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.

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.

Highlights of Summertime in Vermont, June 2026

Well firstly it was lovely to be able to visit our son and his family in Vermont in the summertime.  Our last 3 visits have all been at Thanksgiving so it has been very cold and there has been snow!  A lot of snow.

But travelling to them is not for the faint-hearted.  Heathrow offers the best flight options but getting to Heathrow takes time.  Firstly we have to get to our local station.  It's about a 10 minute walk but we usually jump on the bus - our cases were heavy!  The train takes us down to Liverpool Street in central London where we can get the Elizabeth line straight through to Heathrow.  Well apart from the comfort stop for me at Paddington.

Yes we could get a cab but traffic conditions are unpredictable or yes we could drive and park but that's expensive and the flights were already way more expensive this summer.  Who knew about some football tournament taking place?

Anyway that's what we usually do but, because we had a morning flight which would have meant being up really early and catching the first train out from our station, and we had family staying in the house, we opted to travel close to the airport the day before and stay overnight in a hotel which was on a shuttle bus route to the terminal.  This made things so much easier and we'll probably do it again.

Once at Heathrow we sorted out the glitch in the airline system which wouldn't let us check in online.  Despite having entered my new passport details on the booking etc it was still showing my old details so computer kept saying NO!

Our flight to Boston was fine and we arrived about 5 minutes early and we were able to catch an earlier bus than we'd planned which was good.  We use a company called Dartmouth Coach which gets us as far as Lebanon in New Hampshire and takes about 2 1/2 hours, depending on traffic etc.

In Lebanon we were met by our wonderful hosts Paul and Crystal, (our son's in-laws) who drove us on to Barre which takes another hour.

It's a long trek but so worth it to be able to give these two real hugs!

                            

and of course to catch up with our son Michael and DIL Elizabeth.

On our first full day we took a hike up to a place called Owl's Head lookout which is in the Groton State Forest area.

Rather than just park at the look out and walk up to the view we opted to do what was supposed to be a 1 mile hike first.  Well that turned out to be nearer to 2 miles!  But the views were worth it.

Thankfully the boys are good walkers and despite just a few moans from Vinny we made it up to the lookout and then back down and back along the path to the car.  

Of course walking in woodlands does carry it's own risks.  We saw a garter snake and I managed to not have a panic attack.  My DIL reassured me that there are no venomous snakes in Vermont.  

I also acquired this delightful creature:

Hard to tell from the photo but it's actually a tick which Crystal carefully removed for me.  I then spent some time doing a thorough search of the bed and my clothes from the previous day as I didn't notice it until the following morning!  I've also kept a close eye out for any sign of infection but I seem to have escaped with no ongoing effects.

Another walk we did was to the biggest waterfall in Vermont:

This was a much easier walk and on the way back we had time to visit the Ben & Jerry's factory.  It wasn't as exciting as it might have been because the factory was actually closed as it was Juneteenth but we still got the tour and the ice cream tasters.

My DIL is a teacher so she was able to be our driver and tour guide while we were there.  Unfortunately, like most people working in America my son does not get a lot of annual leave which he is saving for when he visits us at Christmas and for when his brother and family visit.  (That's happening now.)  He's also coming over for a wedding in September and will stay for a week to catch up with family and friends here.  But of course we saw him most evenings and at the weekend.  

It was Father's Day while we were there so Paul and Crystal hosted a BBQ at their house so we got to catch up with their other kids and partners.  I also got to see a performance by the choir that Elizabeth has joined.  (She has a lovely singing voice.)

Her grandparents also came to watch so it was nice to have a brief catch up with them.

On the Monday Elizabeth, the boys, her parents took us to the Millstone Trails Hike which is on the site of a former quarry.  There is a lot of granite in Vermont!

The boys enjoyed following a story trail.

We also did a trip to the Shelborne Museum but I'll do a separate post on that as I have lots of photos from that day.

We went out for meals with both my son and DIL and on another evening our hosts.  We had some lazy days too and of course there were some football matches that had to be watched but at least they were at more civilized times than if we'd been at home.

And then all too soon it was time to leave.  We went out for brunch in the morning:

Rory finds it hard to pose for photos while Vinny has no such problem:

And then Elizabeth drove us to Lebanon on the first leg of the long journey home which began on the Friday and ended at lunchtime on Saturday!  We love being able to visit them, I just wish someone could invent a transporter to just get us there a lot more easily!

Still catching up! - 19/7/26

Firstly thank you for all the kind comments on my last post, it's nice to be missed!

Secondly is anyone else having trouble with blogger?  I always used to get an email when someone commented on my blog but that doesn't seem to be happening at the moment so I'm having to check for comments manually so to speak.  It's also not showing all your new posts in my reading list so again I'm having to look out for your posts in other ways.  I've set up Feedly but haven't really got to grips with it yet.

Yes I know, first world problems!

I'm still playing catch up with cleaning my house and doing laundry but today it's forecast to only get to 22°C so hopefully I'll be more productive.  We even needed the duvet on last night - we've been using just a sheet or sometimes nothing it's been so hot but last night got a bit chilly.

It also got a bit noisy as hubby mistakenly alarmed the whole house instead of just the night time setting so when I got up to use the bathroom (as I always do!) I set off the house alarm.  Thankfully I was able to silence it quickly.  We were out of the habit of setting the alarm while our daughter and her family, particularly the cat, were staying here as it would have been going off every night.

Again, first world problems.

Sooo....I really need to clean my kitchen floor but I'm still trying to catch up on all your blogs,  I'm still trying to finish this book:

I should have finished it by last Wednesday for the book club meeting but I've found it hard going.  But if you know me you'll know I hate not finishing a book.

And I need to sort out my photos and do a holiday blog post.

Can you see my kitchen floor? No?  Well that's ok then.

Friday's Fave Five - 17/7/26

My poor computer is feeling neglected.  Today is the first day I've turned it on since 14th June!  Which was just before we went on holiday.  We had a lovely time and I hope to blog about it soon.  We came home to find that our daughter and her family (wife and 2 children) were still here while there were works going on at their house.  Long story short, they went home on Tuesday evening.

We have also had an extended heatwave and while they were here we also had their cat which is an indoor cat.  It made keeping the house cool difficult and I think the cat (Milo) should be renamed Houdini because he became very good at escaping, usually to the garden but on a couple of occasions he was on the flat roof of our kitchen/diner extension.  It's been an eventful time and I really felt like I had no mental capacity for blogging.  I've even struggled with reading.

However, there are always things to be thankful for and Susanne reminds us each week to share our thoughts and link up here.

1)  Firstly I'm thankful that we had a lovely holiday visiting our son and his family in Vermont.  It was so good to see them all.  Thanksgiving when we last visited was a long time ago!

2)  Thankful that we had safe travels there and back.  

3)  Thankful that I'm retired during this current heat wave as I'm sure I would find it hard to work.

4)  Thankful that we were able to host our daughter and family while their works were ongoing.  It took longer than we expected but I think they're pleased with the results and it will make a better use of their living spaces.

5)  Thankful that the temperatures have dropped in the last couple of days, particularly at night so sleep has been easier and I've had more energy during the day.

We hosted our elder son and his family here last night before they left to visit our other son in the US today but now I'm looking forward to having a quiet weekend with no visitors.  I really need some quiet time.

Have a good weekend all.