Midsummer already!

 I have been paying attention to the heatwave warnings, so I am resting today.

Having woken with the dawn chorus, I listened to an audiobook for a while and dozed off again. I've only recently discovered that the human voice makes me drop off to sleep better than yoga, relaxing poses, or calming music. That probably explains why I was in danger of dropping off to sleep during university lectures, long ago!

 

My alarm is set for 7.30am because my latest tablets must be taken half an hour before my morning cup of tea. My mysteriously low iron count has meant blood tests, a colonoscopy, and advice to improve my diet. Now, after a year's investigations, I have been put on a three-month course of iron!

 

My brother phoned from France, and I felt guilty that it was ten o'clock, so I got up and consulted the list of jobs that grows longer every day. The garden work job list is more than ten items! However, I am proud to say that the most important task, mending the back fence, which was falling onto the council land behind my house, was successfully completed this week, using metal spikes to hold new fence posts. The green algae on it have been wire-brushed, but I will try a pressure washer on it later.

 

The bad news last month was that the side fence to my next-door neighbour also needs new posts – after 18 years, they have rotted at ground level.  I’ve decided that, to move the shed, I will need to make space by removing my pond, which is above and below the patio's ground level.  Anyone want white waterlilies and blue iris?

I have ordered a tool called a ‘bolster chisel’ today to demolish the brick sides. I will use some of the bricks to raise my flower beds, as I believe hiring a skip costs hundreds of pounds. I’ve removed the coping stones and, if it were not for the heatwave, I would have started the demolition today! Victor, from Brighter Future is coming to see me on 28^th July so I have a month to remove the pond and make good the patio. The shed and fence will have to wait.

 Meanwhile, I am practicing for Karen’s choir concert on Friday and catching up with ‘computer work’.

 

My little front shady garden is filled with begonias and busy lizzies, and the previously blue hydrangea is doing well too, having turned white like me! I’ve been moving pot plants to beds now that they are more established. The mice are still making holes in my compost as they dive down to eat bulbs. 

 I have sent Lepra £158 of my royalties from the book for their work fighting leprosy and other neglected tropical diseases. One of these, Lymphatic filaria, is what we call elephantitis. It affects all ages and can affect men's scrotums.