Sniper Keith!

The forecast thunderstorms arrived this morning with loud rumbles and torrential rain. At least the gardens benefitted! It was warm and humid, though, but everything is looking a lot greener now with the rainfall we've had recently.

I mooched about all morning and did some housework. I seem to be constantly sweeping our kitchen floor at the moment and I've said there's a "crumb monster" about, scattering bits everywhere! We must do it three or four times a day!

Sophie drove over to Vikesh's house and they went for lunch at a deli in Castle Ashby. I contented myself with a fish finger sandwich! Keith has been eating pulled pork now since Wednesday when he bought himself a joint to have for dinner. He had a mound of it in a sandwich for his brunch, and I could hear him munching on the crackling from the other room!

Lunch a la Janie!

After having a lovely invigorating shower in the afternoon, I caught up with Wimbledon and the Tour de France upstairs and had a sneaky nap. I took an antihistamine tablet last night for a skin allergy and I think it makes me very sleepy, even though it's a non-drowsy brand. Or maybe it's the heat!

Sophie arrived back home at about 5.30pm and we watched the end of a tennis match between Alcaraz and Jarry that had been going on for a considerable time. I don't know these players any more - apart from Djokovic and Andy Murray, of course, I have no idea who they are! Federer has retired, Nadal isn't playing this year and Kyrgios pulled out at the last minute because of injury. How I long for the old days when McEnroe, Connors, Lendl and Borg were playing. The tennis stars seemed to be real characters then!

Unfortunately, Keith spotted our ratty friend this evening and went and grabbed the air rifle. To cut a long and painful story short, he killed the rodent, and when we ventured out into the garden to get rid of the corpse, neither of us could believe how big it was. It must have been the biggest rat we've ever had in the garden.

The rat

Sophie was furious with us, but we both said we didn't want it in the garden, and the other week it was actually chasing the birds! I know pretty much that another will take its place, but at least for the time being we're rat-free and Keith is an excellent sniper. He's obviously missed his vocation in life! I always said he should have been in the army!