Saturday 7th July 2018

Saturday

England v Sweden day.

But first, shopping. After coffee.

Even by seven in the morning, it was already hot. Damn hot.

And I read a post on FB yesterday from those two Assies I took round the orchid sites in May, and yes, they're still in the UK, though near to going home. But they say it feels as hot here as it does at home, but in the UK there is so little air con, so no respite from the heat.

Which I suppose is true. Mum has air con, but very few other do, so we make do with opening windows to get a draught through the house, but for the most part, it don't work too well. The back of our house faces south, so gets the heat of the day, all day onto it, and it heats the rest of the house. Of course in a normal year the one or two days when the weather is warm enough you can cope, but we are about to enter into the sixth week of drought, and high temperatures. In the north, moorland burns, either set on fire by landowners on their grouse moors, or kids wanting a thrill.

Down here, we have no more than nine inches of top soil sitting on top of hundreds of feet of chalk, so any rain we get drains away quick, which normally would be a good thing, but now, it means that our garden is turning to dust, unless we water, or whilst we're able to.

Official drought is just around the corner, I guess. Last time they called a drought we had six months of almost unending rain.

We shall see.

Tesco was a breeze, we zip round quick, getting what we need, very little extras. But there is strawberries, raspberries and cream. Lots of cream.

Back home I cook bacon, which we woolf down and the only plan for the day is to walk over the fields to the top of the Dip, just because I haven't done it that much recently.

We walk out along the street, it being quiet enough I walk in the middle of the street, because it feels like a fun thing to do. Along the track beyond, the trees and shrubs on both sides are growing like crazy, sloes have formed, as have elderberries, and on the other side there is the blossom of blackberries. We might have a bumper harvest.

THe fields have not been sowed this year, so a mix of peas and barley are growing, unkempt for hundreds of metres. Along the path there is White Campion, Burdock, Lady's Bedstraw, Meadowsweet, various sorts of thistles and dandelions, all looking great in the bright sunshine.

The path to Collingwood is now so overgrown that there is hardly room for a person to walk down, but there are still few butterflies in the glade even though the buddleia is already in flower.

The pigs have grown, but are at the other end of the wood from us, so we let them forage for food, just seeing movement of the black spots on their flanks.

Down the dip to the metal gate, I take a shot of the track the other side for the fan club, then we turn for home, retracing the steps to get home the quicker way as the heat was really now overpowering.

We have iced squash once home, put Huey on the radio, and relax inside whilst the temperature rises further outside.

We wait for three for the game to begin, England v Sweden, I even watch some of the build up, and settle down with what was left of the beer from lunch.

The game kicks off, and England are nervous, certainly for 20 minutes, then they start the passing, and soon take the lead from a header, and from that moment the result wasn't really in doubt. Half time comes and goes, and on the hour, Alli scores a second header, and that was really that.

We thought England would find a way to mess up, but they don't, although some great keeping from Pickford meant that Sweden failed to score.

And that was that, full time, and England through, playing at maybe 60%, lots more in the tank, and in the evening, Russia and Croatia played 120 hard minutes, then went to penalties before Russia were out. England now play Croatia on Wednesday, and just maybe.... Lets go to bed as England's Dreaming......