Droushia/Drouseia Dits: Wonderful news...

Somebody that we love dearly had some truly amazing news today - a win on the Premium Bonds and a big one at that!

This was no scam or hoax it was a bona fide notification and it could not have gone to someone more deserving. It is lovely when these things happen to the right people and we couldn't be more pleased.

I don't think we have ever known of anyone else winning this sort of money on the Premium Bonds although we have had a friend share a sizeable lottery win some years ago.

We had the maximum holding of Bonds for years when we were in the UK and won about 100 quid in total and we did the lottery from day one and never won a bloomin' thing. That is our sort of luck but it doesn't stop us feeling happy when someone else's luck is better than ours. It put a smile on my face - I don't know how I would have reacted to that kind of news in fact I don't think I could have been happier or more excited if it had been for me!

Last night Marianne gave me some tomato plants she had spare which was very fortuitous because I had been thinking about growing some but really left it a bit late - there had been none at the Garden Centre when I went to meet up with Yve.

These are not any old tomatoes these are apparently Black Zebra cherry tomatoes and should provide quite a healthy crop. I do hope so. I am thinking that with the rising cost of fresh foodstuffs I should grow a little more than I do but I would want whatever I grow to blend in with the rest of the garden so a couple of raised beds somewhere might be the answer - who knows? I shall have to do some research first. Anyway these five little tomato plants might shrivel and die and I might lose interest.

I had to cover the top with shingle to stop this being a nice new toilet for Charlie - he does like fresh compost but at the moment he is quite out of sorts due to the heat - he was sick this morning so we keep putting him in the spare room with the aircon on.

We have had a real problem with pests this year. John has been stung by wasps twice going to the outside shower, the first time he thought he had wafted the culprit onto his skin from his towel but today he was positively dive-bombed and we realised that there was a nest built behind a sign we have on the outside shower door. Hazel was lucky that she didn't get stung - they must have built the next since she left.

The other issue we have is bloody ants who seem to really enjoy a meal of cat food or cat biscuits. Nothing we have tried so far have deterred the buggers so today I put a bowl of old food in the garden away from the house and covered the food with a mix of Bicarbonate of Soda and Sugar - blimey it was like a neon light advertising an all you can eat buffet - the ants came from far and wide - all the dark on the right hand side of the bowl are ants - once in they didn't seem to be able to get back out. It may not kill them but it is keeping them away from the house.

We had a girlie bitch and stitch afternoon at Nicky's. Ellen still has visitors and Jan is away so just the four of us. Nicky put on a fabulous lunch with quiche and salad and the lightest of light lemon fairy cakes which were absolutely delicious. It was good to catch up and good that Bee was able to come round on one of her rare days off work.

It was with much hilarity that we approached the project which Nicky had taken time and effort to put together. The end result was inconsequential unless, like Nicky, you are super competitive. It was simply a good reason for us to get together and whether or not we finished was irrelevant.

The project was a paper folding exercise. We were challenged to make a three dimensional flat backed heart (in red) and a paper frame (in white). The heart was to be mounted on card and then the frame affixed to the mounted heart.

Well it was a laugh although I do think Bee felt she had wandered into some parallel universe! The good thing about it was we were indoors with the air-con on enjoying some female company, banter, food and wine.

Mark had been out for lunch and came back and looked at the carnage of the paper folding and decided to take himself out of the mess! That was probably a wise move. I am not entirely what time we called it a day all I know was it was too late for me to make my daily call to Mum!!!

John had busied himself doing 'stuff' all day and had got the spare room ready for me so I could have a lovely, peaceful, cool and hopefully uninterrupted nights' sleep. I do love him for that.