It was a strange accident. We had a kind of Spanish omelette for lunch, out on the patio – it is still very hot, you see. With salad. Anyway, as you I am sure know, the best part of the omelette is the bits of egg that are stuck to the bottom of the frying pan. Crispy and very flavoursome. Well, I like this bit anyway, and so does Junko. And so the accident happened. Junko was scraping out some of this crispy egg and a piece catapulted from the plastic egg slice straight into my eye. Quite a large piece, and lots of little bits. It was quite a performance cleaning it all out, what with eye baths and that sort of thing. I am fine now, but what a strange little accident!

We have planted out the courgettes. It was supposed to rain a bit today, or at least be a bit cooler, but it was neither really and so they had a pretty tough day. They are a bit big to plant out actually, but we couldn’t put them out in the absolutely scorching weather, it would have meant almost certain death. Anyway, let’s hope they do OK.

We went for a walk today. This is Stannals Bridge, the old railway bridge over the river near Stratford. It is not only notable because of its construction, but you can see that the railway line was first built as a single track and then later doubled. Look at the different bricks. On the left they are expensive engineering bricks, this is the old part, and on the right, brighter ordinary house bricks. The line was first built in the 1860’s. It was doubled in 1912 or something like that, and then closed in 1975. This bridge is part of the Greenway, which is a cycle and footpath these days.



Yesterday’s was c)

Quiz 964
“Yo ho ho and a ………….” was an old pirate saying. What it means, I have no idea!
a) skull and crossbones
b) piece of eight
c) bag of gold
d) bottle of rum

We walked along the canal from Stratford to Wilmcote on Friday. It was an hour and a half there and the same back. On a hot day it was quite tiring. However it was a nice walk. But what I wanted to mention was the swans. We had been up this same way, on our bikes, about a month ago, before the rain, and we had seen a swans nest. As we walked past the nest, which is on the opposite bank of the canal, on this latest walk we were saddened to see a solitary abandoned egg in the nest. What had become of the other eggs, eaten, flooded, infertile or just deserted? As we were discussing the possibilities of the tragedy, we walked round a bend in the canal and there in front of us were the two adult swans and seven babes! Seven is a lot, I have never seen so many, I’ve seen six before, but not often. Perhaps mother thought she had had enough when then seventh hatched and decided to just leave the eighth egg! Who knows, but anyway it was so good to see such a success story, at least for the time being.

At the swimming pool today Junko met a lady who had been to Japan. Sadly the only thing that this lady could remember about her visit was the fact that the taxi drivers wore white gloves!

In this hot weather you need plenty of water and salad. How about this one?



I am going tasting on Thursday. I have no idea what will be on the menu, that’s exciting.

Quiz 963
A ‘windbag’ is …………..
a) where you keep all the things you need for a rainy day: hat, gloves, umbrella etc
b) part of a vacuum cleaner
c) a person who talks a lot
d) somebody who has eaten a lot of baked beans

Yesterday’s was b)

We have been having a lot of trouble with our digital alarm clock radio. The radio works fine and we can easily tune it etc, but when it comes to dealing with the alarm we are both completely mystified. Up until today we had to disconnect the machine from the mains supply to cancel the ringing, which was quite a nuisance really. We used to have the instructions, but they have disappeared, so I downloaded another set from the web. Even with the instructions to hand I had considerable difficulty in switching the alarm off, but I think I have now done it. That’s a relief, as we occasionally had come home in the afternoon to hear the thing blaring out from the bedroom.

Gosh, what weather we are having! It’s been roasting hot for about a week now. Very nice. The garden looks like it’s mid summer.

As you remember, Bill broke the last present we gave to him. So now we have a couple of unbreakable things. Bill and Pam like their early morning cup of coffee, so here are two Nescafe coffee spoons.



Yesterday’s was b)

Quiz 962
“Where there is a will there is …………….”
a) always a fight
b) a way
c) a distant relative
d) hope

I have got a nice t-shirt thing, quality material and a good fit. I like it. But each time I wear it, the label on the collar irritates me. It’s a nylon label with sharp corners. The shirt is an expensive one, it’s such a pity it has been spoiled by a cheap label. Anyway, I have carefully unpicked the stitching and now it’s a hundred per cent more comfortable to wear. It doesn’t itch any more.

