Too busy and too hot

My dear little van and I have run around together every day this week, but none of it has been "interesting" fell walking / camping / campervan stuff. Just terribly ordinary bits & bobs, but no less lovely for that.

I am nearly the only person I know who does not find this heat too much - but as I am retired I can pace myself, stay out of the sun in the middle of the day, and choose where and when I go out. This heatwave has almost given me permission to sit around and read at times during the day when I would normally be doing something, and I think my long-Covid fatigue is much better as a result. Hmm, there appears to be a lesson here 🤔 🤔 🤔.




Earlier in the year I took up a new sport and to my surprise and delight found I am rather good at it. So much so that I have had competitive matches two days this week followed by a long & hot afternoon of coaching. So that was Blue Bus and I out for three consecutive days.

There has been gardening early in the morning before the sun really gets going, grass cutting and Himself bravely got the brush cutter out and took down one of the wildflower meadows. We have let the 'hay' dry for a few days but this weekend I really must make time to rake it all up. The other patch happily seems to have developed itself into a late flowering meadow so we will leave that for a few more weeks.



There has been laundry, and general housekeeping and grocery shopping, and a trip to the hairdresser yesterday afternoon to be greeted with "it is always lovely to see you but you're 24 hours early". I definitely had it written on my diary for Friday and suspect the mistake is not mine - I never go to the salon at weekends when it is busy and noisy. But this afternoon I will be back for a much-needed trim and a tidy up.


Those small bottles of water go in the fridge and are handed out to all delivery people who are ALWAYS so thankful, it continues to stagger me there are some people around accepting parcels but not offering drinks to the hard working staff who are saving us having to go out. It was the same during lockdown ☹️.

In the midst of all this relatively mundane and normal activity there are no plans to go away in the Blue Bus and add a few more miles to my Coast By Campervan project. But at present that is not a problem - campsites are never my favourite places in the middle of school holidays and with temperatures reaching silly-degrees it would really not be pleasant trying to sleep in a tin can. At lunchtime yesterday my thermostat recorded 28˚ indoors, and that was despite having had all the windows open since getting up and all the blinds pulled to keep the heat at bay. When I went to the 'not-a-hair-appointment' it was even hotter.



(Good grief, that thermostat needs a damn good clean, how embarassing . . .)



I have often quietly mumbled that if I were ever to go missing the best place to start searching would be Portugal. I know of a small place inland in the middle of the country, where tourists seldom venture. Once upon a time I nearly moved there and occasionally I wonder what life would have been like had I not been too afraid to take a leap of faith all those years ago? But now I look at 40˚ heat, drought, wildfires and terrible devastation . . . and perhaps there was a reason I did not move? This week is probably the hottest I have experienced since moving to Cumbria and whilst we have had rain the reservoirs are low and stocks of bottled water in the supermarkets are lower than usual. I think everyone is a little worried (and those who are not and blithely say they are not affected are probably idiots).