Soothing Sunday

After the shambles of the last two day we decided taking it easy was today's plan. Fingers crossed no more disasters. This morning after breakfast and Sunday papers we decided a trip up to Hill Farm was in order. Himself loves his fresh raspberries.

It was so nice up there, warm and sunny with just a gentle breeze. So peaceful that we ordered coffee and sat for a while enjoying the sun and cloud watching. The swifts and swallows were diving overhead grabbing their insect meal on the wing. Much higher in the sky the faint drone of the transatlantic planes could be heard. Silhouetted white against the blue sky they left a white vapour trail interwoven in the clouds.

Farm fresh vegetables, raspberries and strawberries, not forgetting the cream, along with some juicy slabs of locally reared beef sirloin steaks for dinner we loaded the car and the short drive back home.

Gosh that beef was so good than I can forget the price! And the raspberries so sweet and juicy. No cream for me though!

Back to the garden. The mess of water lily has been cleared up and is, as I write headed for the local tip. The pump after all that effort now seems to be working! A little more clearing of the pond and we'll soon be back to normal.

Blackbird up date.

Mrs Blackbird disappeared after the unfortunate drowning of her last three offspring. Not for long though, she soon reappeared and made her nest shipshape once more. Mr Blackbird watched and then got amorous once again.

Once the nest was renewed to her satisfaction she proceeded to lay four more eggs and settled to brood the eggs for her third attempt at nesting this year. Mr Blackbird confined himself to watching and waiting.

Very soon his wait was over and the little speckle blue/green eggs began to hatch. His work began once more. The ever hungry chicks are keeping both Mum and Dad busy with four mouths to feed this time. They've even got use to DJ sitting in the Gazebo smoking and reading. Mr Blackbird use to fly in straight at DJ but now he follows his wife's lead and ignores him and flies straight to his hungry offspring.

They're developing and growing fast and feathers are beginning to cover their tiny scrawny bodies. I guess they will be ready to fledge by the end of this week. I hope this brood is more successful than her last ones.

After a years absent Hissing Sid has reappeared. DJ was on his way outside for a smoke and very nearly trod on him, frighting DJ half to death! The snake as well, I expect! I caught this photo of him as he shot across the pond escaping from DJ's size elevens. He looks as if he had already gorged himself of one of the inhabitants of my pond. He's been around since as a few days later his skin was shed and left on the pond side.

It's not a good weekend so far.

It's not been a good weekend so far and we're only half way through. Yesterday, I stumbled and fell into the washing machine door with disastrous results. A broken door and latch and a bruised leg. So, now no washing machine in operation. At least I had the washing up to date. Himself came home and said he could fix it if we could find the parts. DJ said, no worries if part were not available or it was unfixable as we would be covered by the household insurance policy. Anyway, later I did an Internet search and came across a site I'd used before to order parts from. Now we just have to wait for them to be delivered and hope the washing doesn't pile up too much.

This Mornings post arrived and I opened two letters from the Energy Company that informed me the gas and electric costs would be going up next month. Himself and I threw about ways of reducing our electric usage. One idea Himself threw up was to put the pond pump on a timer so it wasn't operating all the time. I wondered whether this was advisable as the pump was a few years old and would the motor stand being turned on and off.

After an afternoon of working in the garden tidying we discovered the pond pump had stopped! Why did I say it was old! All the simple solutions were investigated with no effect. There was no other option the pump had to come out of the pond. Sounds easy. Not so. The electrical wire to the pump had got trapped under the growing roots of the massive white water lily that was in full bloom. All ways of getting it out were explored to no effect. Finally the wire had to be cut and pulled from under the roots. Still no results. Each tug on the wire pulled the water lily from the bottom. There was then on other option than to get the lily out of the pond. This in itself was no easy task. The poor old Lily had to be hacked into pieces to get it out and release the cable.

Finally the cable came free and smaller roots of the lily were tossed back into the pond. Another problem, the roots won't sink. I think we'll have to fish them out tomorrow and tie a stone to the roots and toss them back in. We still don't know if the pump is terminal or repairable Hopefully Himself will investigate that tomorrow.

The damn lily roots won't sink.

