16.07.2022 Tory beer parties to combat record temperatures.

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 Saturday 16th 51F. Bright and breezy start. With orange clouds racing across from the NW. It rained overnight. So it was lucky I took my socks in.

 Up at 4.45am after a sleepless night. I was too cold with only a single sheet and then with a duvet cover. Too hot with my lightest duvet. Back to the duvet cover for its double thickness. It was 72F indoors at bedtime. Still 70F now. [05.30] 

 Record high temperatures: Red warnings for the UK. 40C or 104F!

  These extreme temperatures were only a tentative forecast for 2050! It is just 2022. £42.5 billion to save us from Pootin and Sly? What are you clowns doing about saving us from YOUR global warming? Holding illegal, Tory beer parties with clowned crowned mugs?  

 Did the self-important clowns mention the climate in their rehearsed TV photo op? Or was it the same-old, worn out, rehearsed to death: "My tax cuts are deeper than your tax cuts!"

 6.15. Breakfast over. Time for a walk.

 7.15 56F. 35 minutes in a cool breeze walking to the lanes and back. Too early for any traffic. 

 Last chance. I have to do some serious indoor tidying today.

 8.00 I started imaging the sun in the observatory until it clouded over. 

 9.30 59F. Overcast.  I was perched 20' up a ladder. Cutting back branches. Which were overhanging and touching the shed roof. The B&D Alligator is a perfect tool for this job. Far safer than a normal chainsaw.

 When am I going to start tidying indoors? After I have cleaned some windows.

10.20 61F.  Cleaned for probably the first time in 20 years. Since I first fitted the recycled windows. Working alone from an ordinary ladder. Two ladders lashed end to end to reach the very top.

 There was never any point in risking my life before now. The glass in the gable end was entirely covered in thick curtains from top to floor. The Japanese, tripod ladder provides safe support at such high altitudes. All thanks to the very wide, splayed base and stiff, geometrical structure.

The plywood visible inside the windows is to protect the glass from clumsy ladder movements. As I pretend to clad the sloping ceilings in woodwool-cement boards.

 17.00 I am enjoying afternoon tea. After a couple of hours of sorting through chests of drawers. I have discovered enough seeds [in packets] to easily fill a large domestic bucket. 

 It was one of the last things I remember my wife doing before she went into hospital. She was sorting through her seeds. She burst into tears and said that she just wanted to see her flowers again.

 Alas it was not to be. Her flowers took much longer to appear than she had time left on this earth. New blooms are still appearing now. The gorgeous rose, which I dead-headed, has burst into new growth.  

 20.00 59F.  I had to do yesterday's washing up to be able to have dinner.  Dinner was supposed to be cheese on toast but the bread was mouldy again. A whole loaf wasted! So I followed my culinary consultant's advice and baked some fish fingers. As promised, they were better than fried. I added the usual tomatoes and beans. With a bread roll to soak up the juice. My TZ7 camera was in the observatory. So I used the Lumix G9 with the Leica 12-60mm. For the product placement shot. How else will I remember what I have eaten?

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