I’m over half way and this week has been… interesting.

The first half was very productive but the end of the week, less so, but all out of my control. Let me explain…

The week started off slowly as the temperature hit around 30°C – I reduced down what I did outside, sticking mainly to doing so during the cooler mornings.

During the week I got work done on the garden, including clipping the hose to the garden fence – last week I added an overflow to the water butt that I have on the shed. Until then, when the butt filled up it just slopped over the top – now it drains into the garden. This is done via 15m length of hose, but that needs clipping onto the fence to tidy it out of the way. I ordered the clips but didn’t realise I didn’t have enough screws, so I could only do a few of these before having to pause – I’ll get more screws when I can.

I also did some sorting of various cupboards that we have outside storing garden items.

On Wednesday I went swimming and managed half a mile (which to most people wouldn’t be particularly impressive, but bear in mind that the best I did at school was one length – 50m. Here I achieved 750m).

Our holiday to Lisbon is only a few weeks ago so I took advantage of the early week heat to do some planning and sorting for that (including buying a few items that we needed).

And then on Friday, something happened… my back went. I think it was the hose clipping the previous day, which involved a lot of crouching. This got better, slowly, but as I write this on Sunday is still present.

The end of this week, though, is ending as it started – hot weather. But not like earlier in the week. It’s been slowly going back up and is due to be even hotter today than it was last week. And then it continues until Tuesday, peeking at 40°C – something not seen before in the UK. It’s going to be hot and we simply don’t the experience or infrastructure with this kind of heat to deal with it well. I’m not looking forward to it.

So, planning is the key. Windows, curtains and blinds are closed and the freezers stocked with frozen blocks, ice cubes and lollies. There are bowls of water everywhere for the cats and we even have a bowl full for foot-dipping. I’ve got out an inflatable mattress and some sheets with the plan to camp out downstairs the next few nights, if needs be (as it’s cooler).

Jen has been feeling a bit anxious about going to school during this time, including the driving, as well as the thought of stepping into the car at the end of the day (if it’s 40 outside imagine what the inside of the car will be!). So, with all my plans put on hold already whilst it’s this hot, I’ve volunteered to take them and pick them up for the next couple of days.

Otherwise, I’ve written some BTQ articles and tinkered with my cycle helmet camera (still not working properly but I’m promised a software update for it should resolve the problems).

No pictures this week, but have one of Timmy taking over the sofa…