10th August 2025

As hosepipe bans began to be implemented in large parts of the country, low pressure appeared, bringing much-needed rain to thirsty crops, lawns, reservoirs and rivers. On the same day, along with dozens of other candidates, Ellis began a walk with a full pack for the Duke of Edinburgh Award. It was while he was navigating a road section of the course and waiting at a water stop and checkpoint that someone in a speeding car threw a coin, which hit Ellis on the side of the head, causing a badly swollen ear and concussion, bringing an end to his two-day hike. The leaders of the Air Cadets arranged transport to a scout centre in Markfield, where the police were contacted and Charlotte was able to collect him.

In equally distressing news, Sue’s sister, Philippa, and her husband, Paul, are currently on safari in Botswana. They published on Facebook the following: “The last 24 hours have given us incredible wildlife viewing, as well as a horrendous attack on our camp that has left us feeling vulnerable & angry. Yesterday, we (our group of ten plus a guide/driver) crossed into Botswana & headed for our camp stay for 2 nights. Each tented hut (built on platforms, canvas sides, en suite facilities) sleeps 2 & were cosy & very comfortable. Not sure of times, but around 3/3.30am, we awoke to the most piercing screams. At first we thought it was baboons – plenty around & we’d spotted elephants whilst having supper – then there were torchlights checking our huts & a knock on the door asking us to check if we had all our belongings. Our guide showed us a 2ft knife slash in the tent canvas & told us that others had lost their possessions. The scream was the youngest of our group – a girl aged 21 – who awoke to find a man physically removing the buds from her ears to go with her i-phone he was about to steal. Out of the 10 in the group, only us & one other man escaped having anything stolen. Passports, wallets, camera equipment, daypacks, binoculars, even toiletries & sandals gone, though some cards have since been found by the police in the bushes. We cannot believe how lucky we have been, though feel so badly for those who’ve lost so much. Paul did wake when he heard what sounded like a zip being u -zipped & sat up so maybe, that frightened them off. Who knows? Anyway, we are safe, as are all of us, but many have a lot to sort & insurance claims to complete. On a positive, the game viewing in Chobe National Park has been magnificent.”

On the 21st of July, Little Alice had a hospital appointment to check on her leg. The fracture seems to be healing well, and she may be able to put some weight onto the leg in a couple of weeks.

The weather has continued to remain unsettled with sunny spells and showers. Great for farmers and gardeners, but now that the schools have broken up for the year, for those who have chosen to holiday in the UK, it has not been so welcome. Barney the rabbit is holidaying in a cage under the shade of a large apple tree in the garden while Jamie, Ruth and Joey enjoy the sunshine in Cape Verde.

 

 

Work in the garden and allotment increased over the past week, spurred on by the occasional rain showers, which have encouraged rapid growth in vegetables, fruit, flowers, and weeds. The French beans and cucumbers are producing in abundance, and I was pleasantly surprised to pick three aubergines that I’d grown in pots outdoors. In the past, I’ve never had any success with them, even in the greenhouse, so it’s a testament to the quality of the summer we’ve had so far.

Jamie’s rabbit, Barney, seems quite content in his new quarters, although it’s rare to see him move from the same corner of his caged run. It usually takes a heavy downpour to prompt him to retreat into his little house. I often wonder what he’s thinking as he sits in that corner, nose twitching, hour after hour.

We’re having sliding doors fitted in the lounge to replace the old-fashioned curtains, ahead of redecorating the whole room to give it a more modern feel. Early in the week, a fitter came to measure up and discuss what we had in mind. Just as he was leaving, Jim Hankers arrived to watch the British Lions take on the Australian Nation’s team in the garden room. I hadn’t seen him for quite some time, so it was good to catch up and chat about the game, although it wasn’t the best of performances from what appeared to be an oddly selected Lions side.

At the end of the week, Sue managed to fit in a bike ride with our former neighbour, Viv. They both have electric bikes and, on a day when the temperature reached 24°C, they enjoyed a ride to Braybrooke, bought some free-range eggs, and had lunch at the café by Waterloo Lake. On the same day, I chose to fry in full sun on a raised platform, painting one side of the balcony.

