The Sunday before last (21st June) marked Father’s Day, the summer solstice & longest day of the year but that’s not all… it also marked the day, 4-years ago, that I was hospitalised with pancreatitis and therefore, the day I gave up alcohol for good!
I can’t quite believe it’s 4-years since I had any alcohol and am happy to say that I don’t even miss it now… What I do miss sometimes is the social aspect of having a few bevvies… Pete doesn’t really drink much now either which means we rarely (if ever) go to the pub which is a shame, as I am sure we would get to know more people in the village if we did… we keep saying we will bob into one of the pubs sometime for a swift half / non-alco drink but it’s not the same as the fun we used to have going out for a proper session 🤣 ! No matter, we will give it a go sometime… who knows, this coming weekend might be the ideal time as it’s the Newcastleton Music Festival where there’s all sorts going on apparently! We shall see…
As for Father’s Day, I still miss my Dad a lot… 💔 but we had a nice day. Louise sent Pete a lovely Olive Tree (apparently called Ollie!), which he’s put in the garden – a nice reminder of our recent trip to Spain too & a lovely surprise for him❤️
Monday 22nd June was Mum’s 84th Birthday & I managed to have a nice FaceTime call with her. She was in really good spirits and genuinely seemed happy to see me – remembering my face straightaway which was nice. It was a goodish chat until she started getting a bit confused about whose birthday it was 🤣🤣🤣 – mine, the staff member’s, her’s… I don’t suppose it really matters! It would have been nice to spend some part of the day with her but, having ordered her some new clothes online, I thought I would wait until they arrived to visit her to celebrate… unfortunately, I’m still waiting for the delivery – grrr! I swear EVRI are the worse delivery company in this area – to the point when we have decided that if we know a company are using them, we will not place an order in future! Pete has had three delivery dates given to him by them for some compost he ordered whilst we were on the ferry home from Spain which still hasn’t come either… apparently, Mum’s present is in the EVRI depot in Carlisle where, according to their website, it’s been for over a week now… 😡 – Carlisle is only 21 miles away! Having complained through their Chatbot, they messaged this morning with some bull about my package “missing the connection to the courier”? Well, that seems a bit obvious… Ho-hum… Mum will be like the King and have a 2nd birthday celebration as & when her pressie arrives… just hope it’s sometime this year!
Last Tuesday (23rd June), I had a meeting online with my financial adviser who has confirmed my pension is doing ok despite the whole world being in a crazy state! It was a reassuring meeting and nice to understand my options.
Wednesday 24th June marked almost 7-weeks off from work which we celebrated with a nice walk around the village…
A lovely day & walk around the village…
…and spotted these baby swallows:
Baby Swallows – the photo below with proud parent!
And various plants / flowers:
Left = Giant Hogweed spotted on the river bank;
Right T/M/B = Ornamental Onion / Fox-&-Cubs / Geranium
Top = L / M / R = Common Starwort / Red Catchfly / Knotweed
Bottom L = Scottish Flame-flower;
Right T / B = Heath-Spotted Orchid / Ragged-Robin
Thursday 25th June not only marked 6-months until Christmas Day (🤣🤣🤣) but my first shift back at work! It was only three-hours, two of which was spent providing respite… it meant I got to spend a couple of hours watching a bit of telly and having a chat – a nice way to spend some time on a very hot day!
I’ve worked a few hours each day since last Thursday as they are pretty short-staffed at the moment, with my first full day off today… as I say, it’s only a few hours a day; it’s nice &, once I am out the door, I quite enjoy it. There are some very nice people we support around the village and it’s not difficult work although, with the heat last week, it’s been very, very hot… especially as one lady still has her coal fire going!! 🥵
Thankfully, it’s got much cooler here the past few days after we had a big thunderstorm on Friday (26th). I like the hot weather but only when I don’t actually have to do anything (well, can manage a bit of assisting Pete in the garden, but that’s about it!)…
Pete has started work on putting a fence up around our garden to give us a bit more privacy out the back (even though we don’t get that many passers-by)… it will be nice and mean that we can grow upwards (we have a climbing rose that originally came from my Mum & Dad’s garden down in Kent and next year will put some clematis & sweet peas in too – should be lovely…) and the design means that we still get to see the lovely stone wall we have… photos will follow once Pete says he’s happy with it!
Whilst we were picking up wood for the fence, we also managed a walk around Wilton Park, including a stop for coffee & cake in the cafe (be rude not to 🤣), and spotted a gorgeous wildflower border:
Top L / M / R = Flax / Feverfew / Cornflower;
Bottom L = Borage
Am sad that Scotland didn’t get through to the last 32 in the World Cup… and glad that England did, although it’s never an easy watch! 🫣 We do, of course, have our England flag flying in the back garden! So come on England… let’s do it!
All the gubbins… 
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