I had to download Apple Quicktime for something to do with my Sony Walkman. It’s the file transfer system. What a nightmare it is, Quicktime has taken over all sorts of other things on the computer, and it’s slow compared with them. And the computer freezes since I have had it there. Anyway, it’s gone now, I have uninstalled it and all the other Apple updates, enhancers, bloggers and twerps. Did I ask for all that to be put on my computer? No, I just wanted the Sony Walkman file transfer system.

This grass is called Carex and the variety is Everygold. We have got some in the garden.



It was very hot again today.

Yesterday’s was c)

Quiz 961
Chimney is to house as …………. is to ship.
a) stove
b) funnel
c) fennel
d) tunnel

We went for a walk in the cool of yesterday afternoon. Along the Greenway and then along the river Avon until we got to the weir and lock at Luddington. Very pleasant. We were out for almost exactly three hours, and were probably walking for two and a half hours of that. As you may remember, my feet are not brilliant. They just about managed yesterday, but they were really tired and aching later in the night. We sat in the shade by the weir and had a long drink of kiwi and apple cordial which we had brought with us. Very relaxing. We have decided that we will bring some friends here for a picnic. We can take everything on the bus and then walk back home. It’s a pity there is no circular walk, but you can’t get across the river to the footpaths on the other side. We’ll have to arrange with Atsuko to be our ferry!

So here is the weir from where we sat in the shade.



We have had a couple more fatalities in the runner beans. One was eaten off below the two first leaves, and another one seems to have very strange shaped leaves, it’s definitely not right and will soon perish. I think most of the seeds have come up now, but we are still waiting for a few. I have put some more beans in where the known fatalities have been. Let’s wish them well for the summer, and hope we have a good crop.

Quiz 960
Which Microsoft computer operating system came before Windows ME?
a) Vista
b) XP
c) Windows 98
d) DOS

Yesterday’s was c)

It seems that I was completely wrong about gooseberries. They are one of the first crops of the season, and so this means that they are almost ready to eat, not that six will make much of a meal! However I am impressed that this bush has done so well in such a short time. Hopefully it will have masses of fruit next year.

Aren’t they handsome berries!



And talking of early crops, the day before yesterday we sowed the seed for the purple sprouting broccoli which, hopefully, we will eat next March.

It’s bad news about the puncture in Junko’s bike. We went for a ride yesterday, and it was OK, but the tyre is almost flat again now. What a pity. And what a nuisance. I shall have to start again. It must be a very tiny hole, though.

Quiz 959
If somebody is ‘full of beans’ they …………
a) are not hungry
b) are slow
c) are very energetic
d) have probably been on a camping holiday with Bill

Yesterday’s was d)

Junko bought a small gooseberry bush in the autumn, and it’s at the back of our garden, where we usually have a potato tree. I was surprised to see today that there are six gooseberries on it! Shouldn’t they come later in the year?

Mother cooked us a piece of gammon the other day, and we had some of it sliced with a salad, out on the patio with a glass of Snakesbite beer. Very nice and summery, under the falling petals of the wisteria. We have needed the shade over the past couple of days, it has been very hot. Really, it’s no joke this weather. What is going on? I expect next week we’ll have snow! Anyway, thank you to mother for the gammon.

Mother wanted some cake forks, so I got her these at the bootsale which we went to the other week. They are 1970’s. Nothing special, but they are all right.




I went tasting this afternoon. Lots of chicken, nine different sorts, in fact. And then five different fruit tarts. You will be glad to know that I didn’t have any dinner, just a water biscuit and a bottle of beer.

Quiz 958
People say that if your shoes squeak ……………..
a) you will either get married or divorced within the year
b) it’s going to be a long, hot summer
c) sometime in the near future you will be rich
d) you haven’t paid for them

Yesterday’s was c)