Watching bats

Today has been exceedingly quiet at work as the weather has been warm and sunny. Why couldn't it have been like this at the weekend?

After work Sophie and I went for a walk down to the village and when we got  back I sat in the garden for a while with Monty, who is in disgrace again. On Sunday evening he was in Sophie's bedroom and he sprayed on her bedding...needless to say he's banned from the house again but as it's summer I don't think he minds. We just wonder why he keeps on doing it when we shout at him every time and chase him outside.

I took some photos of him:

Unfortunately I've stopped putting bird food out in the garden as we have been swamped with baby Starlings and all they do is mess everywhere, fight, squawk loudly and frighten off the little blue tits, sparrows and robins. Hopefully they will go off elsewhere and we can resume feeding the little birds in a few days.

After we got back from collecting Mike from Army Cadets, Keith and I poured ourselves a wee dram of Welsh whisky and sat in the garden to watch the bats. They fluttered about above us and one was very close, which was a bit scary!

Photo from a walk the other Sunday:

A brush with the law...

After school today I had to collect Mikey and take him to one of the police stations in Northampton...

A couple of weeks ago, when he was in Brixworth with some friends, they foolishly decided to start a fire in a derelict building. Two farmers caught them and demanded their names and addresses. The next night we had a visit from a very decent police officer who came into our house and had a chat with us and Mike about what had happened. He said that we would need to bring Mike down to a police station in Northampton for a formal interview as what they had done was classed as arson.

Naturally we were shocked and upset (although Mike had confessed the evening it had happened) but the police officer was very understanding and said that it was unlikely that he would have to go to court or end up with a conviction for what he'd, very stupidly, done.

So, this afternoon after school I collected a very nervous Mike and we drove into Northampton. We were early which pleased the police officer and we were led to an interview room where Mike was asked to give his version of events. Everything was recorded on tape and it was just like a crime drama on television. I fervently hoped that I would never have to set foot in the place again.

After the interview the police officer said that he wanted Mike to write a letter of apology to the owner of the building and then he would arrange for the three lads to pay a visit to the Fire station in Brixworth to learn about the consequences of starting fires and what could have happened to them if things had got out of hand. This was something that we talked about in the interview as the police officer said that things could have turned nasty.

We left with a feeling of relief and as soon as we got home Mike wrote his letter of apology. Both Keith and I hope that's he's learned his lesson from this as we definitely don't want any more dealings with the law!

Thwarted plans...

Today we'd planned on going to the South coast for the day, either Eastbourne or Brighton, but on waking this morning and having a look at the weather forecast, we decided to abandon our plans. The only area of the UK that was due some sunshine was the west and neither of us fancied going there as anywhere decent would have been too far away.

We let the kids stay in bed and went to get the Sunday papers and some sausages for a breakfast treat. The grey gloom of yesterday was still with us but the rain had stopped, which was something, I suppose!

Sophie and I decided to go to a rustic garden centre in Leicestershire at lunchtime and on the way I filled the car with diesel in Market Harborough and then programmed Gladys to take us to the village of Cotesbach, about half an hour away.

I vaguely knew the way but our SatNav wanted me to head back towards Northampton for some reason! I ignored her and for most of our drive on the A4304 towards Lutterworth she kept shrieking at me to go back. In the end I was forced to turn her off as when we got to the M1 she told me get on it and head south even though the village was about two miles away, on the other side of the motorway!

The car park was busy when we arrived and we had a quick look at all the garden ornaments first. The barn (it's called Garden Barn) was packed with trinkets, pots, little statues and witty signs and general tat, but it was very expensive (compared with Beckworth). I saw some garden lights for £42! There were only ten of them!

I was on the lookout for some metal boxes to fill with plants and attach to the wall in our gravel garden as the two we used to have there were old wine boxes and had rotted away. However, there was nothing at all that I liked so we decided to have a cup of tea and sit in the pleasant garden area. Two teas and two slices of cake were just under a tenner (gulp!) but at least we were able to soak up a tiny bit of sunshine for a little while even though it did cloud over again.

We had another look around the garden area but still nothing appealed so we got back into the car and decided to call into the much bigger and more commerical garden centre in Harlestone on the way home. I bought some little garden lights for a much more reasonable £10 and a little plaque for Maureen at work.

The weather had turned grey and horrible again so it was home to relax, look forward to steak pie for dinner and watch the first episode of Humans!

The unrelenting gloom...

Today has been truly horrible with a constant drizzle and leaden grey skies that put me in a bad mood! Certainly not the weather for gardening or doing anything outside. I just felt sorry for anyone getting married today!

