Phew! What a scorcher!

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It has been a hot week, getting warmer from Monday onwards and culminating in an official 32.6ºC on Friday:


Recently, Barry Cryer died, one of the team of “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue” on BBC Radio 4. One of my fond memories of him is durning the “Alternative Headlines” round, where they had to suggest headlines that modern newspapers might use if they had been in existence during in historic events. Barry came up with Phew! What a scorcher! for The Sun reporting on the Great Fire of London.


Monday was warm, in the high 20’s, but as the week progressed it got hotter and hotter, finally reaching Fridays’ record breaking temperature. It even felt too hot in the shade on our south east patio, so I have spent most of the week not wearing clothes and we had really enjoyed using the air conditioning from early afternoon onwards to keep the house as cool as possible.


The temperatures have determined what outside work we have done and when. I have finished washing the house, and Nicky has continued planting in the garden. The washing, as you can imagine, has been drying very quickly. I have also had some MacOnSite work, and I have had a meeting with a lady who runs a local recruitment agency.


On Tuesday we hosted a life group lunch to mark the beginning of the new “season”. Nicky made plum suédoise with toasted almonds and vanilla custard, bread rolls and green salad, and everybody brought a plate. We ate outside under the shade of the car port and had a very enjoyable time. We followed this with a restful afternoon.


On Thursday we had a couple of people over for dinner. Phil we met last weekend on the arthritis garden amble and Nicky had bought a copy of his book specifically aimed at Whanganui gardeners. Sarah is a lady she had met at church, who has returned to Whanganui for her job. We served cold beef and chicken with salads, mainly made by Nicky. Phil brought a fruit salad for dessert and I made some lemon curd topped amaretti biscuits, as Sarah is gluten intolerant.


The weather changed yesterday, cooler, duller and a bit of rain. By lunchtime the rain had started in earnest and became very heavy during the evening and overnight. We popped into town late morning to collect one of Graham Dudding’s paintings which we had been having re-framed, and it looks very good. The rest of the day was spent on a jigsaw and reading.



Today Nicky went to church at St. Johns for the first time since August last year. I continued with the jigsaw and reading and the rain eased off late afternoon. We are both wearing longs and an extra layer due to the 10º drop in temperature and lack of sunshine.


We passed another anniversary on Thursday - a year since Crown delivered our goods and chattels. As you will probably remember Dear Reader, the house wasn’t finished, but we had made progress and it was good to be reunited with our possessions.


Finally, this weeks’ sunrise picture, from Wednesday:




Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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