Signs of summer

Twenty-four degrees at 2pm. Sunny with a kind breeze.

Today in the garden we intend to plant two floribunda roses, four verbena and an upright rosemary. Now that the gardener has wheels the gardening bill's going through the roof...

The sun has swung right round in its arc and now a sliver of sunlight is shining on the terrace for the first time this year. Two nights ago, I saw the first Carmine bats of the year. Whether this is because they had just arrived or because it was the first time it was warm enough to be outside after dark and therefore to see them, I don't know.

And Mathilda seems to have gone on her summer holidays at last. She was last lit on Wednesday 30 April and hasn't been in service since. A cold Mathilda means that our life changes quite a lot. There is now nowhere indoors to dry urgently-needed underwear or muddy-puddled children's shoes, but equally we don't have to be always nagging at the children to shut the doors to keep the heat in. And now M. doesn't have to split over 100kg of firewood for her every week, and neither of us has to get up that little bit earlier to get her moving in the mornings.

Don't ya jus' love summer?