Thoughts from Rosbercon

Another lovely day. Real June weather. Expended a lot of energy mowing, but there's more to do. Played some enjoyable bridge, with different opps to yesterday. Dog seems happier.

It's been a lovely day here, and we played bridge with friends, and I managed to get some lawn mowing done. But we're dog sitting at the moment. Actually, I prefer cats, but I like the dog we're looking after, our neighbours'. However, he looked so sad and folorn when I put him to bed, it made me a bit sorry too.

We had my brother and sister in law round for lunch today, which was enjoyable. We had our first local strawberries of the year: sweet and juicy (and on special offer at ALDI).

It's stopped raing. Goodness me the grass needs cutting though. Tomorrow perhaps? Watch this space.

Apart from going to church I seem to have done precisely nothing today yet it shot by. OK, I surfed a bit, read the Sunday Independent ("Sindo") and when the rain finally stopped did a bit of gardening. Oh yes and I won at Scrabble and cooked a corn beef hash. Well, perhaps not "precisely nothing".

Well, after a tiring day yesterday, I woke uo at 0845. That seems to have shortened the day. It was put aside for lawn mowing but, alas, there's been constant drizzle. Odd, because our trusty barometer (bequeathed by my late father-in-law) said it would be fine. How wrong can you get? I mean it's a Bank Holiday weekend here in Ireland. Ah well, the farmers love it. "Just the right sort of rain", they tell me.

I look back to not that long ago, and I seemed to be able to cram so much into a day: a long working week, a tough job, watching football, tending an allotment, making wine. And now? Well, I feel I've had an exhausting day. But all I've done is a quick shop at Aldi, a bit of cooking and paperwork, and got stuck in a traffic jam (2 miles in half an hour). Am I getting old?

It really rained hard in the night, and for the first part of the morning, but this afternoon was lovely, so I spent some time in the garden and washed the car too. I would not have done so had not a child wiped ice cream on the door while it was in the car park.

Then all sorts of telephone calls, e-mails, knocks on door etc from friends and family until we settled down at nine to watch the Queen Camilla programme. She seems OK, but then I'm 62.

We had some good, soft rain this morning, and things are coming on a lot better in my veggie garden now. But it was fine enough in the afternoon for me to plant out some cabbage seedlings and hang out some washing too. Meantime we had various friends looking in for coffee, bridge, etc. And I even got time for some reading!

Well, it's a strange world we live in. The Irish Times referred to England having its usual Bank Holiday weather but where I live in Ireland we had very little rain. But don't despair: in the Republic we have our Bank Holiday next Monday. I'm sure it'll rain then,

What was the weather like in England today? Reading the forecast, I wondered if Michael Fish had been brought out of retirement for your Bank Holiday. Here the heavy rain and strong winds did not materialise, so I was able to get out and do a bit of hedge clipping, and plant some broccoli seeds. I have an awful feeling that the birds are attacking my runner bean seedlings.

Only twelve at church today. We had a lay reader from Co Wicklow, since both our readers were otherwise engaged, and our Rector has left us for foreign parts.