Keith and I went off mid-morning to borrow a tool from Ian (who comes into work on a Monday) as the light in our oven had stopped working. Keith needed a wrench to remove it so he picked that up and then we drove to a tiny hardware store nearby to get some bulbs. The shop was a little Aladdin's cave of household goods which had everything you could ever think of! It's a shame more shops like this don't exist any more.

We spent the afternoon doing very little and Mike went off to Brixworth to see his mates. I couldn't even go out into the garden to potter about as the rain just didn't stop all day! Horrible!

The Prosecco girls!

Today was due to be thundery and we had weather warnings again for heavy downpours of rain. The last day of the working week started off sunny and dry but by lunchtime the clouds had started to gather and it felt muggy and warm.

Mum and I went off to Jones's mid-morning and when we arrived back at work at lunchtime, we had very few customers in. As we had almost nothing to do we decided to call it a day and go home. Luckily we had parties in the evening but there were staff due to come in and cover.

I wasn't sure how I felt about going home, to be honest. I always feel a bit guilty, but I drove home anyway and had lunch before Sophie and I went to the M&S store in Kettering to take back a pair of jeans I'd bought the previous week. By now the sky was very overcast and grey and the weather matched my mood!

It took us ages to get into Kettering because of roadworks and then I discovered I hadn't got any change for parking so I asked Sophie to run in for me while I sat in the car park. Once that was all done, we drove to Beckworth Emporium for a drink and some ice-cream. As we sat and enjoyed our treat, it started to rain and huge drops fell on our heads! There must have been a gap in the glass roof!

We mooched about looking at plants and I bought three for some pots that were empty. By the time we left it was pouring with rain and really horrible so we splashed off home and I managed to get them planted in between the showers.

In the evening my friends Lynda, Fiona and Andrea were due around for an aperitif before we walked up to the village for a meal at the pub. I'd bought a magnum of Prosecco in Booker yesterday and it had been chilling nicely in the fridge. I'd also bought some olives and crisps which Sophie arranged for me in the conservatory while I had a shower. She also did my hair and make-up for me and made the conservatory very pretty with candles. She's a real treasure!

The girls arrived and we got stuck into the Prosecco and nibbles and had a great chat as it had been a while since we'd all seen each other. Unfortunately the weather worsened as we sat and chatted and Keith had to give us a lift up to the pub...it was a good job he hadn't had a couple of pints himself!

The White Horse was packed with people drinking at the bar but luckily we were seated straight away and the girls wanted another bottle of Prosecco...at £20! It took us ages to make our menu choices as we were all still chatting away but three of us went for the Scotch Egg starter while Lynda opted for the crab and crayfish Tower. I chose fish and chips for my main course, while the others all went for the Pork Belly and they said it was delicious! I couldn't finish my main course as I was full of bubbly Prosecco but I did manage to squeeze in a dessert of Key Lime Pie while Lynda and Andrea shared a cheese board and Fiona had rhubarb crumble and custard.

With another bottle of Prosecco and two glasses of Port the bill came to a reasonable £133 and I called upon my husband to take us home as it was still raining. While we waited for Fiona's husband to come and collect the girls I served coffee in the conservatory and when my friends had departed Keith and I watched an episode of The Affair. A perfect end to a lovely evening!

Cheesy nibbles!

We've had another very quiet day at work and Mum and I were so bored in the afternoon that we cleaned our office from top to bottom! Sophie was working on Reception today as Polly was off but luckily we were able to leave at 4pm as Paula came in to cover.

Sue came around for a drink at 6pm and brought lots of cheese and biscuits with her. I opened a bottle of the Ravenswood Zinfandel which I discovered at Majestic and this went down really well with the nibbles Sue had chosen. We sat and drank wine, had a good chat and nibbled on lots of cheese!

Keith realised that I probably wouldn't want dinner so after Sue had gone home we had some pate and toast and finished off the cheese and biscuits. Perfect!

Quiet start to the week...

Monday and Tuesday have been very quiet with not much going on! The weather has been horrible lately, with a nasty cold wind that has kept temperatures lower than normal.

On Wednesday we awoke to heavy grey skies and it felt really cold! What a difference to last year when I reported it as being HOT! in my diary!

Because of the grey skies and cooler temperatures we were busy at work and Sophie helped out at lunchtime. We managed to leave at 4pm though, and went for a walk down to the village. It had warmed up a little bit and then sun made an appearance which was nice.

Mum and Dad came around for a drink at 5.30pm and we showed them our new sofa and chairs. We still have to decide what colour paint will go on the walls!

We had a lovely chat and drank a bottle of Spanish red which was delicious. Today I ordered some wine from Majestic - six bottles of Ravenswood Zinfandel and scored a real bargain as the wines were reduced if you bought at least two bottles plus I earned a £10 discount on top! Yeeha!