Glad I'M not in labour!

Gosh it's hot  today  -Glad I'm not in labour!! "First babies can take 12 hours or more" REALLY??!! I was 36 hours with my first, I hope kate doesn't take that long as there are only so many ways reporters can say "She hasn't had it yet"
Storms are threatened for tonight so we have been drain clearing so that our buildings don't flood. Oooh the glamour of my life! I actually like a good thunder storm. Fortunately ours aren't as violent as those experienced in the States this year, .
  Despite the lack of rain over the last few weeks the veg gardens are now doing quite well, with peas, mange tout, spinach, salad leaves, cabbage, romanesco, brocolli, garlic, chillis and the first of the beans now ready. We have picked most of the soft fruit now, with just the last of the blackcurrants and the raspberries to come. What we are expecting is a good stone fruit harvest this year. My friend J. will come up from Cornwall to help pick, which is a tremendous help.
Having a really frugal week this week and living out of the freezer and cupboards. As we have plenty of veg coming in now, it is not as difficult as earlier in the year when I did my £1 a day challenge when I really missed fruit and vegetables. I have a homity pie in the oven as I write this, made fom some left over pastry from a bake I did last week and some left over jacket potatoes. I have used garlic and parsley from the garden and a sprinkle of cheese.  A couple of eggs in a couple of Tbs of milk poured over the filling binds it together. We will have this with Salad leaves and mange tout.
 D. has finished the new hive he has been making to house the latest swarm. He has made an excellant floor from a Solar panel packing case. " Put that on your blog !" he says, and I am glad to do so, as it illustrates how much easier it is to be frugal if you are married to a bloke who can  turn his hand to just about anything.
 We have now bartered with two swarms and have two to sell, which is a first for us!
 My Eldest Granddaughter has been here today to borrow my interenet, as she has recently moved house and can't afford the interenet yet. She and her boyfiriend are such a careful young couple  who shop around and save for everything before they buy. However today she has been distraught as she is trying to insure her car and the quotes are getting sillier and sillier. She is a lovely girl who has just finished a two year full time college course, when she also had a part time job. She also volunteers at least once a week and now has two jobs. However £4,000 per annum is a HUGE hit on her small purse and she feels very discouraged. It is hardly suprising that many young people drive around without insurance! A car is an essential around here, to enable you to get to jobs. There are no buses after tea time and those that are running during the day are not neccessarily going where you need to go!
Rant Over !!
On a lighter note here is YGD helping me to pick the last of the cherries. She is wearing my sun hat and it looks SO much better on her than me!

 And here she is cooling off in the river. I do hope she will hold these moments as memories of her times with her grandma and grandad.

 I made some strawberry and gooseberry jam with the very last of both fruits. It is rather good and made a lovely filling for the sponge cake I made for YD's birthday tea yesterday. Three jars are put away for a taste of summer in the winter.
That's about all for now Blog friends. Thank you so much for reading and commenting.
Off to read all YOUR blogs now and then I am going to settle down for a bit of mending and a good cry at   " Long Lost Family" Does anyone remember the Noel Edmunds Christmas show, when he reunited folk and suchlike? The girls and I used to cry until our eyes were puffy and I bet that they will both be blubbering away tonight !
Gillx