Alice’s broken femur seems to be healing well. She’s no longer wearing a pot and is undergoing physiotherapy to strengthen her movements.

On a very sad note, one of my favourite rock bands has lost its lead singer, Ozzy Osbourne. In my teenage years, I saw the band several times at the City Hall in Sheffield. They embodied the spirit of heavy metal with their overpowering volume and fantastical lyrics that came to define the genre. It proved especially poignant when, at his farewell concert earlier this month in his home city of Birmingham, Ozzy received a video message from his celebrity friend Dolly Parton. The decorated country star marked his final show with a heartfelt tribute, saying, “I love you. Are we supposed to be saying farewell to you? Well, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Why don’t we just say good luck, God bless you, and we’ll see you somewhere down the road.”

Jamie, Ruth, and Joey made it back from their week in Cape Verde at 3 am on a damp and thoroughly miserable Saturday (26th). Aside from hiring a car to explore the island, which didn’t take long, given there’s barely enough of it to get lost on, they spent their time getting PADI certified at the local dive centre. Clearly, nothing says “relaxing holiday” like strapping on tanks and swimming with the fishes.

After a brief pit stop in Waltham on the Wolds to catch up on sleep (and probably dry out), they headed south to retrieve their globe-trotting rabbit from Willow Bank. But their visit was short-lived, as they were soon off again, this time to adopt a lady bunny who had been discovered pregnant and abandoned in the woods. The idea was to provide some companionship for Barney, who had been flying solo and could use a bit of female company.

While all this animal logistics unfolded, I was otherwise engaged watching the British and Irish Lions seal a glorious 2–0 series victory over Australia in the second test. Several rugby-loving chums and I were camped out in the Garden Room, where the air was thick with tension, coffee, sausage and spring rolls coupled with adrenaline and enthusiastic shouting. Sue, ever the trooper, was left to deal with the departing rabbit, no doubt wondering how she ended up as head of bunny rehoming services while I played armchair pundit. During the evening, Sue and I booked accommodation in a farmhouse in the Peak District for the whole family in early October. Though Lucas may be at University by then, he may find time to join us.

Sunday 27th July proved to be a momentous day for England.. Having battled their way to the final of the Women’s Euro Cup, England faced off against Spain in what can only be described as a heart-stopping rollercoaster of a match. The Lionesses, clearly intent on providing maximum drama (and perhaps testing the nation’s collective blood pressure), had already endured extra time in both the quarter- and semi-finals, followed by a nail-biting penalty shoot-out victory over Italy.

Naturally, in the final, they thought, Why make it easy now?

Russo’s second-half equaliser brought the game to 1–1 at full time, and once again, the fate of the nation hung on the lottery of penalties. Cue millions of Britons watching through their fingers, hiding behind sofas, or making unconvincing excuses to leave the room.

Against the odds and perhaps even reason, England held their nerve. While Spain might have been the more technically skilled side, it was the Lionesses’ unshakeable belief in one another, combined with sheer grit and an iron-willed refusal to give in, that won the day.

The underdogs lifted the cup, and with it, the spirits of an entire nation. Somewhere in the distance, you could probably hear the faint pop of a million prosecco corks.

God save the King and long live the Lionesses.

On the morning of 30th July, we were visited by Sarah, Alice, Archie, and Mia. We played games with the children indoors until lunchtime, as Alice is still relatively immobile and relies on a walking frame to get around. After a light lunch, we moved outside for a while before Sue left to join one of her rambling groups, and our guests departed to visit Charlotte.

As I headed off to finish digging up a couple of rows of potatoes at the allotment, the window cleaner arrived. I paid him and left him to his task.

Early in the evening, I began receiving messages from my email contacts asking whether I had tried to get in touch with them. On checking my email account settings, I discovered that a forwarding address had been added and a ‘rule’ had been enabled. After promptly changing my password, I deleted the unauthorised settings. I then sent out warning emails to those in my contacts list and contacted my banks to alert them to the situation, also providing an alternative email address.

