Saturday, 15-07-23

 Good morning, one and all.  It looks a bit doubtful out there at the moment.  A bit dull but with a few breaks i8n the cloud that might mean a nicer day.  Beeb is sitting on the fence by saying strong winds and rain but showing some sunny intervals too.  To be honest, I am more interested in tomorrow - and that looks promising at the moment.

This is courgette number two - the spare, if you like, the second that came up and the one that, as you can see, I popped into a biggish pot in case.  When I tried one in a pot last year, it sulked and died on me.  However, this one is looking so much happier so we will see.

Well, the weather certainly did turn around yesterday.  When I left for SW, it was dull.  At the end of Group it was starting to rain, by the time I changed before leaving to pick Diane up for lunch, it felt so cold I put on a T shirt, a jumper AND a jacket - and was only just warm enough, and pretty much the rest of the day it rained, hard for a few hours and then intermittently.  Great for the garden, just what was needed.

I say this every week, I know, but SW group was great.  We're still in the 'replacement' venue after our usual hall was flooded after that really cold spell but, at long, long last, the council is doing the necessary with the local community centre (the plasterers were in the other day) so by the end of August we should be back in there.  Just as well really because the church needs their hall back then to start a playgroup/pre-school something or other!
It will be a lot better for me as I can then walk, and there's loads and loads of car parking spaces - parking has been a bit of a headache for the hall we are using.

After breakfast (I have breakfast after group), I changed and set off to Diane's.  We ended up going to The Green Dragon which is halfway between Black Notley and Great Leighs on the old London Road (Do you know it, Suze?).  I've never been there but it was really very, very nice indeed.  Short staffed, admittedly, but that was fine as Diane and I had no shortage of conversation and we ended up staying there for nearly three hours - over two and a half anyway.
The poor young lady who was left on her own was so lovely, so cheerful despite some rude people having a go at her when it really wasn't her fault, and so polite that we gave her a special tip (to cheer her up, maybe) with some appreciative words.  I bet she went back to her work thinking 'What lovely old dears';  at least I hope the 'lovely' and 'dears' bit, maybe not so much the 'old' - even if we are!!

Anyway, we will be going back there.  The food was good and the decor, atmosphere, etc, was also just what we liked.

On to today and this morning I am off to Lindsey's for a self defence class.  Geared at women and run by a police officer, I think, there are ten of us doing it and, while I don't intend to get myself into dodgy situations and would run like hell as a first reaction, I think it will be helpful to learn some tips and strategies.  It should be both helpful and useful, I think.

And that's about it.  I want to get everything ready for tomorrow - I need to find some safety pins for my number, for a start, and pack my fold up raincoat (in case!).  If the rain holds off, I'd also like to do some weeding and cut my little patch of 'grass' (aka weeds) at the front.

Did you have much rain yesterday?  Today?
Have a great day, everyone.  xx