Friday, August 17th - a late one this morning

It's Gold Cup and Saucer Day, which means I don't have to work today! I had great plans to get up at my usual time and start in getting ready for Judi and Gail's arrival later this afternoon. I went to bed early with the best of intentions. Fast forward to midnight, when I woke up and couldn't go back so sleep. So, I came downstairs to read for a bit. I went back to bed at 3:00 am, knowing I really didn't have to get up at any particular time. Needless to say I was totally surprised when I woke up and it was almost 8:00.   I've just come in to do my post at 9:00 and I see that several visitors have already dropped by the blog this morning. Hopefully they return later, although they really haven't missed anything.

It was quite cloudy when I got up and all week long they've been predicting rain for the entire day today but it looks like that's changed. The sun has just begun peeking through the clouds and there are the odd patches of blue in the sky. It's 20' right now and heading for a high of 25' later which will feel like 31'. I was hoping it might cool off a little today as I plan to braise some lamb shanks this afternoon, but at least I don't have to have the oven on for that. I'm making a pavlova for dessert and I can bake that early this morning before it gets too hot.  With any luck it will still be nice for the parade later this morning.

Other than the weather there's really not much going on. We got some much needed rain last night. It was  a slow, steady  rain when I went to bed and still raining when I got up at midnight. I think it had stopped by the time I went back to bed and most stuff is dried up this morning so I don't know how much we got but I'm sure it probably did a bit of good.

l've got lots to do today including going over to Five Houses Road and picking some lettuce for our salad tonight. I've not been over there for a little while so I'm sure the weeds will be doing well, if nothing else. I had lots of tiny green tomatoes the last time I was there. No need to worry about if they ripen or not, as I can use the green ones for my Brenda's Chow! I haven't made any kind of preserves yet this year, not even jam. I still have lots of freezer jam that needs to get used up but I'm not liking it as well as the traditional stuff. But it needs to get used before I make more and the other point is we don't really eat a lot of jam. It's mostly guests who get it served to them when they stay.

I suppose I should get started on things. Once Lloyd leaves for work I'll get right into it. I did a pretty good cleaning last weekend before Lina got here so it's just a matter of sweeping through, changing beds, mopping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms. And making supper, of course! 

Okay, better get to it!