Sunday August 2nd

Today I find that Blogger has changed the interface I use to create my posts.  I can revert back to the one I am familiar with but only for a short while and then I get no choice.  The change is not for the better and it is going to take me so much longer to produce an entry.  I really don't need this when I am hot and bothered.

The weather remains in heatwave mode - I am not sure why I am surprised as it is August but there has been little to no respite at night so we are all a bit sticky and a bit snappy!!  

I had already prepared most of the food for lunch today so it was really just a question of cooking it.  We were to have a chicken, bacon and leek cottage pie with peas followed by a good old blackcurrant jelly with blackberries which was to be served with cream or ice-cream.  

I struggled to decide what to have today.  I needed to find something that would be reasonably soft for mum to eat and which she would enjoy as she has had such a problem with her mouth since having the two teeth out earlier this week - so this combined with the fact that generally in the Summer she loses what little appetite she has makes it a challenge and when it is hot that is doubly hard.  

Mum brought with her a marrow which was a gift from Effie and as I wont have an opportunity to use it over the next few days I asked Sonia if she would like it, she said she would so after Mum left I popped it down and took the opportunity to have a chat with her now that she has moved in.  She has made a fabulous job of renovating Marilena's property so that it suits her needs.  It is light and airy and cool and she is so happy there - she says that her old house in the UK was tiny so this gives her an incredible feeling of space even though it is, by many people's standards still a small place.  At least now she has somewhere to put all the personal things she bought with her from the UK, some of which has been in storage for years.

Anyway back to lunch and I do think it was a success.  I haven't made this cottage pie before but it was really tasty (I think the mix of sweet and ordinary potato with cheddar cheese in the topping helped) and the chicken was so tender and moist.  There was enough left for Mum to take a portion home and for John and I to finish off tomorrow for our tea.  Afterwards Mum and I did what Dad always used to do, retire to the cool of the steamers in Wendy and Bill corner where we were joined by Charlie who is really feeling the effects of the heat - he is half the cat he is in the winter due to moulting and eating less.  At least he lay out under Mum's chair rather than sitting on her lap which he is prone to want to do even when he is feeling hot.

Mum had brought with her a book of Angela's which is about the history of Somerton, Ilchester and Langport and which includes a section on Keinton Mandeville which is where I was born and brought up (well actually born at the now sadly defunct Maternity Hospital in Butleigh).  In the book was a photograph taken at Castle House.  My first ever paid employment to raise money for a trip to Canada saw me ironing and gardening at Castle House.  If my memory serves me correctly then I believe that this was the back of the house and the bedroom window of Mr Heaver (the mysterious man who lived there) was to the left of the woman and in his day there was a small flower border underneath which I used to tend to when I was not tackling his voluminous bedwear with an ordinary flat iron as Mrs Woods the housekeeper didn't like the new fangled steam ones.  Castle House is now an modern, impressive, state of the art Nursing Home.  From the front the old facade remains but round the back it is a world apart from what I remember.  I never realised the house was set in 6 acres but do remember some fabulous fetes being held there - particularly in 1966 when I went dressed as a butterfly (thanks Dad for my spectacular wings).

After a thrilling end to the Grand Prix at Silverstone when Lewis Hamilton limped home in first place with only three wheels on his wagon we settled down to a cool night's viewing in the Dojo armed with plenty of iggy repellent by way of burners so as not to become somethings midnight feast.   We watched a couple of episodes of the fabulously entertaining Our Yorkshire Farm which fills you with such a feeling of wellbeing you are almost sad when it ends.

During a commercial break we saw the Bridget Jones' films were being repeated on Channel 5 so decided to find the first one and watch - 2001 apparently - couldn't believe it was now nearly 20 years old.   It was a laugh and took us nicely up to bedtime - not sure our neighbours will have appreciated us singing along to the soundtrack - particularly our rendition of I'm Every Woman!!!