Green and blue

It's been a glorious summer day. I awoke from some sort of troubled dream and realised that the sun was shining. By noon we'd decided to go for a walk, but it was very hot, as in cover -your - head - with - a- veil sort of hot. In the end, our walk was very short. We drove to a parking place and walked along the canal, which was underground, until it emerged at Brimscombe. Steve had back pain, so we decided to have a drink at the Ship inn, in the garden, then he walked back to the car and I walked through the old customs port and on along the river to Felt Cafe (above) which turned out to be about two inches away! Steve drove up to meet me. We had drinks and cake in the garden (above) by the river Frome. Then we drove home. 

I overheard a very funny conversation at the till. At least, I thought it was funny. It was between two millennials.

Customer: did you get a manager?
Staff member: No, we didn't get many applicants so we decided we didn't need a manager anyway. What makes you ask?
Customer: oh, you'll probably hate me. I'm X, I enquired but then I didn't pursue it
Staff member: to be honest, that's a fairly typical response to our advert. We decided, if that was the quality of the applicant, we could do without a manager who wouldn't commit
Customer: I'm really sorry, I was going though a lot at the time. Could I have a piece of the gluten -frew New York cheesecake ?

No offence was taken on either side. Makes me wonder about this 'bring back National Service' idea. 

According to my WEA tutor, many moons ago, the 1960s marked the End of Deference for the establishment. Clearly I  never got the memo, but I did grow up in Ireland and the West Highlands of Scotland, so the memo may have arrived a bit later. 

I've been sitting in the garden attempting to read "Seven habits of highly effective people" as recommended on my health coaching course; to do a jigsaw based on the work of Gaugin; to read 'Queenie' by Candice Carty-Williams. I've been meaning to read this book for ages. Found a copy in a charity shop the other day. It's about to be serialized on TV. Starts tomorrow, I think. Finished the book I was reading  yesterday, 'A father's affair' by Karel Van Loon. I will not be telling you the ending. Almost all of my books are wildly out of date, because I'm a seeker of interesting themes and believer in following my nose, but this latter book had me thinking how refreshing it was to read a book set in the pre-Google era. Imagine, there was a time, that almost all of us remember, when we had to get up and go somewhere if we wanted to find out about something!

The dinner is in the oven. My laundry has been put away. The sun still shines on the garden. Sleeping Beauty slumbers on, now covered in nettles, brambles and bindweed somewhere in the midstof it all.