It was only a few weeks ago that Sarah had her emails and phone hacked, and she is still dealing with the consequences. It appears my email and contact list were compromised, but hopefully, thanks to swift action, that will be the end of it. Only time will tell.

On the 2nd of August, the British and Irish Lions faced off against Australia in the final Test in Sydney. The weather, clearly siding with the Wallabies, was dreadful for much of the match, culminating in a thunderstorm that delayed play by half an hour. In the end, Australia claimed victory, while the Lions looked as though their minds were already on the plane home, duty-free catalogues in hand, despite having been undefeated until then.

I’d organised a post-match BBQ for my rugby crowd, though “crowd” might be overstating it; several regulars were AWOL due to holidays, family obligations, or possibly weather-related BBQ aversion. In the end, I had the pleasure of Jim Crawford’s company, along with Sean Perry and five of his visiting Canadian relatives.

The break in play gave the perfect window to fire up the charcoal and shovel burgers and hot dogs into ourselves while the rain drizzled in Aussie Land and the Lions fizzled.

Earlier that day, Jamie and Ruth dropped by to borrow some of my newly-retired wine-making gear, apparently plum wine was on the agenda. A few days later, Charlotte popped round to borrow even more equipment, this time for blackberry wine. Back in the early days of marriage, Sue and I had been rather enthusiastic amateur vintners ourselves, willing to ferment just about anything that grew, with results that ranged from surprisingly palatable to “never again, not even in a stew.”

On the morning of the 4th, we had a delayed visit from a builder who’d apparently forgotten he existed (or that we did) and turned up to measure up for some glazed sliding doors in the lounge. Later that afternoon, another builder arrived for a separate quote, but in between the two, I popped over to St Luke’s Hospital to get the results of a recent FIT test.

The visit wasn’t without its drama. While I was sitting in the waiting room, in strolled two police officers escorting a handcuffed inmate from Gartree Prison. They checked in and disappeared down a corridor, at which point an alarm promptly went off and we were all turfed out into the car park, prisoner included. There we stood, bemused and blinking in the sunshine, for about twenty minutes before being let back in, none the wiser. Was it a failed escape attempt? A false fire alarm? Or just someone in admin pressing the wrong button while making tea? We may never know. But it did liven up a Tuesday.

On the 8th, we had a fleeting visit from Sarah and family, who popped in en route to the annual four-day free festival of hot air ballooning in Bristol, pausing only long enough to deposit Mia with us. Over a hundred balloons were set to launch the following day, and, keen not to miss the spectacle, they’d sensibly booked into a nearby hotel. What ought to have been a smooth hour-and-a-half drive turned into a four-and-a-half-hour odyssey, courtesy of roadworks and the great British pastime of sitting in traffic. Still, their perseverance was rewarded with a breathtaking display of hot air dirigibles.

While Sarah and the family were living it up in Bristol, Jamie was off revving around on a Supercar Rally in his Lamborghini, until the adventure screeched to a halt in nearby Foxton with a flat tyre. He limped the wounded beast onto the driveway at Willow Bank, where it was left in shame until a suitably exotic replacement tyre and a willing mechanic could be sourced. Such is the joy of owning such a machine: no spare wheel, and only rubber so special it might as well be handmade by Italian artisans under a full moon.

Later that evening, Sarah and her crew returned to collect Mia, their Balloon Festival cut short by high winds. As they set off for Newbold Verdon, Sean arrived, settling in to watch the England Women’s Rugby Team take on France in a World Cup warm-up. England ran out comfortable victors, 40–6, the sort of result that makes you wonder why the French even bothered turning up.

Early Sunday evening, Jamie breezed in, fresh from a friend’s BBQ in Harborough. The mission: to liberate the Lamborghini from the tyranny of a punctured tyre. With me lending a hand, the job took just a few minutes. The wheel was safely stowed in the back of his Range Rover, the Lamborghini perched delicately on a stand, and he departed with a promise to return later in the week armed with a shiny new tyre.