A rare sighting

Before you strain your eyes looking for an interesting bird or an insect, or try to identify a little known rose, - the rare sight is the parasol that we bought nearly 15 years ago, just after moving to this house. Buying it was clearly a bad omen weatherwise, as this week it came out for only the fourth or fifth time, but this week we have enjoyed the garden to the full and loved to share it with our Aussie family.
I took this while sitting on the patio relaxing before going in to pack my case: tomorrow we're off to the Dordogne for a week in a villa near Bergerac, myself and Mr MC, his brother + wife and sister + husband.
I'll take lots of photos but most likely won't have the facility to upload to blip. Hope the sunshine continues for all in the UK!

Lilly, our senior cat, is as usual unimpressed that we're leaving her again as you can see here