Month: August 2026

Although it will soon draw to a close, the long summer holiday has continued with a mix of business and variety, and chilling doing little.

On Monday we went to Rockaway park near Temple Cloud – a fantastic alternative space full of sculptures from scrap. An inspirational and interesting place.

For the first half of the week, the weather held good; not as stiflingly hot as earlier in the summer, but warm, dry and sunny and on our Monday evening stroll we did a bit of blackberrying, yielding an impressive haul.

The forecast earlier in the week had threatened some rain by Wednesday, but in never materialised, and the sun continued to shine.

Late on Wednesday evening the news broke that Dolly Parton had died, the global outpouring of love for her was quite immense – she was one of the good ones.

In February this year I became concerned about a rat menace in my compost bin, and the trail camera I bought confirmed these unwanted visitors were snacking (feasting) on the contents of my compost bin. Consequently I have bought myself a new compost bin that is enclosed and sits above the ground, my goal being to keep these critters at bay. It arrived on Thursday and I spent a happy hour or so putting it together.

The weather did change on Thursday, and whilst still warm, we have had rain pretty much every day since Thursday, and sometimes quite a bit. Currently grey and windy (but warm) – whilst the water is welcome (we went on a hosepipe ban at Midnight Wednesday to Thursday) I’m already missing the consistency of knowing its going to be dry all day.

On Friday we had a fleeting visit from Sam – he came home after work to go to a 21st party for someone he used to work with in the kitchens at Millfield. Although brief, it was nice to see him.

On Saturday we travelled to Cardiff, had lunch and tea with Sophie

Before Becky and I went to see Johns’ boys choir in the New Theatre.

It was a great show, and then we hopped in the car and headed home – whilst it is nice to have the option of staying at Sophie’s, on this occasion it was good to be home before midnight to sleep in my own bed!

And today we went to Wells to see my Dad – next Sunday is his 88th birthday, but I’ll be working then, so we popped over to see him this morning. He was looking well!

And this afternoon, I set too trimming the hedge out front, taking a good foot off the height, and tidying it up.

And the few sunflowers at the front that self-seeded and survived the heat are now looking green and healthy, and beginning to flower.

Its been a busy holiday week, with lots happening, but still a relaxed chilled week, with much time just sat outside reading (and occasionally snoozing)

On Monday (Fiat 500) and Tuesday (Micra) had their MOTs. Sophie’s Fiat 500 passed first time, the Micra needed near side front track rod – excessive play (which is a bit annoying as I replaced them both last year) and a bulb. In addition, the handbrake only just – on limit of adjustment, so I had that done, too. Anyway, by the end of the day that had a full MOT again.

Wednesday was eclipse day. Starting at around 6.14pm, we had a near total eclipse (circa 95%) of the sun. We watched, periodically, from our front garden, it was pretty impressive.

Although slightly frustratingly, just at peak coverage, and after a summer of heatwave and sunshine, a few clouds rolled in to dim the final spectacle.

It has been another hot, hot, hot week with mid-week temperatures in the 30s. Everything is bone dry and on Friday we had a national alert on our phones warning of wildfires, and to not have BBQs or outside fires.

Thursday I went to see the Odyssey at Strode cinema – I enjoyed the film, and rather enjoyed going to the cinema on my own.

On Friday Becky & I went to Bristol to watch the Bodyguard at the Bristol Hippodrome. I enjoyed it (as did Becky) but the acting was a little wooden and the performance a little stilted. Might have been better to just go and watch a Whitney tribute act, but that is a little churlish. It was a nice night out, good to see Bristol bathed in the beautiful evening sun, even if our peace was shattered shortly after 7pm by the emergency alarm, and you couldn’t cross the pedestrian bridge as earlier in the week it had broken when being lowered back into position.

When putting the washing out on Friday I thought I could smell something – when out in the garden again on Saturday morning my nostrils were assaulted again so I lifted a deck plank, poked my head in and discovered a large dead rat (at the front of the “washing line” deck.) It was pleasant removing it, but something that needed to be done.

Today, taking advantage of the continued dry spell, I stimmed the lawn, removing the dry, dead seed heads and stalks. The ground below is brown, barren and parched. There is a suggestion of rain next week (hence I did it today – much easier to do when dry) but I think it will be some time before it greens up again.