Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

This is the wedding card that I made for my daughter's friends wedding. I will take some photographs of her in her outfit and post them at a future date. This is the first of her friend's to get married, and she is, of course, very excited about the wedding, and has helped with the last minute preparations. She has whizzed off to the nearest town at 8.30am. this morning to have her hair done for the wedding this afternoon. This is not bad considering none of us got to bed before 3.00am. this morning.

The reason for the late evening was the leaving/housewarming party for our next door neighbours. They have been good neighbours and we will miss them all and their dog who wanders round into our house and garden to visit us. Unfortunately, the family is splitting up and some have left the village completely, but some have moved slightly further up the village, so they are technically still neighbours, just not our next door neighbours and next door neighbours are the most important, so it is nice when you have helpful and friendly ones. There were leaving drinks round the bonfire, on the scrubland behind our gardens on Thursday night, and last night a house warming party in the house a few doors up the village. It seemed very strange waking up this morning and looking out of the bedroom window and seeing next door's garden empty of its garden furniture, lights and ornaments.


I am always interested in the way people move into the village. When we moved here we didn't cause a stir, we went out and about saying hello to people as we passed them and slowly got to know people. We did nothing controversial, and respected the way people in the village did things, and we took care to understand the quirky 'rights of way' that seemed to affect every property. Bit by bit we became part of the village. Some people, though charge in and ride roughshod over the residents, never taking their views into consideration and being quite selfish. There is one person who moved to our village about eighteen months ago and this person has just about upset everyone in the village by not respecting 'rights of way' and turning to the law courts at every opportunity when he does not get his own way. Asking about the village and communication with the long term residents would have eased his way considerably. We all have to rub along together, and it is easier to live and let live.

My Local History Group had its August meeting on Thursday, and it is going very well. I am organising a trip to the County Records Office, where we will have a talk from one of the archivists, about researching local history, which will help the members who are not skilled in research. I am also looking to set up a series of lectures with different speakers talking about the area's history. These lectures will be not just for the History Group but will be thrown open for any one in the village to attend for a small door charge, to help our funds and to pay for the speaker. The building in the photograph is the medieval guildhall in my local town.

The weather was hot and sunny yesterday, but damp and rainy today, but already, and it is only the beginning of August I have noticed we are to have some night temperatures as low as single figures, which seems early to me. Busy collecting seeds to keep for next year, and will have to get some advice about my lavender bush which is getting a bit woody and old.