Some of the sad remains of the magnificent lily.

The weather has been incredibly hot over the last week with temperatures of 30 -31 degrees. Far too hot for comfort. Yesterday the weather men predicted warm weather but with cloud and rain so we thought we'd head to the coast to visit 'Himself's' niece. Car loaded for all eventualities, we actually managed to set off at the time I said we'd leave. Miracle! Driving towards Norfolk the cloud layer thinned and the sun broke through.

We arrived at Debbies with none of the traffic holdups we were expecting on the road towards the coast, especially along the notorious Arcle Straight. So after a reviving cup of coffee we headed towards Gorlston to a Pub serving a Sunday Roast Carvery. No 2 son DJ has got his appetite back and tucked away an enormous plateful of food.

Suitably stuffed we hoped to take a relaxing walk along Gorlston beach. Parking was unexpectedly easy and we walked down to the beach only to be met with a swarm of minute flying black beetles. They were a horrendous nightmare so we beat a hasty retreat back to the car, brushing the little beasties off us. Flicking the little horrors out of the car window all the way we thought we'd try out luck at Great Yarmouth's sea front.

Parking again was easy and we had a pleasant walk along the sea front until we stopped at Debbie's favourite sea front cafe called Gloria's for a cup of tea. As soon as we had sat down the 'beasties' struck again. I think this time we only caught the edge of the swarm that blew in with the wind from the sea, so they didn't cause us too much irritation this time.

D.J. and Debbie have always got along well and have a soft spot for each other since they we're kids so they they walked and chatted and chatted and walked while we tagged along at a gentler pace behind.

It was a lovely day 'beastie's' aside, not too hot and a gentle sea breeze to keep things cooler. Refreshing and relaxing.

It would have been better still if we could have stayed on Gorleston's beach as Yarmouth has been allowed to develop in an unattractive way. Somehow Yarmouth town Planners must have been sleep walking over the last 40 years and allowed the developers to do as they please. When I was a Kid it was a really attractive place, a pleasure to visit but serious planning lapses have allowed it to become an ugly mishmash of ghastly buildings. Not a place to be proud of at all.

A hot day in Stamford

The ancient Market town of Stamford on Market Day has always been one of our regular days out. We love the character of the town, who's recorded history dated back 1000 years. Built from the mellow locally mined Barnack stone its ancient maze of streets and and alleyway's are a pleasure to wander up and down exploring. Lots of little independent shops to browse and hardly a High Street Chain in sight.

Friday is Market day and despite the sizzling weather the market was busy as usual. Stamford has resisted the trend to shift markets off the street and put it in a purpose built compound away from the center of activity. Stamford is a particularly good street market and runs along happily with a Farmers Market.

Lots of fresh produce cheaper than the Supermarkets sold by vendors shouting their prices.

I decided not to take the usual photos but to look for more unusual shots especially at roof level.

There's such a mix of architectural styles ranging from medieval through to modern. Although the modern has to blend in with older surroundings.

The central of the three main streets that run apparel to each other is completely pedestrianised. The first street is the original rout of the Great North Road and the third street is where the market is held and has no traffic through it on market day.

Lots of alleys with shops and cafes.

This grand old building has been converted into small shop units but has still retained its architectural features

Unusual shops with unusual goods and unusual names.

The Old Great North Road.

Modern sculpture in front of and old pub.

The day finally proved too hot for me so we wandered back over the scorched water meadows and across the River Welland

I use to paddle and play in this river when I was a child and we had picnics and played games on the meadows. Now days It would be frowned upon to go wild swimming here. Shame, the water did look inviting and lots of fish found the water healthy!

Anyone for Pimms

Pheew this weathers a bit like being in Las Vegas. You step out side and the hot dry air just blasts you. The big difference is we've not icy cool air conditioning inside so inside, outside ain't no different.

But we do have ice cold Pimms or Elderflower Cordial and the fans stir and cool the air a little.

I'm spared the hot stove tonight as D.J. is going to cook a Korma curry with rice. I'm looking forward to that. Himself has been told we're having Stir fry chicken with cashews in a coconut sauce. Must remember to hide the korma sauce jar from him!