Cloudy with some quite heavy rain on Saturday 26 July. Finished off my Parish Pump articles – on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the Nuremberg  laws and Albert Schweitzer. Then wrote up my blog and lightly edited Dot’s Rhodes blog so that she could send it to Anne. We went to the charity shop and dropped off lots of clothes, including some of my old trousers, then on to Morrisons to get some food and a cake for church tomorrow. When we emerged it was pouring with rain, and we got quite wet. Cooked pies for supper and watched cricket and Tour de France as usual, plus a couple of comedy items and the first episode of Gold, about the Brinks Mat robbery. 

Sunday – Cloudy but dry. Led the service at church – used feast day of St Samson (Guernsey link) from Ray Simpson book. Smallish congregation. Carrie did quite good sermon on prayer; unfortunately the usual suspects had to add stuff that rather spoiled it. Anyway, took Ray home: he’s suffering rather more than recently. After lunch walked to the Maids Head, where Rob was doing one of his costumed talks – this time on the Mayflower pilgrims. Had a chat with him and Penny, whose father’s house, it turns out, was close to the hotel we stayed at on Guernsey. Rob was happy to do a Paston talk for Norwich Rotary; so I’m passing his name to Janet. It was our 57th wedding anniversary; so we had Anne’s champagne with our salmon supper. Watched end of Tour de France, last day of fourth test (superb holding job by India for a draw) and the final of the women’s soccer Euros, which England won, rather luckily, on penalties. 

Monday – Cloudy. Tried to catch up with some things like fixing our outside light and getting our hedge cut – the latter can’t be done till October, unfortunately. Replied to David, Oliver and Amy on Diderot, though I seem to have lost one of the replies and had to do it again. According to my phone, David is now between Calgary and Medicine Hat. Dot spent a lot of time preparing tomorrow’s lunch, and I helped with some clearing up. Cooked fish. Watched all or last four episodes of The Gold, about the Brinks Mat robbery. Very well done. 

Tuesday – Dry.  Perhaps a bit cooler, at least according to the nurse who expertly took my blood this morning. Results on Friday, I hope. Walked a little way afterwards, which helped me to exceed 4000 steps for the day. Took some papers over to Chris; then Kim and Anne arrived for lunch – a lavish affair prepared by Dot which was more than sufficient for supper too. They left after 4pm, and I had to lie down for a while. Felt excessively tired, which may have been the wine or the shrimps, or neither. In the evening watched the first two episodes of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, which was a bit horrific (Japanese POW bits) but nicely done. Read the book some time ago. 

Wednesday – Cloudy but quite warm. Threat of rain never materialised. Got up early to greet electrician from Homecare, who arrived at 8am (warning call at 7.30!). Replaced our LED light in porch at back. Watched him do it- very complex, and nothing like replacing a light bulb. Read up a bit on Daniel before going to Bible study at church. Went quite well, I think. Morgan, Judy, Debbie, Steve and Ellie-on-phone. Steve’s birthday: gave him a copy of Mist and Fire. Lucky man. Practised some songs for Saturday. Seemed to go OK. Had an hour’s sleep while Dot worked in garden. Cooked evening meal (duck) and we watched a couple of episodes of Karen Pirie, a police series. 

Thursday – Warm and dry after early rain.  Aimed to get a lot done but failed pitifully. Had bath before Bridget came to clean. After lunch took bus/walked to visit Linda (Shingles) and deliver a birthday card. She is 77. Roger was there and we had a longish chat and a small glass of red wine. Then I set off to walk home, taking in Southwell Road and cutting through alley to Queens Road and All Saints Green, then Westlegate, at which point I got tired and boarded a bus. Amusing journey home.  Woman behind insisted to her friend she had betrayed her by telling some else she used a microwave. “You must have told her, or how did she know?”

Walked up hill home and then lay down a bit. Put together a letter re church for the vicar but did not send it – yet. Spoke to Howard and Anna about it in the evening: still undecided about what to do. Later FaceTimed David and had a chat about Chrissy and his journey to White Rock, Kelowna and Calgary, interrupted by Barbara and Roger, who were over to help in the garden. The FaceTime was interrupted, not the journey.