Warm today

I clearly shouldn't have mentioned the rain. It was back to temperatures in the thirties, clear skies, and not even a hint of rain. I was reduced to putting the sprinkler on in the hope that the grass outside the farmhouse hasn't died completely (that's what it looks like, though).

I spent the day doing little things punctuated by frequent cups of tea (there are three kilos of loose lapsang to be got through). So I improved the cover on the sand and gravel store - in time this will be the compost bin, really it will - and cleaned the pool, then swam in it (I had to check that the water was OK), dead-headed the roses - two of them look like they have a fatal disease - and then watered them just the same, cleaned the willow leaves out of the gutters - assisted by Aurelian, who clearly thought that me and ladders were a bad combination - I'd noticed the gutters were blocked when the storm arrived, evicted the redstart and her last remaining chick from the barn (now just outside the window, possibly complaining), thought about propping up the peach tree (there's already a branch broken on the apple from the weight of the fruit), hmm, that doesn't count as something I've done, does it?, read the rest of the appalling "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer (don't get me started on how bad it is. In fact I wish I hadn't bothered getting started on it myself), and took the wedding beer down to the Piganiols.

Then as twilight arrived and the day just began to cool down, I reheated yesterday's pork stew with home-grown apples (it's always better the second day - maybe it's the wine you have to add?) and - note for the future - just don't try cooking broccoli while writing up the blog. It'll be overcooked.