Warm and Sweaty, but enough about our sex life...

Gary teaching Finley how to ride his bike.

 The weather has certainly warmed up considerably since last week up here in Yorkshire it's been around 25 centigrade but towards the south of the country it's passed 30 in places which puts it on a par with Greece.  However, we all know that it ain't gonna last for long though, in fact yesterday evening the thunder storms started and caused some flash flooding in Goole which is about 10 miles from us.  The heat in England is not nearly as comfortable as it is in Greece because with it always comes humidity and at this time of year thunder bugs, corn flies, pesky little black things, call them what you want but they are a real irritant especially when you are lathered in sweat!  Today, drizzle all day!

And they're off...

Blacktoft pub, on the banks of the Ouse

Sunday we went to a BBQ at our eldest sons house just at the other end of the village.
We had a great time watching Mason and Finley riding their bikes and generally being lad like.




We had a lovely evening with some (very) well cooked food and we even managed to get Harley, the cocker spaniel, to do as he was told - well some of the time!

We both had to get our eyes checked out while we where at home so on Tuesday we visited the opticians and found out that we both had to have new glasses and worse still both had to have another check next year and not the normal two year interval.  £240 lighter we left and decided to go and have lunch and a pint at the pub to get over it.  Blacktoft pub is situated on the bank of the river Ouse about a mile from it's confluence with the Trent, going on to form the Humber.  You can sit in the conservatory having a meal and watch huge container ships passing within a few yards of you, the bridges of the ships being about the level of the pub roof.  A very pretty area and great for people interested in wildlife as the famous Blacktoft sands nature reserve is on the opposite bank of the river.  It's amazing how many people stop in cars to ask where the reserve is and get a little miffed when you try to tell them it's twenty miles away by car but about five hundred yards if you don't mind paddling.

Looks like a bumper crop this year!

The fruit trees in our paddock are absolutely full this year.  I've had to tie up the branches on the plum trees as they are in danger of snapping under the weight of fruit, victoria plum wood is very brittle.  The apple trees will not unfortunately be ready for eating before we have to leave them but the boys or neighbours can come and help themselves when we've gone anyway.  For several years now our eldest son has had plans to convert the apples into cider but like many of Gary's plans they don't see the right side of the drawing board.  It's a shame though because on an average year I would think we have in excess of two tonnes of apples, far more than we can put to culinary use.