Hello folks. How are you? Have you enjoyed June? In our part of the UK the weather this month has largely been utter pants: After such a warm, dry spring, apparently we needed rain. Well, we got it. Plenty of it. There was greyness and wind aplenty too. Thank goodness for those couple of heatwave days last weekend (my car temp gauge read 35°C (95°F) on Sunday 26th!) and a reasonable amount of dry (if not terribly warm) weather over the last four days, to give us a teeny taste of 'real' summer.
Right ... on to June's 'doings' in our world.
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Let's start on a happy note. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like you to meet Humpty:
Isn't he gorgeous? Humpty is the new pet of our friends who lost their previous kitten Wilbur, in the spring. He is doing a marvellous job of helping to heal their upset at losing Wilbur, although his apparent determination to ruin the curtains has not met with approval from the lady of the house: Humpty likes to climb. As I know only too well when he decided to try to ascend the back of my jeans last week - Ouch! Anyway, he is a lovely, funny and sweet-natured chap, and I look forward to showing you more photos of him in time.
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On the subject of animals, we had a very welcome visitor to our garden earlier this month: A hedgehog called Kevin. Well, he might not be called Kevin in his own family, but we named him Kevin; or to give him his full name: Mr Kevin Snuffles. Yes, we're mad. Well, I'm mad and I'm glad my children are developing their own mad leanings as it helps us all get on with one another better. A sane person would have problems in this household.
Not my photo - shamelessly stolen from the interweb
As usual, I digress. It was No.2 who first spotted Kevin ambling across the patio one evening. You couldn't really miss him - he is quite the largest hedgehog I've ever seen. We hastily googled to find out what to give him to eat, hoping to encourage him to be a permanent resident; but it was not to be. He was just here for a little 48hr holiday, and has now returned home, but we really hope he comes back again.
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Oooh, and another garden/animal related happening that occurred this month was the baby jackdaw who was sitting out on the driveway at the start of this month. It was a warm day, and I was just giving No.1's friend a lift home at lunchtime after she'd stayed the previous night, when we spotted him. A fluffy baby jackdaw just sitting there, in full sun and looking a tad puzzled. I stopped the car and looked at him - he didn't move, other than to cock his head at me; so I decided that if he was there when I got back, I'd try to help him.
When I got back two hours later, he was still there. I went indoors to put away my shopping, then went back out to see him. But he'd gone. Thinking one of his parents must have come, I pottered round in the house for a while. Then my neighbour knocked on the door and asked me if I knew what to do with baby birds - they had taken it in. I took some bird food round there, and we gave the baby bird some seed and water - he was very thirsty, presumably because he'd been sitting in full sun. My neighbour called the vet, who asked if we could take it in, as there is a local charity who would nurse it and try to rehabilitate it.
My neighbour found a cardboard box, and we punched holes in the lid, and put some torn up tissues in there to make it more comfortable. Then we had to catch the bird - which was in their garden. Hmmmm - have you ever tried to catch a bird which can't fly but which can hop and run very fast?! I eventually managed to grab it; we put it in the box, and my neighbour and her kids took it to the vet, who checked the bird over. Someone from the charity Little Foxes, came and picked it up just a couple of hours later. Hopefully, the baby jackdaw is well on the way to being rehabilitated by now.
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June is of course the month of Father's Day, and was also the birthday month for my own dad. The kids and I went to visit him at the cemetery, and took some flowers from the garden. I'm giving a very belated 'Happy Father's Day' greeting to all the dads who do such a great job of fathering.
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For the last couple of months, Dear Reader, my washing machine has been grumbling when on the spin cycle. At first it was just a bit noisy, but lately the decibel levels reached the 'ohmyGodwhatiswrongwiththatmachine' point on the scale of noise pollution. One day it sounded like it was going to explode, so I switched it off mid-spin, took the wet washing out, and hung it all out in the garden where it took an age to dry.
I called out the washing machine repair man (really nice chap) who listened to it, examined it, and pronounced it in the latter stages of terminal illness. Apparently my bearings had gone. (Privately I've considered them AWOL for many a year, but I kept that thought to myself).
Thankfully, I was able to take bags of dirty washing over to my mum's house and use her washing machine as a private laundry facility, until we got a new machine of our own. Do not take your washing machine for granted, people! It's a star of the domestic scene.
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One Sunday this month saw a local event called 'Children's Day'. It was the inaugural Children's Day last year, which turned out to be a highly successful event for all concerned. Thus for the last 6 months, the organisers had been planning this year's event. Last year I took photos for the organisers, and was asked to do the same again this time around. As in 2011, No.1's music teacher (who owns a local music shop) was providing some of the entertainment; which meant No.1 and her pals playing in their band. Unlike last year, No.1 did not get herself in a terribly anxious state ahead of the event (hooray!).
Also unlike last year, the weather this time around was abysmal. It was persisting down when we woke up that morning, and it was still persisting down when we went to bed that night. I felt so sorry for both the organisers, and the stallholders who were manfully there, with all their wares, in the hope that a few people might actually venture out. Alas, hardly anyone did venture out, and it was decided at around 2pm that it should be abandoned.
I still went; No.1 still played; the Lady Mayoress still opened the event. Everyone who was there looked like a drowned rat by lunchtime. I delivered my pictures to the organisers a week afterwards and was asked if I'd do it again next time round. Let's hope the weather Gods are a lot more co-operative in 2012.
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No.2 was very excited to be picked to represent his club in a cricket tournament this month. In fact the first time he was picked, he couldn't play because of a prior commitment to a football tournament (his team won one, lost one and drew two, which wasn't enough to progress through to the second round). The second time he was picked, he was available, and spent a very warm few hours playing cricket. His team claimed second place, which isn't too shabby at all.
No.2 has been a bit troubled during June - his best friend has left the football team to which they've belonged for 4 years, and the question has been 'will No.2 follow him, or not?' It is perhaps one of his biggest decisions in his life so far - that may sound silly, but his footie is so important to him. At the time of writing, he is still undecided.
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After having submitted very few entries into the 111 in 2011 project during May, I was determined to upload some this month. Here's a selection:
Vegetable
Damaged
Old Building
Converging Lines
In the group, we have been thinking ahead to a possible 112 in 2012 project for next year. We have lots of great suggestions for topics for our list of 112. If any of you would like to join in next year, we'd love to 'have' you.
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