Well, last week was quite a week!
Oh the heat! Highest temperatures recorded ever and what a shock to the system it was. I had to pick Leo up from school on Tuesday and went by car so I could have air-conditioning on. So my actual time in the sun was no more than 20 mins, just the walk from car park to school, wait in playground for him to come out and then back to the car. When I got home I could not cool down and felt overheated for quite a while after. Of course it's hard to cool down when you don't have an air-conditioned house and have to rely on two small fans to circulate cooler air!
On Sunday there was a farm fire close to where our son lives. A spark from someone's barbecue flew into a nearby field and within a minute, had taken hold. The whole crop has literally gone up in smoke. J's father in law is a farmer who harvests the crop there and he was called on to try and save at least one field but although he did manage to reach that furthest field, the crop is smoke damaged and will only be able to be sold for animal feed.
It was also a week for getting together with old friends. I met up with my friend Judy who I met at my first job when we were both 18. We used to see each other regularly right up until I went back to work in 2001, when life took us in different directions. We think we probably last actually met up in person about 10 years ago! So after just exchanging news on birthdays and Christmas it was so lovely to actually see her again for afternoon tea on Friday.
That same evening we met up with a couple who used to be our neighbours. We hadn't seen them for about 4 years so it was a 24 hours of a lot of catching up with news!
The social events kept coming, and on Saturday we celebrated Max's 3rd birthday. He had a wonderful time and it was so lovely to see him with all his cousins from both sides of the family. Max's mum does make exceedingly good cakes!
This week isn't quite so full of parties, although I am going out for a meal with 11 ex school mates which will be lovely. It's so good that 46 years after leaving school we still keep in touch, even though not all of us still live in the UK and very few of us still live in the same county!
But the only other thing in the diary this week is a trip to the vets for Coco on Friday. When they last saw her they queried the possibility of a slight heart murmur so she is booked in for a heart scan on Friday. Although we know she is getting older and inevitably she is going to start being less well, it's horrible when the vet flags up a concern.
Well, temperatures seem to have returned to UK normal now and I can once again pick up my crochet. Somehow making a blanket hasn't been that appealing in the last week! I probably ought to tackle that pile of ironing that has been growing during the days where it was too hot to turn on an iron!
5 comments:
Oh Max's birthday cake looks so amazing & yummy! Happy belated wishes to him.
We saw on our news the field fires around England, along with many homes going up in flames; it was certainly heartbreaking & scary to see. Several of our local farmers postponed harvesting the winter wheat for fear of sparking a fire but thankfully now we have had a break in the high temperatures & humidity they can get on with it.
I say crocheting over ironing ...
What shocking news about the crops burning ... scary how quickly a fire can move.
How can wee Max be three! Fab looking cake!
So glad you have gotten a bit of a break in the heat! Your temperatures have been in the headlines even here quite a bit lately! Such much more devastating....than simply sweating (which admittedly is not fun at all!):) What a wonderful cake...and happiest birthday wishes to your favorite three-year-old!!
I'm so sorry to hear about the fire. All that work and now, loss of the crops. Such a shame. We know heat here in the south. It's so hot and humid that it takes your breath away when you walk outside. We are having storms this week, so that has really cooled things down for a bit. But it's only a brief respite. Things will return to normal come Monday.
It's so nice that you've been able to reconnect with so many friends--and all in the same week. Every time you mention tea, I am envious. We do not have a single place here that serves tea. One of our fancier hotels did weekend teas for the month of June in honor of the jubilee, They only do it occasionally to commemorate something special. The last time was the summer of Covid when we celebrated the suffragettes in honor of Tennessee being the final approval to give women the right to vote. Tea is definitely something I look forward to when I go to the UK! It's one of my favorite activities!
Oh how dreadful about the farm fire. Happy belated birthday to Mr. Max, who is lucky to have a very skillful baker mom from the looks of that cake! Week before last was blazing hot here, but last week was mostly raining. So now I don't have any excuse for putting off the ironing either -- I shouldn't procrastinate so -- just an hour will keep us in good stead for nearly a month. I didn't realize until recently that only a small percentage of houses in the UK have AC compared to the vast majority (84%) in the US. We are spoiled over here, for sure.
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