Thursday 5th July 2021

Still home alone.

Oddly, the cats are not too clingy, though I have Cleo with me most the night, and when he hears me stir at just after five, Mulder comes to let me know its breakfast time.

I get up and feed the cats, then face facts that there isn't enough coffee for a pot. I try to make some with some old grinds and what was left in the caddy, but what came out was brown hot water, really. I think about it, and decide to go to Tesco before work, mainly to get coffee.

It was sunny, but soon mist rises and I was driving through dreamy scenes to Whitfield and parking in Tesco. I get coffee. And biscuits. And crackers. And tasted crunchy corn. Just the essentials.

Back home to put the coffee pot on and a proper brew. I would just inject it into my veins if I could, but have to make do with the old fashioned drinking.

I am back and all brewed up in time for seven, and soon I am firing on maybe three cylinders, if not all four, which isn't bad.

In writing the post about the lawnmeadow, I realised I hadn't taken many pictures of the Ox Eye Daisies, so once the fog burned off, I put that right.

Work was steady. A few meetings and getting stuff done, but other items is stacking up, with different IT issues not helping. It is the modern way, I suppose.

There is more leftovers for lunch; crispbake with curried rice and asparagus, which goes down well at just after eleven. And with the sun now shining, it felt warmer. Warm enough to have one door open, though not both. I have the front door open for Poppy, and she is in and out now, fearless, pretty much and not sneaking out, walking out, tail bouncing along.

The afternoon drags, and I should have gone for a walk, but I find a reason for not going out. Maybe it was butterfly watching? As we had several Painted Ladies in, and a crisp looking Small Tortoiseshell, all feeding on the White Valarian near to the back door, meaning i am easily distracted when I should be doing other stuff like washing up or making a brew.

I remember now, I do load the cameras in the car, and I see clouds building in the west, so I decide to stay at home and in a turn up, I do some gardening. The heavy rain had caused the buds on our two roses to get damp and rot before they opened, going mouldy as before they bloomed. I have to prune them all off and even those that looked ok, shed their petals with just a brush of my hand. Maybe they'll bloom again.

And again there is no football to watch, that starts up tomorrow with the quarter-finals, so there is just the radio, and wait for word from Jools that she arrived in Manchester OK.

There is a small aubergine in the fridge, so I prepare it and then shallow fry it, adding a bowl of olives to go with it.

No meat.

But lots of squash.

I listen to the radio, watch train videos, and Jools calls just before nine, them all having returned from an Italian restaurant after two glasses of prosecco; she was a tad squiffy.

But happy that she had arrived safely, I go to bed.