Saturday 7th August 2021

Our weather, in the south east of England is usually pretty static over summer. Little or no rain from April through July, maybe some showers or thunder storms in August. But, generally, no gales.

Saturday saw the 4th such gale system move through southern England, 45mph winds, rain and so little oportunity for macro photography. I had given thought to some church crawling, there is a church in west Kent, Barming, that I have tried to get inside four times over the last decade, never been open. I have their e mail addy now, I will arrange something. But an hour's drive there in wet and wild conditions did not interest me.

So, in the end, it was staying at home, drinking coffee, doing some gardening and then cooking a splendid lunch and trying to stay awake all afternoon.

Jools went for a haircut, I stayed home.

I did mow the last of the Musk Mallow and the area around the Pyramidal, collected the dried thatch and that was that.

THen the rain came.

So, with us going to Jen's in the evening, we had our bigmeal at lunch; and what a meal it was. Steaks the size of houses, fried potatoes, garlic mushrooms and steamed fresh corn. And we had pink fizz! Although I drank two litres of squash during the morning to ensure all crystals would be flush out later.

And dinner was excellent. And rather large, so large we didn't eat for 20 hours after, the steak nice and rare, just like my second wife hated.

And after washing up, then came the long struggle to stay awake. Jools watched Future Wars, or something on telly, so I went up to the bedroom to listen to the football, as the Football League kicked off, and this time, with fans. Lots of fans.

The difference to the games and the reporting was immense, and when a goal was scored, it was like being there, even if the teams playing were not the one I support. Norwich played Newcastle in their last pre-season game, and lost 3-0, so the Twitter massive had a meltdown and demanded we sign Messi on a free, or something. The season kicks off for us for real next week, with the small matter of a home game against someone called Liverpool.

But for now we should be celebrating that we are in the same league as Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea and the rest. We might even bloody a few noses in the process, or not. But that's why we come back year after year. Though a break of more than four weeks after the end of the Euos would have been nice.

We went to Jen's, it is Sylv's last weekend here as they all head north on Monday, as it is her son's birthday next week. So, one last night of five-handed cards, and Sylv in the house causing confusion, as she is so scatterbrained.

We have one game of meld, and all was going well until the final hand where it appears that we all adopted the same tactic of buying every card we could, so that for two goes, we ran out of cards in the pack. We had to operate under emergency rules and introduce a third joker to the pack. The pot had rolled over and now contained more than a pound, maybe even two.

Jen won, clearing the rest of us out.

And that is that, driving back home at quarter past nine, already dark, and roads very quiet indeed.

Clouds and winds had built during the evening, so no BBQs or garden parties of concerts taking place. We went to bed to the sound of the wind blowing.