Madeleine

Has anyone seen those news items about the amount of brand-new product that Amazon sends to landfill - every day! Including laptops and, gulp, new books.

I did plant some tomato seeds quite late last year, in a pot as I don't have a greenhouse, and some of them did grow, however as they were the larger beef toms they didn't grow that well and I only had one that was really viable. Bizarrely I have a tomato plant which has self-seeded in the middle of tub of cornflower and wildflower seeds, I only noticed it on Saturday so I've potted it up separately and will pot both that one and the one I bought into their summer homes ie the place where they should grow properly, hopefully at the weekend if it stays dry for long enough. they do need quite a lot of extended sunlight and warmth so fingers crossed. I love mechanical pencils, I get fed up with sharpening them and these are much more fun (sorry, don't judge me!).

I've not read nearly as much since I stopped commuting last year, however I did have a couple of days in the office the other week when my home internet packed in, and I think I read more in my couple of days' commuting than I did in the whole of the previous week! But yes normally by this time of year I'd have read around 20 books, at the moment i'm near to finishing number 14. And that's including a few fairly short books as well, ie around 280 pages as opposed to nearly 400 pages.

Met up with friends at a garden, which was lovely, and had lunch, 3 of us have met in person a couple of times this year, but hadn't seen one of the others "in the flesh" for about since Xmas 2019m when we went to see "Little Women" at the cinema!

Circle in the Sand - Belinda Carlisle

The Light Between Us by Charlotte Betts - this is the first of the Spindrift trilogy but I won't be reading the next one, it just didn't really grab me. Edith is a rather naïve young woman, who's grown up in the shadow of her sister who died young, her mother is obsessed with her sister's memory and constantly criticises Edith, so when she meets the dashing Benedict all her prayers seem to be answered and they marry, but her happiness is shattered on their honeymoon when she catches him in flagrante with their host's sister! They return to Benedict's family home of Spindrift on the Cornish coast, although Edith is surprised when Benedict invites his artist friends, who also came on their honeymoon, to live with them at Spindrift and form an artist's colony! It's not long before children start arriving, and Benedict shows himself to be a feckless cad who is easily bored and doesn't want to be bothered by his children. Luckily the other artists have all bonded and form a close friendship, but their peace is threatened by their neighbours, who have always felt that Spindrift should be theirs (there's a history between the two families) and who do their best to jeopardise and malign the little community, and as Edith starts to find success in her own right as an artist, she knows that everything could fall apart in a few minutes, even her own mother is a hindrance to her happiness. I found the characters very two dimensional, and even though the story is set in late Victorian times, I still thought Edith was a bit "wet", and she never seemed to learn any lessons ad still seemed incredibly naive, I could see most of the plot developments coming from a mile away. Benedict in particular is almost a caricature of the dastardly cad, I wanted to hiss every time he appeared. I like family sagas but this was, overall, disappointing. 6/10

tried to rain a bit today, still muggy and dull. My garden is like a jungle!

I was worried about my plants too, so far they look a bit soggy but are surviving... we escaped the worst of it last night, it did rain quite heavily until about 11.00 but no storms, yet anyway. Much fresher but still quite muggy out.

Wicked Game - Chris Isaak

Yesterday was quite a bit cooler, but went out in the garden at 9.00 and it was already baking.

The Crying Game - Boy George

Yes it's been sweltering the last few days, also quite uncomfortable at night. It was a bit cooler this morning but not sure what it's like now, meant to break after tomorrow I think.

Yes I read about the eclipse, should be at it's peak around now, will go outside and have a look, but very cloudy, maybe that's why the weather is weird, sort of cool breeze but muggy at the same time. just went outside and the only thing which covered the sun was a great big cloud.

Seven Days - Craig David

So summer has finally hit! And of course my internet decides to finally give up altogether, so I find myself coming into the office in Central London on the hottest days of the year so far..... new router on the way hopefully.