Phew Not A Scorcher

As I write, the sun is high in the sky and the temperature has soared to close to 25 degrees. There's not a cloud to be seen.

If only that had been the case in St Andrews for the last fortnight. 

We had a great time staying in our caravan and seeing the family but this was how the BBC weather app looked for much of the stay. I know I shouldn't grumble but the winds kept us from getting out on our bikes and, whilst much of the country was dining al fresco in the evenings, we were sitting in front of the fire and switching the electric blankets on.

But, as I said, we saw plenty of the family and that was great and that was the reason we bought the caravan in the first place.

Little Melody is almost five now and put on school uniform for the first time to have a look around the school she's starting at in the Autumn term.

She and Rose joined us at the caravan site and stayed the night - their first ever night away from their mum and dad. They loved playing football even though we didn't have a ball!

And after a bit of fun before bedtime, they managed to sleep right through the night.

The weather can't take away the splendour of St Andrews. It really is a beautiful place.

While the girls were at school we enjoyed a few visits to The Old Course Hotel for coffee. It's a great place to go and well worth spending the extra few quid for the comfort.

And the location.

While we were there, Rose lost her first tooth. She's almost seven now and, as a lot of her friends are going to be on holiday on her birthday, her mum and dad brought her birthday party forward to last Saturday.

Sarah, pictured here with Marion, put in  a huge effort converting the garden to a flower fairy land and a dozen little girls had a wonderful time playing and making things.

 The garden was alive with fairies.

The party girl with her cake and dress (all made by her mum).

It was Fathers' Day while we were away and I bought these from the bookshop with the voucher that Sarah gave me. I loved Less (a humorous gay romance). I wasn't so keen on History Of Wolves and am just about to start The Lie Of The Land.

Mr Prendergast's Fantastic Find continues to be well received and I loved this recent GOOD review. The only critical review on Amazon is not so bad either is it?

I had a morning out with the detector while we were away. I had to laugh after digging a two foot deep hole and unearthing this! (There was no skeleton detectorist clutching it).

As we prepared to leave the caravan the weather finally improved and on Sunday we went for a picnic in the super new playground behind the museum.

Walking into town from the museum I noticed this memorial to a Polish war hero. A reminder of how grateful we all should be to the Poles who helped us win the war.

No visit to St Andrews on a sunny day is complete without a detour to the famous Moretti's Ice Cream parlour. The queue was out into the street andalong the road and the shop staff were handing out free samples to keep the crowd cool.But the wait was worth it and we enjoyed some delicious ices.

Our day out ended with a walk to the wonderful ruined cathedral. 

I'm going to miss this couple of live-wires.

And their mum and dad.

I showed them what you can do with the panorama mode on the iPhone.

It kept them entertained for ages.

In other news we were busy getting on top of the garden before we left for St Andrews. After five years of hard work it's finally beginning to look established. It looks a bit neglected after the heatwave that's been going on here while we've been away but Marion has been working away and I'll post some more photos in a week or two.

Lobsters have come down a bit in price so it's back to one each now.

I don't like the Star but I really had to laugh at this headline. It's up there with "Book Lack In Ongar" when the Ongar librarians went on strike.

And finally, a sign of the increasing population here in Framlingham or maybe Brexit is just turning everybody to drink.