Tuesday 11th August - Hottest Day of the year - maybe

 Every day since before the weekend I seem to have headed up my diary entry with 'that was the hottest day this year'. Seems like it might be the same heading tonight. 

The other day, the room thermostat was showing  'temp 31 degrees C; target temp 21 degrees C'

So we are saving a lot on the heating bills at the moment...

Leo is just sleeping all day, mostly on a dining chair. Occasionally she switches places and lies just in front of my new standing desk (very inconvenient) or under the piano stool (no better).

McCavity is convinced that grooming cools her down, and comes miaowling around a couple of times a day. She might be right - we are brushing out a lot of fine hair from her thick coat.

I did try to help her by wiping her ears, face and paws with a damp cloth, but she didn't care for that.  

The other night I was awake at 1 am and went downstairs to see if I could see the meteor shower. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. It was reasonably clear, and I saw what was like a sudden sparkle or flashy way up high. I couldn't find the energy last night (although I did wake at the right sort of time). 1 might try tonight/tomorrow morning - it was wonderfully cool sitting in the garden - but I think I will try and remember to take my glasses if I do; maybe that will help me in my meteor spotting. 

I'm still painting every day... 

ah, this is appears to be a retrospective;

today, 11th Aug 

Gerberas, a present from some delightful children I teach. They are struggling having been over-watered, under-watered, kept inside, given too much sun, but you have to admire their will to survive. 

Monday 10th August

This is a friend's garden - I went round for tea in the morning and we sat on the 'Upper Terrace'; her garden is a similar size to ours but terraced, and is delightful, especially this area. I am a great fan of having different places to sit at different times of the day. We have three; 'always in the shade', by the shed, 'dappled shade' under the apple tree which is a bit waspy now as most of the apples have dropped, and 'by the patio door' which must be like an oven now - it's shady in the morning, good for afternoon coffee in spring and autumn but now.... no way.

Anyway, here's the friend's garden; 

Sunday 9th August

I've been experimenting with painting larger pictures, using a bigger brush with very long hairs; these are roses, just in case you can't tell.

On Saturday 8th we went out early, once again to Ditchling beacon. It was ok when we got there but rapidly warmed up - hotted up? heated up?

I sat under the shade of a hawthorn with this view in front of me;

while He went off for a walk (don't worry, it was several hours before midday) to a point in the distance, uphill and downhill and so on;

You see those two clumps of hawthorns on the left? You might make out a bit of a zig zag path to the distant right of them; and then further on there's a sort of 'end of the hills' before you get to the far distance, oh, don't worry trying to work it out. It was a couple of miles anyway.

I filled in the time while I could see his hat (with him under it, of course) bobbing along towards me in the distance by doing some flowers and stuff. Some are real, some are picked and stuck in.

And here's Friday 7th August. I sat in the doorway of the patio doors, in the shade because it was still morning, and painted what was in front of me