6th August 2022

The heatwave forecast for our return to the UK duly arrived on the 18th of July. Fortunately, this gave Sue and me ample time to get both ourselves and the house prepared for its arrival. The fruit and vegetable plots had been pruned and weeded, the lawns mown, and the hedges neatly trimmed. Clothes worn in Madagascar and Greenland had been washed, aired, and put away on their respective hangers or folded into drawers. I had even ordered a pool table for the garden room and stocked the spare fridge with cider, my preferred tipple during the summer months.

On the 17th, Jamie arrived with the rabbits, Maddie and Wilma, who will be lodging with us for a while. He also picked up a suitcase in preparation for his trip to the F1 Grand Prix with Ruth and Joey. The country had been under Amber and Red Alerts for extreme heat all week, with frequent warnings on the TV and radio. The following afternoon, Ruth arrived with Joey and the dogs, Rocky and Nala, who would also be keeping us company for the next few days. Jamie returned from work a little later, and they all left together to catch their 9 p.m. flight to Marseille from East Midlands Airport. That same afternoon, the temperature in Harborough rose to 37°C, quite fitting alongside the 43°C being reported in France.

The real heat arrived the following day. By the afternoon, the thermometer at the front of the house recorded a sweltering 46°C. The pool table was delivered at a relatively cool 7 a.m. by two men, who swiftly carried it into the garden room before hurrying off to complete their remaining deliveries ahead of the worst of the heat. Meanwhile, at Luton Airport, flights were briefly suspended after the runway began to melt.

On both ‘furnace’ days, we kept the dogs indoors during the heat, only letting them out briefly into the garden for essential business. Up in the permanent shade at the top of the garden, the rabbits received regular dousings with the watering can. They were not at all pleased with the treatment on the first day, but by the next, with temperatures threatening to roast even the hardiest coney, they accepted the soaking with far more grace.

By Wednesday, the heat had finally broken. Late in the afternoon, we had four surprise visitors: Sarah, Lee, Alice, and Mia. When they rang to say they were on their way, we correctly guessed they had exciting news to share. Sarah is expecting a baby in January. That morning, she had been for a scan, which confirmed she was thirteen weeks pregnant. They brought a photo of the scan for us to see, and we celebrated the wonderful news with a Chinese takeaway. By the New Year, our family tribe will have grown to thirteen.

Earlier in the day, I’d messaged a group of friends on WhatsApp asking for help moving the pool table into position in the garden room. They arrived just as Sarah and her family were leaving for home. I had expected four able bodies, but seven turned up, which made the job considerably easier, though it also took a rather larger toll on my cider supplies.

Meanwhile, Jamie, Ruth, and Joey are having a fantastic time in Monte Carlo. Their hotel room overlooks part of the road circuit, and they’ve been busy taking in the sights, on land, at sea, and even from the air.

Now that the record-breaking temperatures have passed, Sue is back in the swing of things with her walking groups; she even managed a picnic lunch on one recent foray into the wilds of Leicestershire. Meanwhile, the dogs have been keeping me company during my daily watering duties in the fruit and vegetable plots. Aside from a rather disappointing potato crop, the rest of the produce is shaping up to be exceptional.

Charlotte dropped in for a toasted sandwich and a chat on the 21st. Sue had just returned from a U3A ramble, and I had been cutting up wood in preparation for the winter. Naturally, the main topic of conversation was Sarah’s baby news.

That evening, seven friends came over to play pool in the garden room. It had been over three years since we last gathered at the Catholic Club for our Thursday pool nights. The club’s closure, followed by the pandemic, brought that tradition to a halt. Apart from now having to provide the beer and not cough up 50p per game, it felt just like old times, only cheaper!

In another long-awaited revival, most of the family gathered at Willow Bank for a BBQ on Saturday, the 3rd. The only absentees were Jamie, Ruth, and Joey, who were holidaying in St. Tropez, but Rocky and Nala deputised admirably in their stead.

Despite having had little practice over the past three years, Sue outdid herself with the food preparation, while I managed not to burn anything on the charcoal (the salmon, in particular, was exceptional!). The new pool table and pétanque set both saw plenty of action, as did the dogs during a frenzied ten minutes of dashing madly around the garden, watched, thoroughly unimpressed, by the two rabbits.

Jamie and the gang had an exciting day at Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, witnessing the race leader crash out and celebrating when two Brits secured second and third place on the podium.

They returned to the UK late on Sunday night, collecting the dogs and rabbits on their way home.

On the morning of the 25th, Sue took Lucas and Ellis to the north of the county for a round of crazy golf. They made it back in time for lunch at Willow Bank and a few games of pool. That same morning, we were due to have our boiler serviced and a satellite system installed in the garden room, but things didn’t quite go to plan.

While the satellite dish and cabling were installed without issue, the boiler service hit a snag. The engineer declared the system unsafe, citing low gas pressure and an unsealed flue. He contacted Cadent (our gas supplier) for an emergency visit, shut the system down, and plastered it with ‘Do Not Use’ notices. Before leaving, I had him speak to the company that originally installed the boiler.

Soon after, the Cadent engineer arrived. He tested the system thoroughly, even with the hot water running, central heating on, and all four burners blazing on the cooker, the gas pressure remained perfectly adequate. He also found no fault with the flue. In the end, he removed the warning notices, restored the system, and advised me to have the boiler serviced as originally planned.

