August 2023 Part Three

 The glorious August weather was interrupted by a humongous deluge which seemed to come out of nowhere, soaking me to the bone. And after twenty minutes of monsoon style rain, it was over and the sun was back again, like nothing had happened! 

I made a point of visiting my grandparents more while I was off, and was greatly tickled to hear the story about the heron. In their pond they used to have koi carp, and they had quite the collection of them, that is until a local heron discovered that. It took them a while to realise what was happening, but as soon as they did, they went and brought two decoy birds, which seemed to put off the heron. But after several successful years, they discovered one day that a heron was, shall we say a little over friendly with one of the decoys, and in the process of trying to mount it, broke the decoy heron at it's ankles. Needless to say, they didn't find it very funny, but I found it hysterical! 

Me and James often popped out for lunch together on the weekends, I was rather impressed by this sandwich James had in Windsor & Eton central train station. It was from Delicious Pho, and I loved the fact it came in this delightful little boat shaped dish! We had a nice little wander about Windsor, checking out the shops and antique places, although I don't think we brought anything

August also broke the news that Lucy Letby had been convicted of murdering seven babies and injuring more while while she was a nurse at the Countess of Chester hospital. The case was notable for two main reasons, the first was that it took so long for someone to notice what was happening and to work out why there was such a higher infant mortality rate in the hospital, especially when compared to the national average. The other thing was the discussion around how someone could do such a thing to babies who were in intensive care. Some of the children were on the edge between life & death, others there for monitoring. She hasn't ever really explained what happened, whether she thought she was performing a mercy killing, or whether she had made mistakes, or whether something else had happened. Her relative silence fanned the flames of anger around the case, and in truth, I don't think we will ever find out what really happened.

Here's another baked treat, blackberry crumble! I found the last bag of frozen blackberries from last years bumper pack, and decided to use them up before we started picking the next lot. I thought I'd made enough for dessert for two nights, but it turned out we polished the whole thing off in one. I don't even remember eating it all, but I certainly remember washing the empty dish up afterwards! 

I also spent a lot of time in the garden. There were so many weeds that needed clearing, and it was only after a back breaking few hours that I rediscovered the bluegrass hidden amongst the weeds! I remember buying it, I was so taken by the colour I couldn't resist it, despite James saying it was expensive for a blob of grass! 

In other news, the Bank of England announced yet another interest rate rise, this time to 5.25%. I think it was a continuing sign of the worsening economic situation here in the UK. The funny thing was, there was general concern about it, but also a shimmer of optimism. Like my mum said, things had been a lot worse and we had always got through. She told me that when she & my dad had first brought their house in the early nineties it was double that. But let's just hope we don't reach that! It was interesting looking at the Bank of England's historic rates, before this period of high interest, we'd had a historically low interest rate for many years, and perhaps we had all gotten too used it. To see for yourself, check it out at @bankofengland.co.uk. Hilariously, when I was born the rate was 5.13%. So pretty much the same as today!

And here, is the only kind of riot I approve of, a bird feeding frenzy! We stopped off in Andover one afternoon, and James opened a bag of birdseed for the ducks, and we were soon mobbed by pigeons! Hundreds of them, clambering on top of each other to get at the foot!

  

Even my trainers were trampled on, and James had this rather cute white pigeon sat on his arm, trying to eat as much as they could before he threw the food on the ground.

And this picture tickles me no end, the fact that the pigeons were double stacked on each other in their haste to share a meal. Double decker pigeon, something I've never seen before!