River Wey near Ripley

Today is officially the first day of summer, and the forecast of sunshine and 21C did not really happen. It was mainly overcast with a cool and blustery wind which made the day feel far too fresh for summer.

We decided to go walk along the canal at Ripley today, (it's actually the River Wey) and we walked from the Ripley Weir along the path to the Pyford Lock and back again. The river banks were very pretty with masses of Queen Anne's Lace in flower and there were some gorgeous reflections. We watched a few narrow boats manoeuvre their way through the lock system which is always interesting to watch. In the extras I have images of Xena on the walk.

After the walk we went home for lunch and then afterwards went to the garden centre to get some lavender to replace the ones that have died. We seem to always be replacing lavender, maybe we should just accept it does not do well in our garden! Of course we bought a few other plants too, peonies, rudbeckia and verbena. We seem to do this every summer and yet the next year we have to get more as they seem to die off. I could have spent a fortune today at the garden centre as there were so many tempting plants but I did restrain myself very well!

Luke and Meriel are doing the coast to coast cycle today, that is east to west coast from Sunderland to Whitehaven. They have not trained for it but they are both fit so should be fine.

The South African election results are historic in that the ANC have lost their majority for the first time since they came to power 30 years ago. It means there will have to be a coalition with one of the other parties - their choice is probably the new MK party formed by the criminal Zuma, or the EEF party led by the mad man Malema who is every bit as dangerous as Hitler was in his views. Interesting times, it sure beats our boring election where I cannot get excited by the idea of the dull and pedestrian Sir Keir Starmer being our next leader.

I am making a seafood risotto for supper, it entails standing at the cooker stirring for half an hour but the result is amazing!