After a flurry of phone calls, texts, and emails, the service is now rescheduled for 19th August, fingers crossed! Interestingly, the following morning, the installers turned up to check the system themselves, and like me, they were left scratching their heads over the whole episode. Let’s hope that really is the end of the saga.

On the morning of 27th July, Sue and I collected Lucas, Ellis, and Harry from Rothwell and took them for a walk around Ravensthorpe Reservoir. It was a lovely day, and there was plenty of wildlife to spot on the water.

By the time we’d completed our circuit, it was lunchtime, so we headed to The Chequers pub in the village. While waiting for our food, we played several rounds of Uno using the pub’s comically oversized cards, though Harry chose instead to stretch out in the sun for a nap.

With everyone well fed, we returned the boys home just in time to greet Sarah at Willow Bank. She had called in on her way back from work in Northampton to collect the air hockey table, which we no longer had room for in the garden room.

On 30th August, Harry came to stay with us. Charlotte and her family were heading up to York the following morning for an overnight stay as part of Ellis’s birthday treat. Over the weekend, they visited several museums, walked the city walls, enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool, and in the evening, took part in a guided ghost walk.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Ruth spent the day in Skegness with an old school friend’s family (Michael Hobbs). With the weather so lovely, Sarah and her family made the most of it by spending the weekend in the garden, harvesting the produce they had planted back in spring. Cheeky Alice seems to be thoroughly enjoying the gardening, and may well have inherited green fingers!

Sunday 31st August 2022
Like much of the rest of the country, I sat in front of the television at 5 p.m. to watch the Women’s European Final. Throughout the tournament, England had conceded fewer goals and scored more than any other team, so expectations were high. But we were playing Germany, never easy on the nerves. In front of a record-breaking crowd at Wembley, the game went to extra time, and the better team won 2–1, and, for once, that team was England. As a child, I watched the men lift the World Cup in 1966. It has taken all these years for a senior England team to win another major tournament, and it felt fantastic!

Before Harry returned home on Monday, I took him for a long walk and lunch in Foxton, joined by my recently retired ex-rugby pal, Sean. After a seven-hour trek and several pub stops along the way, Charlotte collected a very tired dog late in the afternoon.

A busy day: On Wednesday morning, Sue hosted one of her rambling friends (another Sue) for tea and cakes in the garden room. While they enjoyed a good natter, I hid away in the cool of the study and finally finished adding photos to the holiday blogs. I’m now free to start creating videos of Madagascar and Greenland, perfect ammunition to bore the grandchildren with on a dark winter evening.

Later that afternoon, I caught the bus to Leicester for an eye appointment, and how things have changed at the hospital! The waiting room was packed, undoubtedly an attempt to clear the pandemic backlog. Fortunately, a seat became available just as I checked in. I waited over an hour for an eye test from a nurse, and nearly another hour before having the usual retinal scan.

Expecting to be sent straight home, I was surprised to be told I was going to see the consultant. Half an hour later, after a chat with a very amiable doctor, I learned I am to have another series of injections to help stabilise the vision in my left eye. I arrived home with a bag full of very ripe fruit from Leicester Market, only to find that Sue was out on an evening U3A ramble around the Langtons.

Sue and I had bought Ellis a glider lesson for his 12th birthday, and on the afternoon of 4th August, we took him and Charlotte to the Bosworth Gliding Centre for his first flight. It was an excellent day for gliding, with plenty of thermals providing ideal conditions. Ellis enjoyed a full 50 minutes in the air, controlling the glider for half the flight. He even reached a height of 4,000 feet and travelled as far as Market Harborough, not bad at all for a first lesson!

A couple of days later, I picked up Sean and drove to Langham to meet John Lee for a ramble, followed by lunch. It was another gorgeous day, with a slight breeze that made for perfect walking weather. Sue was also out, enjoying lunch and a wander through the gardens at Coton Manor with Doreen.

Our circular route took us via Whissendine, but my GPS unit decided to misbehave and stubbornly refused to load the OS map. Fortunately, I had a printed version with me, so we did things the old-fashioned way, until, on the outskirts of Whissendine, the GPS finally decided to ‘play ball’ and sprang back into life.

The impressive St. Andrew’s Church in the village was open, so we took the opportunity to explore. Several women were busy inside, preparing the building for what promised to be a very grand wedding that afternoon. Afterwards, we moved to the other side of the village to visit one of England’s few remaining fully operational nineteenth-century windmills. Whissendine Windmill has towered over the village for more than 200 years, built in 1809 by the Earls of Harborough of Stapleford Park to replace an earlier windmill.

Once again, we were in luck; the miller was busy grinding wheat. He beckoned us inside and encouraged us to climb through the five upper levels, packed with operating machinery, to take in the view. The Health and Safety brigade would have had a field day in this building! Moving cogs, belts, and millstones had no guards, and the series of ladders were quite rickety. But we are of a hardier generation, and a bit of danger made the experience all the more exciting. The chance to see how a windmill works, just a few centimetres away from its working innards, was brilliant and offered a unique insight into history.

Appropriately, our return to Langham took us through several wheat fields being harvested by huge, complex machines. Without too much effort, I could still imagine scythes, Shire horses, and wagons of the past bringing in the crop for Mr Miller to turn into flour. To complete the experience and stay with the theme of the day, we enjoyed an excellent meal at the Wheatsheaf Inn before Sean and I returned to Harborough, and John headed back to Bourne.