Let's get the crap stuff out of the way first off.

The quest for insurance continues, still unresolved, still loathsome.

Occasionally, as happened today, someone makes a suggestion, and you think you might be onto something new. Then, as you investigate further, that hope collapses as well.

But I said I had one more door to try. Well, I'm trying it. After that, I will put the whole world of insurance under my foot, as my grandma would have said, there to be cursed and ground into oblivion.

It's been the sort of week where nothing quite works as it should.

The lentils you bought obdurately refuse to cook. The "boneless" chicken portions you purchased turn out to be attached to bits of skeleton that look like they came off a pteranodon. Either there's something wrong with the new tin opener, or we're buying the wrong kind of tins. The measuring cups are marked with totally erroneous measures. The watch I bought only this year at Argos in Newark has packed up already. The people you try to contact don't respond. You give yourself extra work by rearranging your upcoming trip to the Philippines, and then can't quite find the energy to do it.

Etc.

I can't wait for October to roll round. I'm convinced nothing is really going to function till we've got this month out of the way...

BUT...

It's started raining. Which means the air has cleared.


We've had some mega-thunderstorms. But generally the rain has been reasonably soft and gentle. You can still walk in it. The air is cool and damp.

And the city is looking lush and beautiful. The green really pops against the dull sky.







On Monday we went to the Botanic Garden. This is a new venture, and still not finished. But it's shaping up really gorgeously. It makes a great little route: down to the river, over the bridge, past the Orchid Garden (go in if it's not Monday), up the road, down through the garden, and across the river again via one of the cute little ferry boats.








The Jubilee Recreation Park is always delightful, whatever the weather. And the cat population is increasing:




I'm rapt to be out and about in our beautiful city again. It's balm for the soul.