While Richard has been away I have been picking our produce, plus the goodies our neighbours have given us, and cooking and freezing like there is no tomorrow. The tomatoes have been fantastic and some of them are HUGE as you will see from the photo. When you cut them open, they are so fleshy and so sweet, just yummy. The garden looks dreadful because there

hasn't been rain for ages and we have lost so many trees, especially the fruit ones. The peach trees have lost their fruit and leaves so are standing naked, same with the apple tree, apples still clinging on but not growing at all, the pear has a few pears but they seem to have stopped growing as well. Even our massive lime tree has lost most of it's leaves now, the ones that are left are brown; we are kicking up leaves as we do in the autumn when we walk across the lawn, well I say lawn, there is NO green at all and it is being blown away. How very sad it all looks. The forecast has said we could expect storms tonight, going into tomorrow so perhaps we will get the rain we so desperately need. We just can't water everything because it comes from our mains water and we have a hosepipe ban now so it is a matter of watching everything close down before their time.

Richard is due home on Wednesday about lunchtime and I can't wait. I have to say I don't like being here on my own too much and with being scared stiff of storms, I'm not looking forward to tonight at all. What a whimp I am.

The family have all settled down back in the UK and Bill has completed his bike ride from Edinburgh to London, (525 miles) he arrived back yesterday evening (Sunday). Well done Bill, a real achievement, we are very proud of you.

Well, that will do for now, I seem to be rather boring at the moment so I will try and get some cheer in the next post for you. I will take some photos of Smokey and Sophie playing. They are an absolute delight though Sophie is such a tinker, a bit like a puppy because she chews everything, dives at ANYTHING that moves, especially my bare toes (ouch!) and her teeth are like little needles. Clare has advised me to get a spray bottle of water out and give her a little squirt when she does wrong which is a brilliant idea but I think I may get through a few gallons a day!!!! I will have to do something though because my body looks as though it's been through a war zone I have so many scratches on it. Bye for now, will talk again soon.

The Aftermath

I suppose I should be pleased that I can join the blogging world again, but I'm not because it means that I have access to the room where the children have been sleeping for the past 4.5 weeks. How quiet it all is. The beds are taken up and stripped of their bedding, a few toys still scattered across the floor because I haven't the heart to pick them up, books left ready for me to read to them, but they have all gone back today and I am rather sad. Richard has gone back with them to help with the driving and he will be away for a week, so as I look out into the garden and see 3 empty swings gently moving in the air and a child's hammock lying empty I will wallow in my sadness for just a while.

When you read this Vicki, I have loved having you here with the children and only hope that you enjoyed it too, enough to come back again next year, hopefully with Bill being able to stay a while longer. I do realise it was too long for you and the children without him, but thankyou. God bless, I love you all. See you when we come back in September.

The second picture is of the children "helping" Grandpa to clean out the pond. What a dirty smelly mess we all were and what fun we had, so many beasties to find and Mabel the Springer Spaniel they brought with them was in seventh heaven with the smell and mess. A good shower with the hose pipe was lots of fun though.

The time is going so quickly and the children seem to be having a lovely time. We are very lucky to be able to use a friend's swimming pool so we have been going there most days and everyone loves it. We take a picnic lunch and spend most of the day there and Jan (our friend) baked us all cakes yesterday so we are being really spoilt. As Vicki says, what is it about being by the side of a pool in gorgeous weather having tea and cake brought out to you? Just wonderful.

The girls weren't sleeping at all which as you can imagine was very difficult for Vicki, she was so tired, but the last 2 days they have slept right through, so fingers crossed it will happen again for a few night. A bit of bribery is going on, but as long as we sleep, who cares??

We have had our old car out as you can see from the picture and the children think it's great going out in her, they just love it and of course Grampie loves taking them out in her.

I need to go now because the swimming pool is calling and the children are in their costumes ready to go, so I will try and post again another time.