Thursday 22nd July 2021

The last day of Jools' working week.

At five she will be done with the office until Monday morning. I will have Friday to work though, but then I have no commute.

Swings and roundabouts.

It is yet another glorious day in the Garden of England, though as you would expect that is going to change for the weekend when we will have thunderstorms and strong winds.

Deep joy.

Jools now takes it easy in the mornings, taking time to have a shower and spend time in the garden, but is surprised when she come in to find me already having started work.

Is it late?

Well, five past seven.

I say. She make her herbal tea and leaves for work, the cats are already on their post-breakfast snooze, though Cleo will come down a few times to ask for some more food/affection/attention. Or whatever. And is so cute doing it, I give in. Always.

There are meetings, as always. And I have to get my audit report written, they don't write themselves, apparently. And then Henrik calls: but it can't be Henrik as he is on holiday. As I tell him. He had mails, he said. Don't look at mails on holiday.

He wanted to chat, he said. Sometimes talking about frustrations with someone going through the same problems really helps.

Hello. My name is Ian, and I am a quality manager.

That first step is always the hardest.

I get a series of mails: was I interested in being a quality manager at a pre-assembly site?

OK, where?

Middlesborough the recruiter writes back instantly.

Well, if its Able Seaton, I can't work there for the customer as I work for the contractor and I know shit, and anyway, my contract doesn't allow it. Not straight away.

He never writes back.

A nother new dawn fades.

I plough on with work, writing the summary is the hardest, how to be critical without being too hard on them.

That takes two hours.

And I will sleep on it before sending in the morning.

I go for a walk.

The plan had been to walk up Station Road to the furthest track and walk along to Windy Ridge.

But as soon as I walked past the bus stop at the top of the hill I could see the combine harvester.

Now, I had thought it would be weeks before the harvest could begin due to the recent heavy rain making the ground too wet to have heavy machinery on it, but chalk downland drains quick and then dries, as I walked beside the field, kepping pace with the harvester, where two weeks ago there were mud baths, there was clay almost as hard as concrete.

I take several pictures, and again as I walked up the final slope to the wood, looking back as the machine emptied its hoppers into a waiting tractor pulled wagon.

It feels that summer is already drawing to an end.

As I walk up the hill between two fields, several clumps of knapweed had freshly emerged Painted Ladies feeding on them. They looked amazing in the sunshine, colours so bright. I take lots of shots, and one showed me its underwings.

But beyond that, I saw few other butterflies, the Gatekeepers I did see were too flighty and a Holly Blue flittered by without stopping.

I walked down the hill back to Collingwood, then down the lane to the track that leads to our house. Back in time for lunch.

Lunch is a bagel packed with cream cheese and a pint of squash. And I can report I have just about kept the gout at bay for the week, so twinges, but mostly OK.

Which is nice.

Odd now there is no football in the evening and no cycling in the afternoon, so once work is done, I mow the main part of the lawnmeadow, leaving two small areas; one where the Pyramidal is setting seed, and the other which is fill of Musk Mallows, now climbing through and over the hedge into next door.

I rake the meadow and will leave for a couple of days to dry out.

Is that the time? I make dinner, breaded chicken, fried potatoes, garlic mushrooms and creamed spinach. All the food groups.

And it is all very nice indeed.

Jools had come home via M&S, so had bought macaroons, so we have three mini ones with coffee as the light began to fade as another high summer day fades into night.

A soft yellow almost full moon rises. I take shots.

There was silence, it seemed magical.