We have some of my husband’s family coming over tomorrow: mother-in- law, sister-in-law and five nieces. I said that I’d prefer not to have to cook because a) I don’t really enjoy it (b) it’s going to be hot and (c) I’ve had a very busy week at work and I just want to relax tomorrow. My husband sad he’d cook and went out and bought a cheap barbecue. He eventually wants to build one in our ‘future’ garden but for now we thought we’d just go with something simple. My youngest went with him and they came back with a barbecue and two more rose plants, which is lovely as it will add more colour to the garden.

We have five roses plants in total now but they are all still in their pots.

After I finished work at 5.30pm, I started tidying the garden, particularly the little area near the back door. The weeds have been bugging me for ages.

Back in the Spring, I scattered some wildflowers seeds down there and although they looked nice at one point, they’ve started to look a mess now. I pulled the weeds out and then propped up the tall pink salvia plant that got damaged in the high winds last month.

My youngest then helped me plant the dahlia’s that we bought a couple of days ago. We planted them around the salvia plant along with two fuchsia plants that were in another part of the garden.

The other plant that I couldn’t remember the name of yesterday is called dianthus – small and cute pink flowers. I popped it in the middle of the red pot that I put the marigolds in last week.

That all didn’t take long, but then I decided to mow the lawn (even though the others said it didn’t need doing). The weather has been dry and hot over the past week and the grass has suffered so much that it seems to have stopped growing; however, I could see lots of dandelions and other weeds poking up, so I gave it a quick mow.

I was shattered by then, so after I’d put everything away, I had a bit of sit down on the swing seat admiring what I’d done so far. My youngest came out to join me and we were still sitting out there at 10.15pm. Although it was dark it was still warm and very peaceful. We had a lovely chat.

We’ve ordered a lot of food for the barbecue tomorrow. Luckily I had a grocery shopping slot booked for the morning so I was able to add everything onto there – tell a lie, I actually got my daughters to add quite a bit of stuff that their cousins might like e.g. meat, drinks, lollies, icecreams and fruit. I added the salady bits and everyday stuff.

My youngest has been a great help to me today and she is quite excited about helping to prepare the food tomorrow.

I’m more excited about having my hair cut in the morning – first time in 7 months! Cannot wait..

Until tomorrow…

Sandra