#fail

This is my laughable attempt at a photo of the moon, at the end of a lovely evening of international peace and harmony in the garden. We picked a date for our annual 4th of July party (21 years) before realising there was an eclipse. S looked at an ephemeris site and went so far as to saw a branch off a tree that was blocking the view. But the garden is in such a deep hollow that by the time the moon peeped through the branches, it was midnight and no longer eclipsed.

But anyway we had a lovely evening with a crowd of English, Scottish, French, Belgian, and German friends. We managed to provide enough food without spending all day cooking: watermelon, quiche, salad, escalivade, pork kebabs, three kinds of tart, including Bakewell tart by me, part of my campaign to persuade French people of the merits of British food. We suffered for our art; it's really not a good idea to use the oven when it's already 30C in the kitchen. The temperature in the garden after dark was perfect though. 26C at half past midnight, not a breath of wind.