Friday

Good morning, everyone.  Well, it was a horrible night at first.  Despite all my efforts, the bedroom was oven-like and sleep was very restless (and damp).  Later on there was some lightning and some rain.  In fact, it is raining as I type, there's still a storm grumbling around and it is so much fresher, the contrast is amazing.  Despite the rain, I have all possible doors and windows thrown open and inside is cooling off and feeling much fresher again.  Sheer bliss.

We didn't do very much yesterday.  I popped to Morrisons for an early morning shop and then, as it was still not to hot, got the ironing done and away. After that we stayed as still as ever we could in front of the fans and that, really, was the rest of the day.

At one point in the afternoon, Writtle (local village) was the hottest place in the country alongside Kew at 37.9C which is majorly hot by any standards!  The cucumbers and tomatoes love it; me, not so much!

I went to SW but the scales showed a massive gain which has now disappeared again this morning.  I know one shouldn't use different scales but mine are always very close to the group ones so there was something odd there.  Never mind, onward and downward and I reckon the extreme heat played its part.

Today, it is so much nicer again.  It's raining so no need to give the vegetables an early drink and I've just had to almost close the French windows because the rain was coming in.  How lovely is that?  It's expected to be around the mid twenties which is hugely less than yesterday and, once the rain does away and the sun comes out, it might very well be a snoozing-in-the-back-garden afternoon, you never know.

I take Alison to the station at midday and am most relieved that she won't have to endure so much heat in a stuffy train carriage or lug her case around London in such heat.
Despite the heat, we did manage to do some interesting things during her stay.  Hanningfield Reservoir was lovely and I will definitely be going back there again.  The new Chelmsford Museum was great and I need to revisit there as well as there was so much to take in.  Writtle church was, as always, a haven of peace and cool.  It just shows you don't need to spend a lot - all these were free with the only additional cost being the petrol to get there.

Well, my coffee mug is empty and it's time for a refill.  It's nice to want a hot drink again!  Have a lovely day, one and all, and, if it is cooler for you, I hope you can revel in it.  I'm going to count my blessings, for sure.  xx