Mostly annoying

The temperature dropped significantly overnight to a far more comfortable level. For me anyway. The weather people are saying there’ll be another heatwave this week but for the next few days, at least, life will be bearable. I know a lot of people love the heat and think global warming is a good way to get a better tan but, for me, the frozen north holds a lot more appeal.

Mind you, the park was very appealing this morning.

Following yesterday’s early walk, I decided to hitch the girls up for an even earlier walk today. We were out and heading for the park at 06:30. And, for most of the walk, we had the park to ourselves. Well, apart from the birds. There were a lot of birds.

We walked the length of the Avenue of Trees, right up to the blue door of the castle.

I tried taking some film through the keyhole in the blue door, especially for Mirinda, but it didn’t work very well. Unlike the walk, which was excellent.

Like yesterday, the girls were crazy excited and full of beans.

It was good that we had such a lovely walk because by the afternoon we were confined to the house because of our inconsiderate neighbours.

First there was the Crazies and their toxic burning. I don’t know what it was, apart from being disgusting. I had to close everything up in order to breathe. The big clouds of black smoke rising from the back garden came straight over to our terrace. Fortunately I didn’t have any washing out on the line, because I would have had to wash it all over again.

Then, following on the heels of the pong, someone with a serious social problem decided to play with his chainsaw for a couple of hours. I don’t know who it was – either the house next to the park or at Bells Piece – but they really, really love their very noisy machinery.

So much for enjoying a pleasant Sunday afternoon on the terrace.

That’s not exactly true. We did enjoy quite a few snatches of time on the terrace. In fact, at one point, the bird feeder was packed with sparrows. Lots of young birds on the ground, pecking up seeds. And, of course, our resident robins, popping inside for a civilised feed.

At one point, Emma came out to see what the commotion was – the sparrows can get quite vocal – and walked over to stand underneath the bird feeder. It’s currently hanging over her terrace escape route.

When she approached the feeder, the birds all fled but, after she’d stood there for a bit, they all returned. I didn’t have my phone, so I couldn’t get a photo of her looking down the garden with the huge flock of sparrows eating just inches above her head. It was lovely.

Also lovely was my second batch of muffins in a week.

Denise saw the ones I posted on Instagram and said she expected some when she arrived. Of course, I made some this afternoon; this time with apricots and pecans. I was going to use almonds but I didn’t have enough.

Naturally, I kept two back for Sue at Starbucks in return for the loan of her shopping bag yesterday.

Tonight, I decided to spoil myself by watching a second supposedly Swedish film called Midsommar. I wish I hadn’t. If I was to describe it in a Netflix, two word type way, it would be ‘mostly annoying’. There were some ‘pretty pictures’ but, basically, it was slow and boring.

Finally, speaking of Denise, I had a text from her just before her plane took off. It’s her first time flying business class. Her first message came from the lounge where she was enjoying a pre-flight Baileys. Her second message came from her seat, accompanied by a photo of her roomy seat.

I think she might actually enjoy her flight for a change. Or, as Mirinda said, she will never travel cattle class again.