05-Aug to 11-Aug 2012

Sun 05-Aug: Here's Barry and me heading off down The Ouse in the inflatable canoe borrowed by Chris. Connor, Sammy and Chris accompanied us in the inflatable Chris had just bought for his birthday. Lucky this is a still image... we spent all of the trip downwards veering from one bank to the other, occasionally doing a complete 360 degree turn, while I got the hang of steering. The oars wouldn't have been needed if it had been a windy day... my ears could have acted as sails.

Mon 06-Aug: Here's my great hope for the flower and produce show on 01-Sep and the Good Gourd! challenge with Richard and Mark... the first appearance of a growing gourd. Suspect a lot of gamesmanship going on; Richard says his gourds are at about the same stage, Mark claims he hasn't a clue about his, he planted the seeds and that was it. With only a month to go, will I have anything decent to display, or will magnifying glasses need to be issued beforehand?

Tue 07-Aug: That doesn't look quite right, does it? Putting up window blinds always causes me problems... one or more of the brackets never quite fitting our windows, or where I want to drill a hole is already full of inappropriate holes from previous blinds, and finally getting the right wall plug and trying not to stick one in that doesn't work and I can't then get out. This wonky stage was reached after several hours work the previous day. Took me another three hours of more fiddling around, including another set of holes drilled and a reshaping of the wall brackets, before the blind was finally up, secure and straight. Still got another hour or so of repainting around the brackets and fixing a masking strip against the window.

Wed 08-Aug: Here's grandmother and granddaughter ambling along between fields of corn north of Somersham on a warm still morning... so still the wind turbines are static. Connor and me are some distance behind, searching for fossils along the field edges. The walk was followed up with lunch in Mary's Tearooms.

Thu 09-Aug: Waiting for the bus to Cambridge, was rather glad I was wearing my zip off trousers... although cool when we started walking, waiting in the sunshine the pins were starting to get rather warm. I know... I'll zip the legs off and convert to shorts! Having spent some time struggling to get the first leg over my boots, Linda asked what would happen if the bus arrived right now. Good point! Don't think it helped her blood pressure when I delayed doing the other leg to take a snap.

Fri 10-Aug: How can a dog that tries to savage anything on four legs be so afraid of a bit of old pipe? Here's mad jasmine nervously approaching said pipe. Mind you, he had been good dog-wise, but only because I'd spoken sternly to him as each foe approached. He flipped over on to his back each time in his 'Who, me? I wouldn't do anything wrong! Why don't you tickle my tummy.' pose... though I could see his eyes glancing to the side to try and catch a view of his latest opponent.

Sat 11-Aug: Doesn't look much, does it? But this is the result of a couple of hours work weeding the patio. Got about a third of it done, and still to level back the paving slabs, but it felt really good to start the task of updating the whole garden. Still haven't decided what to replace the slabs with.