Month: May 2026

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A busy, brilliant, half-term week

A hot (very hot) half term week draws to a close and it has been a busy and brilliant eight days, the highlight of which must have been seeing Take That in Southampton on Friday evening.

It was an incredible show, excellent music, but more than that, a real visual feast of drama and circus. It was wonderful

It has been incredibly hot this week – record breakingly so, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees on the first few days of the week. We took advantage of the long hot evenings and took ourselves of for a walk after tea each day, with Combe Hill woods being a particular favourite on a couple of occasions.

We even persuaded Sophie to come with one evening, although that was a shorter “round the block” walk

I’d collected Sophie from Bristol airport on Wednesday on her return from her holiday in Majorca, which ended in upset when her suitcase didn’t make it back from Palma airport. Anyway, much stress, a few tears, a form and a couple of phone calls later, the suitcase was returned to us on mid-morning on Thursday, having been found the previous evening still in Majorca.

Another mini-disaster was when I went upstairs and found the cheese plant on the floor of Sam’s room. With all the hot weather we’ve been having windows wide open (when not in the sun) to create a through flow of air. This must have been enough to blow it off the chest of drawers onto the floor …

It was also a week of practical matters – on Tuesday the Ka passed it’s MOT, I had my hygienist appointment, and an eyes test; my eyesight has improved a little over the last two years! I ran once, less than I planned, in part as my back hurt on my return, and swam once which was good – felt like I was stretching out my bad back and also engaging a few other unused muscles. Sam started his job and is enjoying it, which is great news.

I planted up the rest of my geraniums, and planted out the sunflower and pumpkin seedlings. The “lawn” is looking magnificent with the love in a mist in full flower …

(and because I’m a vain bugger, he is a pick of me reading out “my” names at last week’s Summer Celebration)

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And relax …

Half term has arrived. The term has passed quite swiftly – only 5 weeks and the summer term always has a different (easier!) vibe to it: Volleyball not Football buys me a lot of time, plus a couple of exam classes mean preparing lessons and marking is reduced, and with the better weather everyone’s mood is improved. But I still enjoyed a little afternoon snooze outside on Saturday once it was all over (Summer Celebration in the morning ’til 1pm ish)

The week’s weather has been extreme. It started perishingly cold (and wet, but annoying not volleyball cancelling wet) on Monday and Tuesday, but by the end of the school week it was warming up, and Sunday was scorchio!. (I’m writing this in the garden on Monday morning as I didn’t have time (!) yesterday)

Sam and Sophie both came home on Thursday, Sophie to get ready to go on holiday with Lucy to Majorca on Saturday, Sam to collect the last of his stuff for his new flat. (He starts his new job tomorrow, Tuesday)

But by Saturday afternoon we were home alone again. We have decided to make the most of the weather and go for a walk after tea each evening. On Saturday we parked in the YHA and walked to the windmill and back, beautiful vistas across the levels in the evening sunshine.

and last night we walked to the weir and then followed the water to the road and the river Brue. It was still very warm, and very, very picturesque.

We’d spent the morning having a good cut back and tidy up in the garden – with our many absences due to travel, only one day weekends, and some wet weather of late, the garden has been a bit neglected and there is still much cutting back to do, but it looks neater, and provides a pretty background to enjoy reading, eating (and occasionally snoozing) in the glorious sunshine.

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And he’s off …

Sam has moved out, into his new flat in Bristol. On Friday he headed off with a packed Micra to collect the keys and begin settling in.

Today (Sunday) we went up to help him build his IKEA furniture that arrived yesterday

The flat is on Gloucester Road, above a coffee shop. It’s quite a spacious 1 bedroom flat, a little bit shabby round the edges, but has a bit of character, is light, and will hopefully prove to be a good base for his new job that starts soon.

The view from the sitting room window!

Having built his bed, shelves, mirror; helped it tidy and organise himself, we headed home with a car full of cardboard and other packaging to take to the tip!

And in entirely unrelated news, my Christmas cactus is in full bloom …

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Geraniums, seeds, and my Christmas cactus

Its been a dry Spring, and at times, quite sunny and warm (although today has been disappointingly cold and windy) and today I planted up the front trugg with geraniums. As we are going away for such a long time (5 weeks) in the summer, we’ve decided not to plant sunflowers out front as we won’t be around for the necessary maintenance, instead just plumping for drought tolerant geraniums that will hopefully thrive and look good with little care.

Today I have also planted up some seeds – 6 pumpkins and 24 sunflowers. If these germinate, they are destined for the back garden, near the rear deck, the deck on which we ate tea last night as it turned into a wonderful warm evening. (See what I did there to segue from my geranium pic into this pic?!)

The alliums that have come are looking good, but given how many I planted, they are a little disappointing – not the massed forest of purple headed stems I’ve had in the past.

Indoors, I’m delighted that my Christmas Cactus is flowering – not sure if its seven months early or five months late, but I won’t worry about that, I’m just happy to see some pretty red tips to the leaves (not sure if they are supposed to open like actual flowers)

And I continue to enjoy seeing what I can capture on my outdoor camera. We’ve had quite a bit of sparrow activity in the garden, here’s a pic of one happy little chap hoping about.

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Phone repairs

Yesterday, I repaired my phone by replacing the camera lens that had become unclear – it wasn’t scratched, it just looked dirty, but wasn’t. Delaminating perhaps? Anyway, it was a fairly simple task, took about twenty minutes to remove the old lens, and then just popped the new one (about £3 for two from Ali-express – I couldn’t source them in the UK – and the job was done, and my pictures are now fog free again! (example below)

Sam has got himself organised and rented a flat, he moves in in two weeks time, so that feels like a significant milestone, and I refereed my last match of the season today, another milestone.

I do feel a bit behind with the garden, but today I did get a little ahead of the game by digging up all the bulbs from the front trugg. A little earlier than previous years, but we’ve had a run of dry weather, that is set to end next week, and experience has taught me it is much easier to dig them up from dry soil, rather than wet. Plus I have all the geraniums waiting to go in, and I’m keen to get them planted in.

And the garden continues to be a haven for wildlife. Becky snapped this baby blackbird in our Apple tree, and on Friday Sam spotted a slow worm by the back gate …

(and Becky reports seeing a tiny, tiny baby slow worm in the shade of the fig tree, but no photographic evidence)

And a couple of shots of a hedgehog by the side passage captured on the trail cam