Today is my final daily blog. I know some of you will be sad and some of you will be clapping. Probably not like, on your doorstep though. Not that enthusiastic clapping please. 130 consecutive days of blogging. Nearly 160,000 words. Over 3,000 views and 545 visitors. So many visitors from different countries though. Hello Ecuador, Romania, Czech Republic and Pakistan. Where did all those words come from? Sometimes wonky words but you carried on reading and encouraged me to continue. I still intend to blog but just twice weekly. Every Sunday and Wednesday at around 4.00 p.m. I will though be venturing into the world of the “longer read” with the big boy bloggers. 10 minutes of your time instead of five. You might see a bit of a new style as well. If you are signed up via email you will continue to receive a notification. If you have had enough of my whingeing and moaning thanks for reading this far, you can drop out now. If you haven’t signed up for an email alert it is a good way of keeping abreast, particularly if I get put in quarantine. Then I will be back daily moaning about being stuck indoors with Him Indoors!!!!! Thank you Coronavirus for giving me a voice and the confidence to write so publicly for pleasure rather than for work. It is difficult to blog each day when you are entertaining guests. I just can’t keep it up! I am though thankful we have not gone to stay with N&N this week and they are here. Greater Manchester is now in local lockdown with new additional restrictions. 4.5 million people who now need to keep within their own household again. Going out for a meal with friends is not allowed and we would have had to returned home before midnight like Cinderella, having drunk several glasses of wine. Coronavirus is not going away, so for now I will carrying on blogging. Just not so often.
Today I have submitted my entries for the 149th Warkworth Village Show. Of course though this time is different. It will be a ‘Virtual Show’ held on the day of the original planned show date. Photographs and emails entries instead of real flowers, vegatables, baking and crafts. No tasting of the baking either.The dog that stole the lemon drizzle cake last year will be bitterly disappointed. I have entered the writing competition this year. Something I would certainly not have done last year. I need to write and submit a prose entry of no more than 200 words (so few) entitled ‘heatwave’. Well today we have had a heatwave and it has provided inspiration to go with my new found Coronavirus writing confidence. I expect nothing from my effort but will have a go. I will also be submitting entries for the photography section. I really expect nothing from that as last year the winners all looked highly professionals. Proper professional. As Him Indoors always says it’s the taking part not the winning, but he won the seniors game again on Wednesday. He’ll be getting thrown out soon or they will change the age range to 65 and above.
Today we took N&N up to Howick Hall and Gardens. The weather was gorgeous. A proper summer day. We took in some of the normal sights and explored some new areas of the woodland. There were two standout highlights and two minor ones. The first was chatting to Lady Howick who was tending her private garden which she opens up for a small donation towards the upkeep of the estate church. What a lovely lady. Him Indoors stood chatting to her for ages about her four children who have 14 grandchildren between them. He then reported back to us. I then asked about one of her splendid plants. Charming Lady. Her dog was running around her herbaceous border much like Top Dog whilst her brother was taking photographs of the bees on the lavender. I was hoping we might get invited in for afternoon Earl Grey tea but alas a step too far. The second highlight was watching Best Uni friend run around the circular pond eating her toasted teacake with jam, pursued by wasps. She hates wasps and they didn’t appreciate her flapping. They were after the jam she managed to get in her hair. I just sat giggling eating my coffee and walnut cake in peace. I am sure Lady Howick would have served my Earl Grey in a proper China cup though, instead I had a cardboard cup eith ‘Eg’ on the side. The two minor incidents involved a nest of swallows. Baby swallows that were far to big for the nest and fledged whilst we were there. The second minor incident nearly ended up in a fist fight. Two elderly people pushing into a rather long socially distanced orderly queue for the toilets. The women in question had no intention of waiting behind everyone else and vocally made that quite clear. I left the woman behind me to sort it out. I am old and grey and needed a wee badly. We did also spot one deer on the way round munching on one of the Arboretum trees but no red squirrels. Our lovely day was finished off with a quick visit to Craster to pick up some kippers and for the men to have auchermuchty for lunch. The Husband approved. Him Indoors appreciated a return visit. It was so busy in Craster and the queue for the laundry fresh toilet was very long. Thankfully I didn’t need to go. A beautiful Tourist Friday day. Well, that’s the last daily blog (fingers crossed) and a little shorter than normal. I need to go and wash my hair as we are heading out to The Old Boathouse tonight for a least one seafood platter. The sun is still shining and the evening looks like being gorgeously warm. Thanks for sticking with me through 130 days of Coronavirus. Thanks so much for your lovely feedback. Thanks also to Him Indoors for becoming my official proof checker and providing so much funny blog material. I hope your big toe gets better soon. I will be back on SUNDAY. Stay safe everyone and have a great summer weekend. Let’s hope the weather is good. PS. New blog can be found at http://www.thejef992955831.wordpress.com


