Friday 3rd August - Is this what retirement is like?

This is the first time I have had a glimpse of what it might be like when we are both of us retired... but by then we shall both be older, so it will be different, of course.

On Wednesday we visited my godmother. Although nearly 90, she is still managing on her own with very little help. But a little help is needed from time to time; replacement light bulbs in her kitchen and bathroom fitments are beyond her to purchase or fit, as she only ventures out as far as the local supermarket, once a week to stock up. We will go back next week to fit the new bulbs and do whatever else seems a good idea while we are there.

Thursday, and the heatwave has returned. We went out together to buy paint; a couple of half-pans of watercolours for a friend, and a couple of matchpots of emulsion in case it ever comes to pass that we get round to the hall-stairs-and-landing; a job that's been "on the list" for twenty-five, or maybe thirty years. And I picked up another bucket of fallen apples (and wasps). That must make 700...

James-the-tree-man came round in the evening to warn us he would be starting on the fence at 8.30 am on Saturday. I have very mixed feelings - I know it has to be done, but it is going to look SO different.

All this greenery is not a hedge, just ivy and honeysuckle and brambles grown up and over the fence. It will have to be stripped back to the ground, and then replaced with raw brown panels of larch lap.

I spent this morning working my way through this tangle of weeds and brambles to see if the white Japanese anenome is still alive. The pink flowers come back every year, but the little white one, given to me by a friend, was nowhere to be seen. I tend to put off searching for it, in case it isn't there...

But here it is! I cleared the weeds from around the single stem, soaked the ground and then a mulch of damp earch around it. Finally I marked the place with a wire frame, and I've now put a flowerpot nearby to give it some shade as the smallest shoot is wilting in the heat. James knows that I was to keep it, so hopefully it will survive the carnage and destruction all around.

Yesterday's housework tasks were dealing with the dining-room table, from this (not to bad, all things considered)

to this

and cleaning out the cupboard under the sink which was indescribably horrid so I won't attempt to describe it.

Today I have hoovered the stairs, changed the pillowcases (a sort of one-step-at-a-time approach to changing the bed-linen) and cleaned the catflap - those cats make it very grubby! That filled in the morning very profitably. I've also discovered where I put the brushes, paints, sketchbooks and so forth that I tidied away last Summer. Well, that's life.

Everywhere is so quiet - no cars, no passers-by, no birds, no wind...

It is 2pm.

Siesta, I think. I suspect that's what the cats are doing - I can't see them anywhere so I hope they have found somewhere cool.