A birthday tea

We all managed to sleep well last night despite the heat. This morning was another hot and sunny day. Gavin and I took Xena for a run at 7am before it got too hot, and then once we were all showered and ready we drove to London to go have brunch with Luke and Meriel at their home - Xena came too!

Luke had not seen his Aunty Dor (her name is Theodora) for 6 years, and it was the first time Meriel met her. We had a lovely brunch, Gavin tried to help Meriel cut the pastry to make croissants and he overworked the pastry and in the heat it went a bit wrong! He knows nothing about baking but was trying to be helpful :)

Then we went home again and I set off to Cowdray Walled Garden near Midhurst for my friend's 60th birthday tea. Her birthday was a couple of days ago, but she had her main celebration back in March and sadly I missed it because I was in Norway, so this tea was just for a few of her friends. It is an hour away and I had never been there before, the gardens are beautiful with all the summer flowers in bloom. They provided a GF tea for me which was very good. It was really hot sitting in the garden under umbrellas, but then the clouds rolled in and suddenly it started raining, so we packed up and went home.

It was still hot and dry at home. In my absence Gavin took my sister to the garden centre where he bought some lavender to replace the dead ones in my patio containers, and then he planted them. My sister enjoyed seeing the garden centre and all the different plants.

Yesterday afternoon Adam phoned me from La Jolla, San Diego to tell me all about the three labs he visited and the interviews he had - he was so excited about how well they went and the scientists he had met and the work they are doing. He has just video called me now to show me the golf course he was playing - his conference starts this evening and he and his colleague spent the afternoon playing golf at the conference venue. He is absolutely fizzing with excitement and could not keep the smile off his face! I will be losing my boy to the USA....but hopefully only for a limited period of a few years.