for cycling down to the community gardens. There I did a little gardening, cutting back some of the tall undergrowth around the fruit trees before the main business of the day, meeting to chat with of course cake. Chocolate cake this week. I took along some of the red and green lettuces from the back garden to share. 

Peter took the mirror off my bike and I made do with the wrist mirror. Cars are still giving me a wide berth which is a good thing. Coming home I made it all the way to halfway up the slope to the front door which is a big improvement.

After a short break for a drink and to recover from the bike ride I mixed up some mortar and repaired a couple of small holes in the render at the front of the house. Once that has dried I can make a start on painting the front. There are some bigger areas of render on the other walls that need repairing properly by the builder before I can paint those walls.  I also cleared the base of one of the fence posts in the back garden which for some reason the builder sat right on the soil. Even though the post is treated wood I don't really want it soaking up moisture. Now it has a gap between the end of the post and the soil and I used some mortar to make a block to keep the soil away. I finished off by cutting more of the neighbours' elder bush until the garden bag was filled right up.

By the time I had finished all my jobs the inland sky had turned very dark and as is often the case no sooner had I had a sip of my coffee than the first rain drops fell. I compromised by sitting just inside the open door. We had some very heavy rain which has now stopped but it's still looking gloomy outside.

Two bits of not so good news. First our next door neighbour had a garden statue/ornament stolen from her front garden on Sunday night. It wasn't a small easily transportable item either but a 3ft high concrete Buddha. You'd think that a village like ours wouldn't have random thefts like that, I've seen local builders leaving all sorts of equipment and supplies in front gardens not to mention the ornaments and benches people have. That said we get an awful lot of vans and trucks going up our road either to the many places having building work done or simply making deliveries.

The second thing is that the Post Office counter that also offers banking services in the local shop will be closing in a couple of weeks. There is another Post Office further down the village but it is only open two and a half days a week and I don't think it offers any banking services.