July

Well what happened to July? Where did that go? Well what's occurring?

As usual, our life is ruled by the weather. We have had some really hot weather in July and it has now turned stormy and sultry. They do storms in a big way here and you have to unplug telephone/computer/television in a vain attempt to stop them being blown up by lightening. I really don't like the lightening. Our new bedroom is at the end of the house facing the direction from which most of the weather comes and although it's lovely to see the view I feel very vulnerable on stormy nights. Especially while Him Outdoors is snoring away beside me! We have an enormous linden tree just next to the house which is stunning and has been there for decades maybe centuries but I still think that the next lightening strike might be the last.........

The garden is loving the rain. You can feel the plants loving the cool and turning their faces up to the drops.

(Van just passing blasting music from loudspeakers. There's a circus in town and they drive round at lunch time - when everyone will be home - to tell everyone to 'roll up, roll up'.)

The regime is progressing well. We are not missing anything. We've both lost half a stone and what feels like more in bulgy bits. I have got into dresses that I have been busting out of for years so it must have gone from there! We still hear odd things about what we should be doing to lower the cholesterol. One friend swears by niacin, the man who sells jam on the market who wanted us to come to a meal that was all foie gras/duck swears by a tsp of cinammon every day, dear daughter has read that hydration was the key, another friend says it's all down to oats........
We will carry on as we are (with more attention to hydration x) until the next blood test and see where we get to.

Meanwhile we have planned a trip to Barcelona in September which is very exciting. Kids are coming out at the end of the month which we're really looking forward to. And more friends dropping in for a couple of days this month and next.

This morning started with killing the latest extra cockerel. Don't like it but we left the last one too long because he was too beautiful to kill (although why it should be easier to kill an ugly one raises moral issues!). We then returned from a lovely lunch to find the senior and junior cockerels covered in blood after what had obviously been a major set to. Fortunately or unfortunately some predator then took the junior cockerel. So hopefully this time we have managed to avoid that.