Monday August 10th 2026 "Are all these 'drought' stories, making YOU feel a bit dry today? Well, join the club!"

Phew what a scorcher again today! And the papers are full of rather 'dry' stories about the current drought, if that's the correct expression!!! [No! - Ed]

All in all it's being a challenging summer, isn't it! 

In times like these, however, my wife Lois and I turn to the wisdom of our elders and betters, for tips about coping!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

And who better to turn to than that retired colonial administrator Sir Herbert Gusset, fresh from his tours-of-duty as governor of various colonies "east of Suez", but still dispensing useful practical advice in the columns of political magazine, "Private Eye", my copy of which "plopped" through our letter-box last Wednesday, which was lucky!

Kudos, Your Lordship haha!!

And despite having a really very busy morning today, Lois and I still somehow find the time to continue our use of our own waste water on our plants and vegetables, which is, we feel, our patriotic duty!

Dubbed by neighbours "Liphook's busiest-looking retired couple", we're preparing for another challenging week, with temperatures set to soar and visits to (1) fellow church-members Richard and Glynis in Alresford tomorrow, and (2) to our daughter Alison in Churt on Saturday for her 51st birthday, all in this week's tremendous predicted heat, which doesn't help.

In preparation for all this frantic activity, therefore, we've decided we need to fill up with petrol and also buy some microwaveable ready meals in Sainsbury's today, to save putting the oven on in these scorching-hot times of ours! 

sneak preview of the forecast for Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday

with highs of 82F/90F/93F to come (28C/32C/34C) - yikes!!!

We even somehow find time this morning for a bracing walk over the "hallowed but parched" turf of local soccer giants Liphook United along the way, would you believe!

Busy busy busy!!!

another typically busy day for us - filling up with petrol, getting some microwaveable

ready meals to save putting the oven on, before taking a bracing walk

over the "hallowed but parched" turf of local soccer heroes, Liphook United

Now retired for an amazing 20 years, we wonder how we ever found the time to go to work back in the day!!!!

And, Friends, have you noticed how expensive petrol is these days? Sainsbury's charge me £1.63 a litre this morning, which is about £7.34 a gallon. What's been going on, since the last time I looked?

When I first started driving my own car back in the 1960's, petrol was only five shillings a gallon, or 25p in "new money", so it's gone up, like, a billion percent - more probably!!!!

What a crazy world we live in!!!!  [Wake up, Colin! -Ed]

flashback to 1972: me standing by my beloved first-ever car, an old

Morris Oxford estate, parked here on the coast at Lytham St Annes, Lancashire

Happy days !!!!

21:00 Finally! Lois and I at last get a moment to relax on the couch, finally (!), and watch the first programme in a new celebrity travelogue series, a trip round Ireland by 1980's Spandau Ballet star Martin Kemp and his grown-up son Roman.

Not the standard celebrity travelogue series, this, having instead lots of amusing family banter between Martin and his son Roman, with Roman confessing to Martin about a trick he and his siblings played on their dad back in the day - secretly letting a dog lick their dad's ice-cream before handing it to him.  Ewwww!!!!!

This was apparently the siblings' revenge for their parents flying around the world first class, while making their kids sit "around the corner", in tourist class - how tight can you get! What madness, wasn't it!!!!

flashback to the 1990's - 1980's Spandau Ballet rock star Martin Kemp,

with wife Shirlie from 1980's pop duo Pepsi and Shirlie,

and their two young kids Harley and Roman  

We learn tonight from this first part of the pair's road-trip saga, that Martin's mum always told him that she was part-Irish.

Young Roman, who's in the driving seat, finds this all a bit weird, as he comments:

Locals? Surely not!!! 

Roman's dad explains, however, the background to this, with stories from his own childhood back in the 1960's, 

Young Roman, however, applies a quick reality-check, at this point:

Hahahaha!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!

Sunday August 9th 2026 "Do YOU ever get disappointed when you see an empty sugar bowl, which desperately needs 're-stocking' ?"

Yes, Friends, do YOU ever feel a slither of disappointment when you see an empty sugar-bowl, which desperately needs 're-stocking'? It's like a missed opportunity, isn't it, when your host hasn't noticed the lack of this crucial tea-time "sweetener" - no pun intended !!!!

1920's icon Bessie Smith even sang a song about it, back in the day - remember?

But don't focus on the hotdog in Bessie's roll, if you can avoid it! It's the sugar that matters! And this old jazz classic is a song very much on the combined lips of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in sweet little Liphook, Hampshire, no question about that!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

Sugar is very much on our minds, because we've had some good news from scientists, today, in Lois's weekly copy of her magazine "The Week", which "plopped" through our letter-box on Friday afternoon, giving a refreshing summary of the main news of the week, from home and abroad.

I showcase Lois's copy of "The Week" magazine, which "plopped" 

through our letter-boxes on Friday afternoon when we were in bed (!)

Apparently, we much-aligned "baby boomers" have done something right at last (!), scientists say, by being born in the age of ration books after World War II, thereby decreasing our input of sugar but at the same time decreasing our risk of getting dementia, which is good news!!

