Garsp!
Too Darned Hot!
So this weekend we're having a (mini) heatwave. Temperatures got down to 24C last night, & are up in the low 30s in the daytime. No I know that some of you, Dear Readers, have to put up with temperatures far higher than that in the summers, probably in the winter too, but here it's HOT! I was in Winchester Thursday, when it was a tad cooler, but boy was I glad to get back to Portsmouth & our sea breezes. Specially having travelled the last half hour on a train with no air-con (w00t for First Great Western, not!) We've a couple of missionaries visiting this weekend - they've been 'attached' to the Church since he did his surgery training in Portsmouth back in the late sixties, early seventies. They've been out in northeast India since '79. Someone asked about summer temperatures there yesterday. "Oh, it can get up to about 50C" the wife replied! I gather that's too hot to even think!
Though I gather that the weather people are promising us a day like last Monday for tomorrow. Good Thing too, I've almost used all the water collected from those downpours & the butt is rapidly emptying.
As an example of my middle-aged muddleheadedness - I double booked yesterday. There was the possibility of doing a Dyeing Day with Lesley George, but I'd offered this & next weekend to the missionaries - whichever best fitted with their other plans. They booked this weekend, & I, being totally vague etc, booked the Dyeing Day, & promptly forgot I had until Lesley emailed me last Thursday about it! So in the end I turned up for the morning & made several colourful bits, the dress length I really wanted to do will have to wait for later. Then back home, collect flowers & off up to the chapel, put flowers in buckets. Missionaries arrive, welcome people, persuade them to sit nearish the front (!!!a feat in itself!!!!). They tell us, with PP & DVD, about their work - Christian hospital in NE India, which was really interesting. Cultural point too - they'd taken off their sandals when they came into the chapel (good thing we got it carpeted!) so she was in bare feet & he in socks, though the temperature yesterday was such that they didn't need jumpers! Then round into the hall for tea/coffee/squash & donuts (which H had got). I reckoned that anyone who'd been sufficiently interested to come deserved a donut! We were going to keep any leftovers for the congregation today - but there weren't any.
Then I got on & arranged the flowers. It's been so long, what with my depression last year, since I've done the Chapel flowers I spent a good half hour locating all the bits & pieces! Still, we're getting a cupboard built to house the Communion stuff & the flower vases etc, which will make finding things easier, eventually. Lilium longiflorum with deep red, white & pink spray carnations. Thanks to Beattie, too, who not only turned up, & got her donut, but also provided much needed greenery for the arrangement - euonymus (the white & green variegated form) & green pittisporum. It doesn't look too bad.
Then home for a much needed cold drink, to find the England - Portugal match was into extra time, then penalty shoot-out. No, I changed the load of washing on the line & watered the garden. Quite why they don't cut to the chase & just have the penalty shoot-outs I don't know. Though I gather that England didn't deserve to go any further. S'pose it might have been something, keeping out all goals for half the match, & extra time, with only ten men.
Ah well, I'm 'on the door' today, so I'd better get on, get ready & go.
Y'all have a good day now, & remember, keep up yr fluid intake (water, that is, not alcohol) & use sunscreen!
So this weekend we're having a (mini) heatwave. Temperatures got down to 24C last night, & are up in the low 30s in the daytime. No I know that some of you, Dear Readers, have to put up with temperatures far higher than that in the summers, probably in the winter too, but here it's HOT! I was in Winchester Thursday, when it was a tad cooler, but boy was I glad to get back to Portsmouth & our sea breezes. Specially having travelled the last half hour on a train with no air-con (w00t for First Great Western, not!) We've a couple of missionaries visiting this weekend - they've been 'attached' to the Church since he did his surgery training in Portsmouth back in the late sixties, early seventies. They've been out in northeast India since '79. Someone asked about summer temperatures there yesterday. "Oh, it can get up to about 50C" the wife replied! I gather that's too hot to even think!
Though I gather that the weather people are promising us a day like last Monday for tomorrow. Good Thing too, I've almost used all the water collected from those downpours & the butt is rapidly emptying.
As an example of my middle-aged muddleheadedness - I double booked yesterday. There was the possibility of doing a Dyeing Day with Lesley George, but I'd offered this & next weekend to the missionaries - whichever best fitted with their other plans. They booked this weekend, & I, being totally vague etc, booked the Dyeing Day, & promptly forgot I had until Lesley emailed me last Thursday about it! So in the end I turned up for the morning & made several colourful bits, the dress length I really wanted to do will have to wait for later. Then back home, collect flowers & off up to the chapel, put flowers in buckets. Missionaries arrive, welcome people, persuade them to sit nearish the front (!!!a feat in itself!!!!). They tell us, with PP & DVD, about their work - Christian hospital in NE India, which was really interesting. Cultural point too - they'd taken off their sandals when they came into the chapel (good thing we got it carpeted!) so she was in bare feet & he in socks, though the temperature yesterday was such that they didn't need jumpers! Then round into the hall for tea/coffee/squash & donuts (which H had got). I reckoned that anyone who'd been sufficiently interested to come deserved a donut! We were going to keep any leftovers for the congregation today - but there weren't any.
Then I got on & arranged the flowers. It's been so long, what with my depression last year, since I've done the Chapel flowers I spent a good half hour locating all the bits & pieces! Still, we're getting a cupboard built to house the Communion stuff & the flower vases etc, which will make finding things easier, eventually. Lilium longiflorum with deep red, white & pink spray carnations. Thanks to Beattie, too, who not only turned up, & got her donut, but also provided much needed greenery for the arrangement - euonymus (the white & green variegated form) & green pittisporum. It doesn't look too bad.
Then home for a much needed cold drink, to find the England - Portugal match was into extra time, then penalty shoot-out. No, I changed the load of washing on the line & watered the garden. Quite why they don't cut to the chase & just have the penalty shoot-outs I don't know. Though I gather that England didn't deserve to go any further. S'pose it might have been something, keeping out all goals for half the match, & extra time, with only ten men.
Ah well, I'm 'on the door' today, so I'd better get on, get ready & go.
Y'all have a good day now, & remember, keep up yr fluid intake (water, that is, not alcohol) & use sunscreen!