Scooter!

I have invested in a mobility scooter. Richard is home from Norway for the weekend and put the machine together before giving it a trial run along the pavement.

My good friend Linda has the same model and gave me a tutorial last week. I will only use the scooter for local runs - when I go to London I will walk and use buses and trains. I want to run over to Fairlop Waters - where there are excellent bridleways right round the lake. If I walked there I would have a problem getting back. I can also go to the farm shop. Hey Ho!

Garden in heatwave

Front garden in heatwave!

Just a few flowers spotted in Barkingside and my garden

A few flowers spotted - the first two in my good friend's garden in Barkingside (red rose for England in the World Cup!) and the rest in my garden, including the Salvia Neon and cuttings of four varieties for next year safe in the greenhouse for over-wintering

Summer days . . .

Summer days in the front garden. . .

We won!

I have never understood football. The offside rule confuses me, although I do know which side slings the ball back when it goes off at the side. I was only allowed to referee one football match as Cub Scout Leader in the 1950s. It was in Seven Kings Park on a foggy Saturday when you could not see from one end of the pitch to the other and the referee failed to turn up. I listened to what the boys said and if they called offside, offside it was; goal-kick, goal kick it was. It seemed to satisfy everyone - well, those I could see in the fog that is, although a few parents own the touch-line had harsh words with each other what ever I said. I guess it all went wrong for me when I played in my first football match at my big boy school in 1944 for as the ball came towards me I went down, picked it up and ran for the goal. I never really got over the after effects.

Tennis, too, is a mystery. Who, in their right mind, decided that scoring should be 15, 30, 40 and love? Love! And Match Point is a bit like offside. Also, when my big brother was courting, he took me to the tennis courts, placing me outside so that if the ball went over the top of the nets, I could find it and sling it back. I hated it!

And so recent television has been off-limits for me, with book reading top of the list and YouTube when I needed a bit of humour from the past - or my ever-faithful Alexa who plays The Eagles, James Blunt and the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir at my command. 

Until last evening that is. The house-over-the-road has been flying the flag of England for days now - but last evening it seemed to be waving even harder and so I watched some of the England match. I thought they deserved to win for the Columbians did not appear to be playing by the Queenberry Rules, with the head butting of one young player only receiving a Yellow Card and a fair amount of rough play by others. That Kane fellow got a lot of kicking, but kept coming back for more. I guess he might be in line for an MBE . . . 

What pleased me in particular is that this is a young team - with none of the billionaire wasters and posers who live in mansions with extensive grounds, basements, saunas and all the accoutrements of the rich. 

In fact, I might even watch the next game when England play Sweden.

St Paters on 1st July

On Sunday morning, 1st July, at approximately 8.40am, following Holy Communion as I walked home, I turned back to look at St. Peter's. In all my 85 years - some 70 of them as an amateur photographer - I cannot recall ever taking this particular shot from over the hedge at this point! Whilst some may not like too many gravestones in a photograph, I believe they showing the ageing of the church - for it is now 156 years since the consecration in 1862. The sun was shining in all its glory. I just wish those who would have a gravel pit next door would bother to come here to see for themselves the wonder of the edge of London's green belt.

Friday 29th June to Borough Market

Friday 29th I spent in London. Borough Market first for Melton Mowbray Pork Pie (in freezer for Richard 's visit from Norway next weekend), freshly picked strawberries and raspberries from Kent Farm (for Heather and Deborah) and Salvia plants (I now have four varieties), plus a freshly baked cheese olive stick for lunch. Then 17 bus to St. Paul's Cathedral where the sun was so very very hot! Next the 76 to Tottenham Hale Bus Garage and the 123 to see Heather at YMCA in Waltham Forest - and home!