Holiday Catch up and Summer Races

It's been a long time since I posted here so a bit of a catch up.  School summer holidays now so no excuses.

I've been enjoying what seems like the first proper summer for years, though of course now that school holidays are eventually beginning it seems to be breaking down - it's cloudy here this morning and threatening rain. I think our terms dates are all wrong in England - most schools still have one more week so that it's nearly the end of July before they are on holiday.  In NI the school holidays begin at the end of June and it's the same in Scotland - better timing I think.  I'm not a huge fan of really hot weather, but the sunshine and blue skies have been a welcome treat and I have been enjoying sitting in my garden which is looking good despite the parched lawn.  Lots of watering to be done to keep my veg plants alive though.  The sun has meant that I have had lots of ripe tomatoes already as well as other veg.  The meal we cooked (well Paul cooked - I cleared up) on Saturday for my sister who who was visiting featured my tomatoes, little sweet yellow and red ones; new potatoes grown in a dustbin; and green beans which I had grown in pots - there were only enough of these for one meal but they did taste good.

Last weekend Kate and I completed the Chester Race for Life.  In the end we didn't really race but walked it.  I picked up an injury - pulled a ligament on the inside of my knee - so my Couch to 5k training had to stop - a pity as I'd got to week 4 and was doing ok.  To raise funds I had an afternoon tea party, making scones, carrot cake, lemon drizzle cake and millionaire's shortbread.  Unfortunately my party clashed with the England game last Saturday so I had a few cancellations but I sold remaining cakes in school and made £108 for Cancer Research.

Me looking glam after Race for Life.  Kate dis it too but wouldn't let me put her pic on here.

I've also had my sister and her husband from Northern Ireland staying for a few days and entertaining her has seemed like I've been on holiday as we've had some lovely outings.  Even though I've lived in Chester for 17 years, I'd never been to the races, being put off by the sight of drunken racegoers falling off their heels and out of their dresses on their way home.  So we thought we'd give it a try and avoided most of the drunks by going to an evening meeting.  I quite enjoyed it - especially when I won on my first horse: Rainbow Rebel, chosen because I like the name.  I won £6.50 and then lost most of it again on other races. It was a pleasant evening sipping Pimms from plastic glasses in the sunshine. I didn't fall off my heels being sensibly shod and Pimms too pricey to overindulge. We also had a day out in Wales visiting Llangollen, Betws-y-Coed and Llandudno, a lovely old Victorian seaside town. Sister was disappointed by the beach though - nowhere near as good as Portstewart with lots of seaweed and jellyfish making it too precarious to paddle.

By the river in Llangollen

That's it for now. Back soon