Midsummer update

Midsummer and the temperature is rising - we're in the 20's (70's) at long last and it's predicted that the next week will be pretty hot. Fingers crossed.

MAINTENANCE

A few small jobs completed recently - re-varnished the bench in the back garden, put back the half tiles at the front of our porch, put covers on the exposed radiator pipes and repaired, repainted and varnished the (very) old bench at the front. It's been on its last legs for a while but I'm hoping we can get a few more years out of it yet. The iron framework is sound but the wood has suffered badly from the weather and woodworm. Here it is from above:

The saga of the fence at the rear continues. As predicted, our neighbour cut the cord that I had put on to stop the fence from falling against our shed. I have now propped it up with a pole. Our neighbour (Irene) has been away for the last couple of weeks so hasn't yet seen this. Sod's law, she'll probably arrive back tomorrow as we have a man coming back to re-felt our small bit of flat roof. She's also missed her neighbours at no.2 having solar panels fitted to their roof - there's still scaffolding there.

This morning we had a meeting with Neil Gray to look at what we might do with the crumbling wall between us and Paul at no.5. He's going to give us quotes for a couple of options.

GOLF

I managed to play 2 days in a row last week, albeit the 2nd day (at Edzell) was in a buggy. Because I can't play as much as I used to (and would still like to), the standard of my golf continues to deteriorate. My golf handicap has soared and is now 18.7 but still doesn't fully reflect how bad I am. The heady days of when I was in single figures (8.6 the best) are but a distant memory. I think the only reason I still try to play is because of the social side - I'm particularly looking forward to our annual trip to Balmoral this coming Monday.

CYCLING

This remains the only activity I can now do that doesn't cause me pain. I'm only cycling once a week usually but perhaps I need to increase this?

WALKING

The time has come for our walking group's annual weekend away - we head off to Northumberland next Thursday for 4 days. How much I'll be able to do, I don't know but our organiser (Ken Black) is good at arranging a variety of options. For our first walk next Thursday we are going to circumvent Lindisfarne - the tides are in our favour. 

BARRY, HELEN & DAWN

In a repeat of last year's trip, they all arrived together last Friday. After lunch, Barry and I went for a cycle, including a quick ride on one of the new Banchory trails. We then cycled out to Drum, via the castle and met up with the girls for coffees and cakes. We went to the Derbar for curries etc in the evening, arriving home afterwards to briefly watch our national football team getting humiliated by our German hosts in the first match in the 4-yearly Euros tournament.

On Saturday morning, Jo went to church - one of her friend's husbands had just died. Dawn, Helen, Barry and I went a walk round the local trails and met up with Jo again at Mamma Mia for coffee where I took the only team photo of the weekend:

On Saturday afternoon we took a drive out for Dawn and Helen to see the winner of the North East heat of Scotland's Home of the Year which has featured here previously. Helen, Barry and me then took a walk up Scolty:

It was strangely flat calm and warm at the top. Dinner was at the Tor-na-Coille and it was excellent - nice environment in the recently redesigned dining room.

Sunday morning was a washout so our planned cycle was cancelled, but Gary and Luca arrived for lunch and Father's Day, after which everyone returned home.

LUCA

For those who haven't yet managed to trawl Luca's Instagram account, here's a few more of the photos he posted from his school prom:

ROSS

I forgot to post this one, taken at the Italian restaurant where we had dinner recently:

HOSPITAL

My pre-op assessment has been brought forward by a month and I go to see the surgeon and the anaesthetic nurse on Tuesday (25th). This is exactly 10 weeks before our flights to USA, so I would need to have the operation before about 23rd July to leave a clear 6 weeks before our long haul flights - possible but highly unlikely given the NHS Grampian waiting lists. Dilemma.