Thunderous

It has been a good weekend. Ally was home because he had been attending his firm’s Spring Ball in Edinburgh on Friday evening, and Davie and Chanel were here too. Cat was on a sailing weekend with her firm which sounds very exciting. With both of his brothers here and having fun together (they were very wholesomely playing frisbee in the garden!), I missed Jamie a lot. He has been in New Zealand for nearly two years now, and while I am pleased for him I miss seeing him in person very much. The warm sunny weather is still with us, even though there was a goodly amount of thunder rumbling about the sky on Saturday. I had been preparing food all morning while James was doing a huge amount of gardening. So in the afternoon I decided to go out for my favourite 5 km walk around the area for some fresh air and exercise. The thunder was constant and really loud. And yet there was no downpour, at least not where we live. When I was walking across Holmhills Park I could see dark sheets of rain across other parts of the city, and a few flashes of lightning too.

Marjory, Forrest and all three of their young ones came to us for a barbecue in the evening, and I was pleased that it stayed dry. We had made burgers, chicken kebabs, and halloumi kebabs as well as baked potatoes and different kinds of salad. James and Ally manfully braved the smoke of the barbecue to cook it all and our guests devoured it appreciatively. We had a very convivial evening and it was warm enough to sit outside and chat.

Sunday was mainly spent relaxing in the garden with the young folk and the cats (I was of course in my beloved hammock!) Tom and Floof love to keep us company when we are in the garden and Floof did her very best to catch a squirrel for us. Luckily she failed. Grandma came for dinner and enjoyed seeing the boys and Chanel. And then I gave Ally a lift to the airport to go back to London and was very sad to see him leave (even though he was rather annoyed with me in the car, because everything I said seemed to irritate him!) 

As I write this at 11.15 p.m. it is still not quite fully dark. How I love this time of year.