Big some account of things what I done, but didn’t write about, during the merry month of May.
Saturday 2
So after a lovely dry week or so, this evening it has decided to turn on a deluge. Well of course it did; the gardener put the watering system in yesterday.
Sunday 3
So what happened to the rain we were being promised for today?
Monday 4
Well so much for a holiday weekend. One way and another I’ve spent the whole of the last four days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today) working – mostly a combination of literary society stuff and doctors’ patient group stuff, with an added flavouring of household finances and legal thrown in. The literary society people are doing my head in; they cannot follow simple instructions in an email, and cannot think it out for themselves – heaven knows how much time I’ve wasted explaining the obvious to them this weekend.
Wednesday 6
So suddenly the garden is full of roses.
Saturday 9
As usual, according to my brain, yesterday (Friday) was Saturday. When I got up this morning I was convinced it was Monday! And this evening I think it’s Sunday. So now I haven’t a clue. Please send a new brain.
Sunday 10
A report today says that there will be legislation to make GPs and hospitals share their data to create a single patient record, so all the patient’s information is available to every clinician. Well good luck with that. The government tried to make it happen about 30 years ago and failed: it was too difficult and the government wouldn’t listen to advice from the shortlisted IT suppliers. Will it be different this time? I wouldn’t bet on it!
Monday 11
So passenger numbers using Heathrow have fallen 5% in April. And the decrease could be more when the shortage of jet fuel and higher ticket prices really start biting. This is good. We have to stop people (and freight) flying, as it’s the only way to significantly reduce the environmental effects of the airline industry.
Tuesday 12
Over the weekend I completed the next board of 50 Postcrossing cards: here are numbers 551 to 600.
You can find all my boards on my website.
Wednesday 13
What a strange day. Off to the solicitors early, but not too bright, for a document signing session. Coffee afterwards and then caught in the first of several torrential hail storms. Back at home, one hail storm at lunchtime covered a surface outside in a complete layer of ice, and the hailstones were bouncing off the leaves of the trees – all the while several tits were in continual procession to and from a feeder. Ended the day hosting another brilliant literary society online talk.
Thursday 14
Looking out of the window this afternoon at the bright sunshine between the showers, and there are small birds flitting everywhere. Great tits, blue tits, coal tits, house sparrows, greenfinches, robin, that I saw; doubtless others too. Including a few young tits, still demanding to be fed. They must all be nesting very close by: from where they were going the coal tits are nesting 3 or 4 gardens to the north and the great tits 3 or 4 gardens to the south.
Friday 15
Why can political parties not stop in-fighting, get their act together, and keep it together? Too many wannabe prima donnas!
Saturday 16
Eurovision. Is this not the most obscene, fatuous waste of money and resources? What purpose does it serve? Oh, OK! It keeps the lower orders amused and therefore away from creating unrest – remember all those medieval peasant revolts: too many slaves with too little to occupy them. Cake and circuses, dear boy, cake and circuses.
Sunday 17
There are days when the Tilly cat seems to alternate her time between ensuring work is suspended and wedging herself on thee windowsill.
Monday 18
More really pretty tulips from the supermarket …
… and a gorgeous rambler rose from the garden …
Tuesday 19
Depressed. Anxious. Feeling yeuch. No idea why.
Thursday 21
Still the same as Tuesday, and everything is achy. Bah! Humbug!
Saturday 23
Blimey it’s hot.
Sunday 24
It’s even hotter today than yesterday; one local weather station says it’s been 31.9°C, 2°C hotter than yesterday. And the forecast is even hotter tomorrow and Tuesday; then cooling a bit. I slept most of last night with no bedclothes, and it was so hot today that even a cool shower and pints of cold squash and beer didn’t make any difference. I like it warm but this is too much, especially with the humidity is going up.
Monday 25
The large white phalaenopsis orchid I bought in full bloom on 28 November has finally dropped the last of its flowers. I’ve cut off the flower stems and am trying to propagate them, but never having done this before I’m not hopeful. We’ll see.
Tuesday 26
What is it in the Universe that causes us to have “one of those days” – where everything that can conspire to be difficult, or worse, does?
Wednesday 27
Visit this afternoon from two of the literary society officers to understand the size of the society’s archive etc. as they want to develop a plan for moving it away from us. I think they were somewhat surprised at the amount. But blimey it was unbearably hot in the loft.
Thursday 28
Well it might have been a couple of degrees cooler today, but it feels worse because the humidity must be higher. At least the breeze has got up again this evening; the middle of the day was really still after a good refreshing breeze most of last night. We’re promised another couple of fine, but slightly cooler days, but then atheist 10 days of cooler temperatures, rain and possible thunderstorms – which the gardens certainly need. So you just watch everyone complain because it is cold and wet.
Sunday 31
Here endeth the Merry Month of May, so definitely Sumer is icumen in / Lhude sing cuccu. Not that I’ve heard a cuckoo in years, possibly even since I left Norwich in 1976, which is incredibly sad. But cuckoos are still around in rural areas. Every year BTO catch a few cuckoos and put tiny trackers on them in order to better understand their migration to sub-Saharan Africa.
I’ll leave you with another gorgeous rose from our garden this afternoon.
