Thank goodness… everything seems a month late, but temperatures are up somewhat, and the sun has even shone. So much so that I was able to give the grass in the back garden its first cut of the summer yesterday. There is quite a bit of moss in it, and weed, so I am going to have to do something about that. But it was nice to enjoy the sun in the garden. We have had a new path put in at the end of the garden, and a wall to bed up to, and a new frame for the apple and pear trees to grow around. What with the raised beds that were put in a little time back, we have done plenty for the garden this year. Tricia just wants some better weather so that she can start planting out some items. Hopefully she will be able to do so this week. Here are some pics, some daffodils finally in bloom.

It has been a busy weekend. I was asked to do some shopping on the way home on Friday, when I got in I had to help Tricia tidy up a few bits before we had Alan and Rachel, and Pete and Sara join us for a ‘curry evening’. Plenty of laughs till we all started to fade. By the time Tricia and I had tidied up it was midnight before we got to bed. Then yesterday evening we were entertaining again, Pat and Clive, Bob and Carole, and Peter and Jane joined us for a Shakespeare evening. Tricia did and Elizabethan spread, and we all did some parts of Sheakespeare plays or sonnets, throughout the evening. We had a splendid time, lots of laughing. Again by the time we went to bed, it was past midnight. Here are some pics… first we have a view of us reading some Shakespeare, a picture of Jane… and then Clive reading from Henry V, ‘once more unto the breach’…etc

Here we have … Pat laughing at Clive, one of the desserts – a ginger cake served with plums, and then we finally got of the chairs and started playing out a scene from Midsummer Nights Dream.

Then…. Peter is the wall, I am Pyramus, and Pat is Thisby in the ‘play within a play’, and then Pyramus dies, and Thisby kills herself  

This morning Nikki and Ellie joined Tricia and me at church, where we did the family prayers. Back home I cooked lunch, and then finally flopped down this afternoon exhausted. The problem with the late nights is that I don’t always sleep in. Most work days I am up at around 5:30am, at the weekends if I sleep till 6:30 / 7 am I have done well, and I have always been the sort of person that once I am awake I tend to get up.

Nikki has been the go ahead from the Bobsleigh management to work in Germany / Switzerland over the summer, and so she is trying to secure a job as a physiotherapist in Basle for the summer. Ellie has been back at school this week, she is involved in a production called ‘Rock Challenge’ which is a schools dance competition. She is off with the school to the competition itself on Tuesday…. the coach leaves at 5:30am…. good grief. She was in a netball tournament in the week. This afternoon she has been at her friends Jess for her 13th birthday. As ever, she is a busy girl. Rob is back at Uni, he has submitted his final dissertation, although he still has some other work to complete it’s not long left at Uni now. In the week he submitted a form for us to see him when he graduates. Nikki went across to see Robbie and his mate Jordan on Saturday evening.

I picked up my new glasses yesterday. I had an eye test in the week, and whilst my distance version is in excellent shape, my reading glasses are now up to 2x instead of 1.75x. The optician though said my eyes are looking good, and that she doesn’t expect me to need anything stronger than a 2x next time I go.

I have been preparing for the ‘Swimathon’ recently, and the big swim day is next Saturday…. I really do notice that my ‘recovery’ periods between long swims is a lot longer than it used to be. there was a time in my 30’s when I would swim between 80 and a 100 lengths most days before work. If I do a 100 now on one day, I need to rest the next day. Oh well, I should be ok for the 200 I have to do next Saturday.

Last Saturday Tricia and I went to see Mousetrap, at Aylesbury theatre, which was ok… West Ham won yesterday, so that pretty much guarantees another season in the Premier League. In a couple of weekes I am taking Ellie to see West Ham against Newcastle.