(left) this week's bombshell article from the magazine's popular

"What the Scientists are Saying" column, and (right) flashback to 1948:

my wife Lois sitting on a bale of hay in the Oxfordshire countryside,

and me with my sister Kathy, and dad Ken still in uniform

Yes, unexpectedly we've got more free time than usual to peruse our copy of "The Week" today. We got fewer hours of sleep than normal last night for various reasons, and that, combined with the forecast hot temperatures again today, leads Lois to decide not to go to her church's Sunday Morning Meeting this morning, but to log in online instead.

(left) my wife, who logs in online this morning to her church's 

Sunday Morning Meeting, taking place at a village hall near nearby Petersfield (right)

And our daughter Alison, in nearby Headley, isn't going to drop in this afternoon with husband Edward for their usual weekly "catch-up" session with us, because they're heavily involved in the great Headley Parish Croquet Championships. There's no news as yet about the pair's success (or otherwise!) today in this iconic "battle of the sticks" (!), which in previous years the couple have actually hosted on their so-called "tennis lawn", this year sadly devoid of actual grass (!), but keep your eye on my blog this week for the latest news and pictures! 

[I can't wait! - Ed]

(top right) flashback to 2022, when our daughter Alison and husband Edward

reached the finals, watched by a small local crowd, which sadly didn't include

the couple's Danish dog Sika, banished for his obsessional ball-chasing (!)

Poor Sika !!!!!!

So today our Sunday - usually the busiest day of our week (we've been dubbed "Liphook's Busiest-Looking Retired Couple" by admiring neighbours would you believe!), turns out to be unexpectedly leisurely, allowing a comfortable afternoon in bed, after a morning seeing to the tiny vegetable garden that Lois put in place on our moving here in January 2025. Somehow we even find the time to put together a verbal mid-term report on results so far, which is nice!

Head gardener Lois's interim findings include a feature on big marrows, plus a pat on the back for our spinach crop - "stunning", and a "could-do-better mark" for our courgettes. Lettuces have been good, but now coming to an end, with only the "runt" of the crop still visible. Our runner beans are given a "so-so" mark, for the plants' stringy-er than usual performance, and as for the carrots, it's a case of "watch this space" - full details to follow in the coming weeks, and that's a promise !!!!

(left) Lois squeezing her 2026 favourite big marrow, and (right) me with today's

somewhat more meagre, but still-welcome harvest - spuds and beans: yum yum!

The soil here isn't the best - it's still got builders' rubble in it from the 1970's when this estate was built, or possibly, even older, from all the people who were living around here during the nearly 1000 years since the village first appeared in the 1086 Domesday Book, under its former name of Bramshott (strip of land where brambles grow!). 

Great name, but what madness, isn't it !!!!!

Poor "tenants of restricted freedom" haha !!!!

But happy days!!!!

For mine and Lois's little garden, however, the big factor this year, of course, has been the lack of rain, but we've hit back against the apparent climate change by heroically saving all our 'waste water' in an array of watering-cans and "bucketry" in the garage, so look for us perhaps next January, in the King's New Years Honours List haha! 

Yours Truly today, showcasing our array of watering-cans and buckets

filled with our copious 'waste water', which we use on our plants and veg

[Is that really all you two "noggins" have done today, Colin? - Ed]

Well, no it isn't, seeing as how you've obviously interested!

Lois and I are on a mission to binge-watch all 6 series of the recent Canadian series "Schitt's Creek", a riches-to-rags story of a former billionaire Johnny Rose. Johnny loses his fortune to a crooked associate, is forced out of his enormous mansion and move himself, wife Moira - a washed-up former daytime soap star - and useless grown-up kids David and Alexis, into 2 rooms in a seedy motel in the backwoods town of Schitt's Creek.

It's a town that Johnny had bought a few years previously "as a joke", and where the suddenly-poor Rose Family now has to suffer a myriad of indignities to put it mildly!!!!

In tonight's episode, the finale to Series 5 - only one more series to go!), Johnny's wife, washed-up former daytime soap star Moira, is about to stage the first night of her version of the musical Cabaret, which she's been directing with the help of local Schitt's Creek's acting talent, which is refreshing!

Meanwhile the Rose Family's useless grown-up son David, has been bursting to break the news of his engagement to his latest "squeeze", Patrick. 

Should David make the couple's announcement this evening, or would that risk upstaging his mum's show's  "Opening Night" - quite the dilemma, which David and Patrick discuss in the opening scenes of tonight's show.

Patrick suggest postponing their big announcement till tomorrow, but David muses on maybe bringing the crowd back to the motel after the opening performance.

Luckily, however, David is neverthelesss ready to "bounce a few vague ideas off" on partner Patrick, if nothing else, which is interesting.

Still a bit "rough around the edges", but David's initial ideas seem like a plan to Lois and me, anyway! And Patrick seems to agree, which is nice!

And Lois and I think the boys have got the problem 'licked' or at least on their way to being licked, which is a comfort!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz!!!!!!