Tuesday 5th July 2016

Another day in paradise.

However, another day in which I don't see the inside of an airport, which is a good thing, I can tell you.

Outside the sun shines though a cloudy sky, and looking at my Outlook calendar I see I have been invited to a five hour meeting on Skype. Oh this is going to be glorious.

So, once Jools has left for work, I make myself breakfast and a really strong cup of coffee and settle down to join the meeting.

The morning passes.

Lunchtime passes.

The first part of the afternoon passes.

And once that finishes, I go straight into another meeting. Oh lucky me. I mean, its not that I dislike meetings, but a day full of them means that no actual work gets done, or will have to be done later that day, or at some other point.

A day staring at a computer screen, with little or no breaks leaves me washed out, so at half three I have had enough and switch it off, go into the garden and water all the pots, fill up my small pond, and check on how the flowers growing are, and snap some of the most attractive. Yes, this is what all the work in planting the garden was about. Getting the colourful rewards. Talking of rewards, I spy a single red raspberry on the canes, so before the slugs beat me to it, I reach in, pick it and pop it in my mouth, and am overwhelmed by the strong summer flavour. The canes are full of growing berries, plenty enough for us and the rumtopf.

I make breaded chicken for dinner, along with some of Ainsley's lentil dahl, which is just perfect once cooked, Jools is home and so we sit down to eat whilst listening to Radcliffe and Maconie.

Somehow the evening slips through our fingers, and after sitting out on the patio watching the moths flitters in the white valarian, we go to bed as dusk falls, silence envelops the house and we fall to sleep.

Tomorrow we have an early start, as I am on my travels. Again.