I am finding this year is just running away with me and I can’t believe we are at the end of June already with Midsummer day already fading into my memory. I have to say that until the last week or so I found it hard to believe it was summer at all as the weather was pretty dire really. I found myself reporting each morning to my friends on twitter ( I still can’t call it X …sorry!) that our patio was wet yet again. However happily we have had some good weather during the last week or so, although thankfully here in Carlisle we have not broken any heat red warning barriers, but it has at last been quite hot. We have even been able to eat in our garden, which is something we really like to do and at last we have been sitting on our garden chairs. We have even been forced to sit in the shade at times…happy days! We have been in touch with several friends in France though and frankly we are very happy we are not there just now. I am fine until the temperature reaches 30C but anything above that is not welcome at all. Our friends near Bordeaux reported temperatures of 44C the other day…absolutely not for me at all. I really hated having to close all the shutters and windows when we did get high temperatures in Chabanol and sitting all day in the dark never did appeal to me one little bit. I get very amused though here, at how badly we Brits cope with these hot sunny days. I never heard of them closing the schools in our part of France even when the tarmac was melting on the roads! We seem to be over the worst now …until the next time I suspect!
So, what have we been up to then this month? Well I’ll start where I left off last time with my birthday on the last day of May. We had a very nice day all told with a meet up for brunch in Kendal, with Hazel, Phil and the girls who were en route homewards after a wedding in Liverpool. After they departed ( Layla’s social life interfering yet again as she had a party to go to!) Geoff & I found a lovely garden (Holehird) to visit and we wondered why we had never visited it before as it was fantastic. Then we checked into our hotel (the Damson Dene), had a lovely swim in the pool there and later ate dinner (watched by some resident ducks through the restaurant windows) and had a walk round the grounds before returning to our comfy room with a view for a really nice sleep. A perfect way to spend my birthday really.
The next couple of weeks were quite busy with all our “normal” things such as Op shop shifts, pickleball sessions and church commitments as usual. Op shop and Cornerstone held a gathering one day, as it was volunteers week to say “thank you” to all of us volunteers who man the shop and the cafe. It was nice to meet the people who work on different days who we hear about, but never really meet! Our church also held its anniversary service that week and we all enjoyed sharing lunch together afterwards. I have done another stint reading some pretty dire articles for the Talking Newspaper for the Visually Impaired from our local newspaper. It really is hard trying to find stuff which is interesting to read for these sessions! Our recording studio has moved into another building in Carlisle and it was fun trying to find our way through the labyrinth of corridors of this old warehouse! We also attended the annual AGM of the Mills Management committee which oversees the management of the complex where we live. It was its usual fun! We like to go though each year to see where all the money we pay in service charges goes. It’s an endless problem maintaining the upkeep of these old mill buildings and we say every year we don’t envy those guys who volunteer to stand as directors of this committee.
I have had several appointments to attend this month too. I have had my annual diabetic review and the results of the blood tests etc look OK to me. I have also been to the opticians where the news was not so good as my eyes have deteriorated yet again. I am now becoming increasingly depressed at the lack of treatment at the eye clinic for my condition as my new consultant does not seem to want to continue with the injections as before. My eyes are really not good at the moment which is truly depressing 
. Geoff and I have been trying to visit a lady from church who had a stroke a few weeks back and is now at home spending a lot of time on her own. We took her to an appointment she had at the eye clinic the other day and it was very odd sitting there and not being the patient myself!
We have done some nice things too this month. We have had a couple of great swims in the lovely open air pools near here and have really enjoyed those sessions. We took Hazel with us last week as the baby has just started one full day at nursery a week to get her ready for when Hazel goes back to work in September. She really enjoyed her first child free swim for quite a while I can tell you! We have had a couple of really nice lunches out too, eating for the first time at The Leeming House hotel with its wonderful views of Ullswater and a return to one of our favourite pubs near the pool at Hunsonby. Geoff enjoyed a lovely day celebrating Fathers Day. He spent a very happy day eating lunch in the garden at Hazel’s and then sitting under the apple tree in the garden playing with his granddaughters! He got some great presents including a book from Hazel which he has been wanting to read and some tickets to an open air event at Lowther castle…but more about that later. We also enjoyed a visit to our local theatre last week to see one of my all time favourites, “Under Milk Wood” by Dylan Thomas. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen but it was good.
Sport seems to be domineering our TV at the moment. I have been very happy to be able to watch some tennis from Queens before the start of the real tennis fest that is Wimbledon, which has now just started. Of course, there is rather too much football on screen just now and happily so far Geoff has not been really interested…yeah! However I suspect that might change soon. Geoff is really disappointed not to be able to follow Le Tour in great detail when starts next week. I am not so bothered…it means no clashes with Wimbers for me! He will of course be able to watch the highlights sessions each evening but reckons it is not quite the same as spending lazy afternoons watching the lycra clad speed through the French countryside!
Talking of France I am delighted to say that we have booked our flights for our return in September. I wonder if we will get our biometric stuff done when we arrive this time??? We have also sorted out a little break to Scotland in July to visit our friends Ewen and Jean for a couple of nights and then staying in the Borders for a night on the way back. I am always astonished by the price of BandB accommodation these days mind you! I nearly skipped that night when I saw the costs! While we were in the planning ahead mood we have also booked a caravan stay for a weekend in August to spend some time with the grandchildren as usual. I have been very busy as you can see…and the credit card has been hit hard this month!
Now we come to the last outing we have had this month…that Father’s day gift I mentioned earlier in this post. On Sunday afternoon we set off towards Lowther castle, complete with picnic to go an outdoor cinema event there, clutching tickets paid for by our son. The journey there was not a smooth one, as we sat in an almost stationary traffic queue for a good mile before we could exit the M6 at Junction 40 - a notorious exit at the best of times but now enhanced by yet more lane closures than normal. We eventually arrived at the event with 10 minutes to spare, but we still had time to unwrap our picnic before the 30th anniversary concert of Andre Bocelli began on the big screen. It was fantastic, with a lovely blend of different music and guest appearances by a variety of people such as Ed Sheeran, Shania Twain (two of my all time favourites) as well as others from the film and operatic worlds. We loved every minute and of course we both ended up in tears when Con te Partiro ended the show. As well as being a beautiful song, that brought back memories for us both, of cruises we had been on when it is often played as the ship leaves a port…and we always cried then too! We are of course, a pair of romantic softies at heart! It was a great way to spend a summer’s afternoon and Geoff reckoned it was one of the best Fathers Day gifts ever 
I’m going to end now with some really good news. Our daughter-in-law, Susie, has now finished all her follow up chemotherapy and after scans last week, was given the “all clear” results. It has been a tough six months for them all and so this news was extremely welcome as you can imagine. Our son Matthew starts a new job this week and hopefully now the whole family can now get back to living their lives again. So off we go into July which already looks quite busy according to our calendar. Hopefully we will also get some more summer weather too. We shall see…
A bientot mes amis…