Friday's Fave Five - 31/7/26

Susanne keeps us on our toes and reminds us each Friday to look back on the week and remember the good things and blessings in our lives.  Thank you Susanne.  You can join in here.

1)  I'm writing this looking out onto another sunny day but it's cooler.  We've had temperatures in the low 30s a couple of days this week but today we're back to the high 20s.  Just that few degrees makes a big difference.  And the air feels fresher today too.  I should probably make the most of that to get some housework done but I think I'm going to have a lazy day today because:

2)  Yesterday was an extremely busy day at the Foodbank.  We were given a huge delivery of food which included a lot of fresh vegetables but also a huge amount of meat products including burgers, meatballs, various cuts of chicken, pork mince, lamb mince and lots and lots of pizzas.  It's wonderful to be given so much food (it comes from Amazon) but it does mean hard work sorting it all, storing it and of course giving it out to our beneficiaries.  We were also able to extend our jacket potato menu - usually we just do them with baked beans and/or cheese but we were low on cheese yesterday.  However we had some pots of coleslaw and tuna and sweetcorn in the delivery so we used those to make the potatoes more interesting.  They went down well.  So well that they used all the ones that had been oven cooked and were doing extras in the microwave.  I'm so grateful to be part of this community and able to help those who are less fortunate.

3)  A nice book group evening yesterday.  I wrote about that here.

4)  A flying visit from our eldest son and his family overnight on Wednesday.  They arrived back from visiting our other son in Vermont early on Wednesday and stayed overnight before heading home yesterday morning.  They were all a bit jet lagged but it was lovely to see them and hear all about their trip.  They had a wonderful time and our DIL had been great at taking lots of photos and posting them on Instagram for us to follow along.

5)  I managed to get to my keep fit class on Tuesday.  The first time in a few weeks.  As usual we went for coffee (tea for me) afterwards and one of our other friends joined us with her granddaughter.  This particular friend used to come to the class but since her daughter went back to work she's been looking after her granddaughter 2 days a week so we haven't seen as much of her.  On Tuesday when she arrived at the café  the granddaughter promptly fell asleep so we were able to have a good catch up.  

I hope you've all had a good week and have a lovely weekend.

Read then Write - 30/7/26

Well I'm still not back into regular reading.  We're just coming out of another really hot spell and I'm finding it hard to just sit and read.  I've also been quite busy at the Food Bank.  Today I didn't get home until nearly 2.30 pm and I actually took a nap.  I find the heat exhausting.

But this evening one of the book groups met to discuss Hamnet.  Thankfully I had finished the book and although some people hadn't managed to read it we still had quite a good discussion about it before we wandered onto other subjects as we usually do!  We sat out in our host's garden and it was lovely and cool.  One member even remarked that it was a little bit too chilly.  It felt like we might get some rain.  There were one or two drops in the air but it didn't come to anything.

We seriously need rain.  There are several areas where there have been fires.  Nothing on the scale of those in France and Spain but it's still a worry.

I'm off to read in bed now, hopefully having napped this afternoon I'll manage a few pages before nodding off!

This is my current read:

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 29/7/26

Joyce provides the questions, we think of some answers and then we join up here.  Thank you Joyce.

1. What was the last thing you celebrated? 

My birthday back in June.  We had brunch with our US grandkids and family before heading home after a lovely visit.

2 July 29th is International Day of the Tiger. Besides the wild animal itself, when you hear the word tiger what's the first  person-place-thing-whatever that comes to mind? 

Probably the "Eye of the Tiger" song or "The Tiger who came to Tea".  (Yes I'm a grandparent lol,)

3. The expression 'eye of the tiger' describes someone with intense focus, determination, and the drive to succeed. What area of your life are you currently bringing that kind of energy to?  

Well being retired and happy in our home, I don't have the same drive I had when I was younger.  I do put a lot of time and focus into the two book clubs I'm a member of - I'm usually the one to send out reminders/polls etc on our WhatsApp groups.

4. What was the last meal you cooked? 

I cooked today - pasta with a ham and leek sauce.  I don't do much of the cooking but Hubby was eating out with friends tonight and our son and his family were here for the night so I cooked for me and them.

5. Describe your July using exactly five words. 

Busy, chaotic and uncomfortably hot!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I've never been a great one for drinking water but during the hot spells we've had over the last month or so I have been drinking lots of it - and making sure there's always ice in the freezer!

Dehydrated is not a good thing to be.

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.