Repatriation

It is cold here in Bavaria and has been all week. I have even had a hot water bottle at night! Generally, it has been quite sunny and thus bearable during the day if you get outside. Today though mainly cloudy and in the afternoon and evening rain. We have rainwater tanks all over the place - big 1,000 litre ones and they are all overflowing.

Quite the opposite to the British Isles. Granddaughter Charlotte let her Syrian hamster out for a short run in the shade of the garden and as can be seen in the extra photo, Snowy made a dash to try and get home to the cool of the Syrian desert. Flat-coated Flora didn't have the energy to join in. Snowy was quickly returned to the cool of the house. Mother Kate who is very animal welfare minded has been looking at all measures to help the animal kingdom in the heat. Such things as freezing a large plastic bottle of water and putting that in the cage of small furry animals so that they have air conditioning. Putting out bowls of water for the insects, bees and bugs and remembering to put a ladder in the water for them to climb out should they fall in - bees are particularly good at drowning themselves.

Water shortages in Ireland too and Kate getting worried about her water as they rely on their own well for water. This week the council are re-tarmacing the road outside her house which in the afternoon is nice and sticky. I saw someone post a message that councils in the UK are pleased about the heatwave - the potholes in the roads are filling themselves.

Normally when they come to stay here in July/August, I always have to have copious supplies of high protection sun lotion as they strip off for the pool and expose their Irish white skin. I haven't posted it but Kate send me a photo today of her bare feet. There are very white stripes on them from the straps of her flipflops!

And if that wasn't bad enough, Kate and the children have a large field that hubby Barry mowed this week (they have too few sheep this year to let graze it) and that they are having to make hay from. The problem is that they can't get any teddy equipment or balers into the field and are thus having to turn the grass over by hand to dry it. And nobody nowadaýs has a small baling machine so they will have to rake it all up and store it loose. Well, at least it keeps the children occupied for a few of the 67 days of Irish school holidays. 

Back on the EU mainland, the leaders seek to find a solution to the immigration crisis. It looks pretty serious and Merkel is struggling with her Bavarian conservative "allies" who are making political capital at the moment as the Bavarian State elections take place in the autumn and they need to show they are stronger than the populist right-wing AfD who would kick everyone out who wasn't white, blue-eyed, blond and straight and shackle all women to the stove.

I quite understand Italy and the southern Med countries that are fed up with having to take everyone. It is clearly a European problem and the "burden" needs to be shared. But with countries in the Eastern parts or even the UK which has a collective media seizure, the moment a minibus of eight immigrants appears at Dover is hardly playing their part. It is a difficult complicated situation that needs to be fully thought through.

I wonder if any of us Europeans can honestly say that if they happened to have been born in one of the African states torn by poverty, hunger and civil war, they would remain at home watching their family starve or be raped and killed.

One thing is for sure, Mrs May's appearance today in Brussels with her Brexit issues doesn't concern any of the other 27. Perhaps she's quite pleased as after over two years she still doesn't have a clue what she wants. The UK is far more divided than the EU.

Luckily for Snowy, he is in a sensible EU country and being looked after by sensible caring people (and dogs). His future is safe.

PS. For the last two days, I have had a strange yearning for Chicken Maryland or at least part of the ingredients. On Tuesday Angie had come home with some chicken and had said she would be grilling it to eat in a salad. I doubt I have thought about the dish for 40 years! Think of it as being a meal from the 60s and 70s. Did you know it was the dish served on the Titanic the night it sunk!

Today I had even been looking at recipes and while Angie went to Ottobeuren for a sauna session to warm up, I prepared a "dough" of corn fritters and had two nice ripe bananas ready to fry. The timing somehow all went wrong and when Angie returned at 8:00 pm, the rain had reduced enough for me to then go out and do a wet dog walk. Angie cooked in the meantime but couldn't face a cold salad. When I got back there was only time to do the corn fritters but not the bananas.

Then sat down to watch the news and saw the latest shootings in the USA - in Maryland to be exact!