Thursday

 Good morning.  It is delightfully cool and refreshing this morning with a slightly hazy (that's the word I was searching for yesterday) sky and a promise of warmth to come.  It's a dressing gown and slippers morning but it will warm up.

I've started picking tomatoes.  It's just the sungolds at present, the others are taking longer, and there's not enough to warrant taking even a small bowl out, just enough to pick, wipe over and pop in the mouth for a burst of juicy sweetness.  So lovely!
No sign of blight (touch wood) at present.

Yesterday was a good day.

At ten, Jeff came and worked on the front strip.  Bless him, it was rather hot and two chilled diet cokes went down a treat.  I must remember to water my front now.  It's looking quite nice right now with lots of different things all higgledy piggledy with some pink poppies threading through the whole lot, self seeded but very much wanted.  The crocosmia is in flower, bright scarlet splashes against the brickwork and other, cooler colours, contrast nicely.  It's not special, it's not designed, it's a little bit country cottage, I suppose, and I rather like the effect; I'm sure it gives pleasure to my neighbours over the other side of the cul de sac (when they can see it).  The one thing that spoils the effect is the car standing space which is the original concrete, very scruffy now and, as soon as my inheritance comes through (i.e. next year sometime), I'm going to have it paved over properly to match everywhere else.

I trundled off to Lindsey's over lunch time and had my massage and a bit of exercise.  We have decided the best way forward for now is to do two half hours each week, each session consisting of some lower leg strengthening work on the cross trainer and the exercise bike (I can use both of them without any discomfort now and they get the muscles moving and they feel so much better afterwards) and massage.  Works for me, it all felt a lot easier afterwards yesterday.  

When I came home from Mum and Dad's, I brought with me some flowers that we bought on Monday to brighten the living room up on Tuesday.  They are now looking colourful on my sideboard.

Although we had no flowers at the funeral, the directors make up a little pot as standard, which we were given at the end.  It's very pretty, as you can see, and the glass cube it is in will be useful.

Yesterday afternoon, Beth and I popped down to the allotment.  First of all we took all the leaves off the potatoes.  Hopefully, that safeguards them to a certain degree from getting the blight that is rampaging through the allotment site this year. 
The leaves looked a bit suspicious but the stems were OK so fingers crossed.  We decided it was too hot to dig up any more spuds!

Beth then rested in the shade and I sowed some French dwarf bean seeds.  They should be up pretty quickly if they behave like last years' sowing behaved.  We'll do a later sowing too as they do go on into Autumn.

Everything else seems to be ticking over nicely.  We saw signs that the baby corn is about to throw up the first of the fruit and there are loads of flowers on the runner beans.  The broad beans are pretty much over now and I will have them up at some point soon and give that area a good old weeding and forking over and, maybe, dig in some manure from the communal - er - supply!

And finally we watered everything and picked the sweet peas which are doing amazingly well now.  We both had a bunch to bring home.  Lovely!

Today isn't all that busy really.

I need to go into town first thing.  A bit of a nuisance but it has to be done as I am right out of my blood pressure meds now (they are waiting for me in Boots) and I have that tax rebate cheque to pay in.  I also want to get some soluble aspirin as they can be sprayed over tomatoes to help prevent blight (thanks for the tip - I forget who it was but I'm very grateful).  However I do it, I will have to walk a fair old way and my calves and ankles will not thank me, but needs must and I can rest up afterwards.  And there are plenty of benches if I need to take a break.

At some point in the morning, I am popping over the road to Chris' for coffee and a good chat.  I'm looking forward to that.

I have to do allotment duty, of course.  Taking off the potato leaves has revealed many sneaky weeds which need to be dealt with.  I'll probably water first and that will make it easier to get them up - the ground is quite hard right now.

The rest of the day will be housework, ironing and generally just pottering around doing necessary stuff.  I wonder how hot it will get today.
I'd better stop and do my Facebook duties (admin daily posts, etc).  Hoping you all have a really pleasant day with no hassles.
Stay cool!  xx