An overdue Waffle - 27/7/26

Saturday was quite a busy day - I was at the Foodbank accepting a delivery Saturday morning.  Thankfully one of the other volunteers, Sally, was there too and the people bringing the goods were fairly early so we were finished by 10.30 am.  The previous week when I had been on my own was much later.

Anyway it gave me time to relax a little bit before collecting grandchildren Nathan and Ella.  Their Mummies were going to an adults only party in the afternoon so we had them from early afternoon into the evening.  Thankfully we had some of "Grandpa's Bolognese" sauce in the freezer which they love so that made an easy dinner.

They were actually quite good while they were here and it wasn't too late when I took them home.

I declared Sunday to be a day of rest.  I was quite lazy all day although I did manage a walk around the lake in the early evening once it started to cool down.   It's been weeks since I've managed that for various reasons and my goodness the cygnets have grown!

Not easy to see as they were bunched up and the parents were still being quite protective but there are still 6 cygnets.  Hopefully they should all make it to adulthood and then the fun will begin when the parents start chasing them away from home.  That won't be until the end of the year though.

We had a nice downpour on Saturday morning.  The first rain we've had for a while and it didn't last for long.  We're now under a hosepipe ban.  And while on the subject of water, they changed our water meter on Saturday morning which meant turning the supply off for about 15 minutes.  Thankfully I'd just showered!

This week we're supposed to get temperatures in the 30s (C) again so I will probably have time for blogging because I won't be doing anything energetic!

Have a good week all.

Friday's Fave Five - 24/7/26

Friday again so time to look back on the week and list the blessings.  Susanne keeps us on our toes and we join up here.

1)  Fresh water.  I'm not a fan of bottled water and I certainly don't like fizzy water so I'm thankful that we have drinkable water from the tap here, particularly while it's been so hot.  I've been drinking lots more than usual.  Some areas in London this week were without water due to burst water mains so I'm especially grateful that we weren't affected by that.

2)  Apparently today is National Cousins Day in the US.  Who knew?  Anyway I am blessed with several cousins that I'm close to and one of them became a grandmother again yesterday.  This comes at the end of a very long journey for her daughter, and is actually a rainbow baby so very precious.  

3)  Getting back to normality and routines.  I was definitely out of sorts after our holiday and while our daughter and her family were here.  The excessive heat didn't help either.  But this week it's been a bit cooler and I've managed to get back on track with my usual routines, reading and blogging.

4)  Dinner sorted tonight courtesy of the Foodbank.  Occasionally we get things donated that we can't give out to beneficiaries - anything containing alcohol for example.  Volunteers are offered the chance to take advantage of this and Hubby and I will be having a lasagne each tonight that has red wine in it.

5)  A knit and natter session on Wednesday - well a natter session for me.  I'd been doing some knitting before I went and somehow managed to leave one of my needles at home!  It was still nice to get out of the house though and catch up with friends.

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 23/7/26

Well this might be a short post as, although the last one of these posts was done on 11th June, (yes 6 weeks ago!) I have only managed to read 2 books during that time.   Yes I know, that is most unlike me.  Of course we were on holiday and then we came home to a houseful of family so I really didn't have it in me to do much reading.

But, I finally finished this one earlier this week:

It was a book club read and several people rated it highly.

I'm on the fence.  

I can understand why people rave about it. It follows the lives of two young Nigerians, Ifemelu and Obinze as they navigate life in America (for Ifemelu) and the UK (for Obinze) there is a lot about race and immigration, written from a black perspective. Both subsequently return to Nigeria where much has changed.

It is a really good book but for me it was just too long and it took a long time for me to get hooked enough to read it consistently. I hadn't even finished it when the book club met to discuss it. It's also quoted as being funny but I failed to find much humour in it.

Another complaint we had was that the edition we had from the library was very small print. The page number was 477. I noted another edition as having 588 pages. That probably had an average sized print and confirmed my suspicions that this is a very long book!

This one was a much easier read and I finished it in two days:

Our evening book group will be discussing it next week.  I really enjoyed it but I do think it's been overhyped.  

These are the next two book club reads:

I've actually read Lessons in Chemistry and loved it so that will be an easy re-read for me.  The Atwood one is a collection of short stories and is less than 300 pages so hopefully that one won't be too difficult to get through.  It will also tick one of the 52 Book club prompts - "starts with an O" so that will help get me back on track with that challenge.  I have some catching up to do!

Have you read much over the summer so far?

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 22/7/26

Joyce provides the questions each week and then we link up our answers here.  Why not join in the fun?

1. Do your goals and dreams energize or exhaust you? Elaborate. 

I think they can do both.  Trying to meet goals or make a dream happen can be hard work and therefore exhausting sometimes.  But when a plan falls in place or a goal is met it the feeling of success can be energising.

2. July 23rd is national lemon day. Are you a fan of this flavour? What's a favourite dish or beverage you enjoy that calls for lemons? 

Not my favourite flavour but I don't dislike it.  I enjoy a lemon meringue pie or a lemon tart.  I'll drink lemonade (unless it's homemade and really tart!) but don't bother serving me lemon tea thank you.

3. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"...is this something you're pretty good at managing? Have you had to do this recently? If so tell us about it. 

I haven't had to do this recently and probably not quite the same thing but when I left my job (not of my own choosing) and was feeling a bit lost I ended up in the right place to help a relative going through cancer treatment.

4. Something you love that is lemon yellow in colour? 

Daffodils.

5. How would you describe your attention to detail? 

Absorbing!  I can end up going down rabbit holes with planning things sometimes lol.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Our temps have dropped this week to mid 20s (C) so it's much more comfortable and sleeping has been better too.  I'm sure the extreme heat will return at some point but for now I'm enjoyed summertime.