Here - and there

I had just finished a bowl of cereal at breakfast time when I glanced once again out of the window.  What I saw was much the same as yesterday morning: mist and a very light drizzle.  In fact, pretty much as the Met Office forecast for today as shown to the right.  Then I looked at the forecast in the morning paper: sunny with temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees (67 to 77 for those still using old money).  The front page of the paper announced that we are to have a heat wave with temperatures of 30 and more - starting next week.  Reminds me of what the Red Queen told Alice: "Jam yesterday and jam tomorrow but never jam today".

Meanwhile, I wait with bated breathe (not literally) to see if this sea fret will clear as it did yesterday.  As we drove along the cliff top in the evening sun to the Lions dinner meeting at Rottingdean the English Channel looked positively Caribbean in colour.

On the same table as the Old Bat and me was a member of Burgess Hill Lions who I have not seen for a good while.  He and I travelled with a Lions aid convoy to Bosnia soon after the war out there had finished and we spent part of the evening reminiscing.  (I posted the Secret Diary of the Sarajevo Seven on this blog back in 2010, starting here, so you can follow our adventure from there if you feel inclined.)

And for the second month running we won a raffle prize!  This month it was just one bottle of wine, but that brings our winnings to seven bottles in two months.  Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket.

~~~~~

After I had visited the boulangerie in Pouancé last Sunday morning (a baguette and a couple of strawberry tartlets) I drove to the lake in the hope that the great crested grebes might have returned and nested.  The lake almost forms a partial moat at the foot of the castle ruins.

The field opposite is where the crowd congregates to watch the Bastille Day fireworks, but last Sunday it was a crowd of fishermen who were occupying the bank. There was a fishing competition in course!

Meanwhile, a fisher of a different sort waited patiently on the other side of the lake.  That's a heron on the fishing stage.