Journal Tues 12th August 2025

Another 6.00am start with the bulldog, and a lovely big moon still in the sky. There’s a smattering of cloud this morning, what my Mum would have called a Mackerel Sky, “not long wet, not long dry”, but I’m not aware of any rain forecast for today. We have to wait until tomorrow for that. A mackerel sky is when you get those rows of mottled long thin clouds, that I guess, if you squint, look a bit like fish scales. This haziness, has tempered the harshness of the early morning sun and means I can risk leaving the front shutters open for just a little while longer than usual.

We’re expecting a 39 degree day today, so same routine, up early, everyone fed, a little bit of outside time with a coffee, and refill all the various water receptacles used by the birds, the cats, the bees and any other nighttime visitors we have potentially in the garden. Another watering can full trickled into my newish hydrangea because she is clinging to life. Then inside, shutters closed. Bored to tears.

The 30 minutes or so, spent under the pergola with a coffee is the highlight of my day. The new bird feeding station I’ve put up in the garden is starting to attract attention. I don’t ordinarily feed them in the summer months, just autumn through to the start of Spring, but I wanted them to take the time they needed to get used to this new thing, and after a couple of weeks we’ve got some takers. It’s always Blue tits and Great tits that are the first to the party, and they set an example for the others. Peanuts went up on Sunday and they now have evidence of nibbles. I can sit under the pergola and just watch them come and go, sometimes skipping around the periphery on top of my dahlia stakes, or clinging to the stems of the roses, waiting their turn. The little solar fountain is now being used as an impromptu bird shower. I could sit here all day, but if I did my ginger self would be the colour of freshly spanked gammon in the merest of minutes once that sun swings around.

Unfortunately for everyone, I did a thing I never do last night. Went to bed with wet hair. Now this morning as predicted, I resemble a Grayson Perry/1980’s WWE wrestler lovechild. Theres only one thing for it. Another coffee and crumpets with Marmite, to console me in the fact that I’m starting to develop the skin colour of one of those monsters that lurks, deprived of light in the Mariana Trench….

We’ve started to re-watch Stranger Things ahead of the new season later this year. I say re-watch, my husband swerved the last season, point blank refused to watch it. Now under duress, and 5 episodes in, little comments like “well I don’t like the look of him”, or “run!” are starting to appear, so I think I’ve got him reeled in. He doesn’t understand why I like this, but generally can’t stand what I call pretentious Sci-Fi. Don’t come at me, but I despise things like the Matrix or Inception. I get mad that in Avatar, they’re all dependant on a mineral called “Unobtainium”. I mean really?! That was the best they could do there. I think I like Stranger Things because, as someone rapidly approaching 50 (end of this month), all we really want from life is for someone to make a film we love as much as The Goonies, or Jaws, or any of the 3 truly great Indiana Jones films. Maybe it’s the 80s nostalgia, or that I genuinely love the characters. This aside, after being coerced into watching Andor, and loving it, I finally understand the fuss about Star Wars. It’s a fight against fascism at its core, a pure battle of good vs evil. Heaven knows we need a bit of that right now, do we not?

It’s now 25 degrees inside the house and it’s just gone 11.00am. A bulldog has once again leaked on the floor. I now keep the carpet shampooer in the corner of the room now like a feature, because even I, knowing him like I do, do not always get the signs right. He was telling me and I hadn’t realised. This one is definitely my fault, but, it’s never ever his fault. I’m wondering if some sort of belt mounted holster exists for Febreeze….

I’ve watered all the house plants, a chore which takes a good 10 minutes these days because I’ve got issues. The feed I use is seaweed based and absolutely honks, but the plants love it. I start upstairs with the giant aspidistra in the dressing room, a very sad looking Angel Wing begonia, and an Aloe Vera plant that I desperately need to split. The hall is next for another Angel Wing begonia, then the kitchen, 2 more Angel Wing begonias that I’m trying to train across the the kitchen ceiling beam, a polka dot plant, a trailing variegated thing I forget the name of, my zebra plant, and the top of a pineapple that I have no idea if it’s even alive. The living room has my massive fern, the mother of all of the Angel Wing begonias which is starting to become a full blown Audrey II, 2 more variegated things that I forget the name of, a bird of paradise, another polka dot, 3 pileas, and a baby dragon tree. And then, deep breath….. the bathroom, which houses a ginormous monstera, pretty big dragon tree, a rubber plant, Chinese Jade, the mother Pilea, and a huge tradescantia. Cannot help myself.

That’s it for chores today. I’ve hoovered, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, hung out another load of washing. It’ll be a retreat to the bedroom situation again this afternoon where I’m so bored I’m editing my GoPro footage from Carcassonne 2 years ago. Whether this makes it to YouTube or not remans to be seen. It’s basically holiday snaps so it might just be one for the family archives. As you may know from previous posts, if I’m clearing off the GoPro then it means I’m going somewhere where I might be using it. Maybe I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

TTFN,

V x

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