Today’s family meal was spag bol (with a lentil ragu for the meat refusers) followed by trifle. We were somewhat stumped by the GSQ but managed to score 9 thanks to some lucky guesses and smatterings of arcane knowledge, preserving our >10 average — just.
A1 is reading Stay Buried by Kate Webb.
Author: admin2
Passion Flower
Our first passion flower photo of the year. Admire its extraordinary superstructure, concentric frills and clawed petals. Our Friedhats Sudan Rume coffee is supposed to taste of passion fruits as well as eucalyptus, candied raspberries and mint chop chip ice cream but it actually tastes, exquisitely, of sun-warmed peaches.
A1 is reading Never Flinch by Stephen King. A2 is reading The Red Shaw by William Shore (actually vice versa).
Critter of the Day: Unidentified Small Hoverfly
Dilly-dallying on the dill.
The weather station was out of action for the cold wet start of the month, so according to our records June 2025 was the second driest and second warmest June of all time, with the temperature reaching 31.9°C yesterday. It was the fourth sunniest June ever according to the solar panels.
A1 is reading The Red Shore by William Shaw (thanks A2!). A2 is reading Guilt by Jussi Adler-Olsen.
Yet Another Celebration
A family dinner to round off a week of festivities. A1 received a Shipping Forecast T-shirt and we both got coffee beans and beer. Toad-in-the-hole (veggie and carnivore versions) and the remains of the delicious cherry cake were served and we scored 12 on the GSQ, bringing our average back above 10 at long last.
<<<< And here’s Dad Dancing!
A1 is rereading Sympathy for the Devil by William Shaw.A2 is rereading Redemption by Jussi Adler-Olsen
24 (Wonderful) Years Later
It’s A1&2’s wedding anniversary and a delicious cherry cake was baked to celebrate.
A1 gave A2 a bunch of flowers and our number 6 coffee maker; a handy little gadget for making one cup of espresso, and A2 gave A1 The Red Shore by William Shaw in advance of publication.
It was our opal wedding so A2 got a packet of [redacted], previously known as Opal Fruits, and A1 got an opal (see below).
A2 is rereading Disgrace by Jussi Adler Olsen.
Happy Birthday Chris
The good times keep on rolling! Here’s the birthday boy’s boozy coffee walnut cake looking like Pacman going after our cherries.
A1 is rereading A House Full of Knives by William Shaw. A2, inspired by watching Dept Q, is rereading Mercy, aka The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen.
Happy Birthdays Twins
We celebrated with a random Chinese banquet with allegedly perfect chocolate chip cookies for afters, serenaded the twins over the phone and scored a respectable 11 on the GSQ.
A2 is rereading The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre.
Later: And just after midnight, the first noctilucent clouds of the season:
Critter of the Day: Small Tortoiseshell butterfly
Aglais urticae refusing to open her colourful wings.
A2 is rereading Want You Gone by Chris Brookmyre.
National Beer Day
It is also Father’s Day, so we had a delicious chicken, leek and mushroom pie for the dads to enjoy with their beer, followed by Fried Alaska (with raspberry Swiss roll and minty chocolate ice cream), and scored a creditable 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is rereading Born in a Burial Gown by MW Craven. A2 is reading The Man Made of Smoke* by Alex North. Many years ago, various people ignored an unhappy child in a service station, and now they are being bumped off one by one.
Strawberry Moon
It’s called a strawberry moon because it’s strawberry season, but tonight’s full moon is as red as any strawberry.
Cloud of the Day: Mackerel Sky
Our weather station is working again, just in time for the warm weather after days of cold and drizzle.
A1 is rereading The Puppet Show by MW Craven. A2 is rereading Dead Girl Walking by Chris Brookmyre.
Trifling
Our family dinner this week was chicken bacon broccoli plus vegetarian alternatives, followed by a fruity trifle, at which we scored 9.5 on the GSQ, bringing our average to a sub par 9.9. Come on guys!
A2 is reading Son* by Johana Gustawsson and Thomas Enger.
After a Shower
A2 took a photo of herself in the steamy bathroom mirror, drew a copy of the photo at art school and added a frosted glass filter to preserve her decency and disguise her poor drawing skills.
A1 is rereading The Curator by MW Craven. A2 is rereading Flesh Wounds by Chris Brookmyre.
After the Feast
We were so busy enjoying our family dinner of roast pork, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, broccoli, peas, carrots, stuffing and gravy, followed by home-grown rhubarb crumble with custard and cream, at which we scored a solid 12 on the GSQ, that we forgot to photograph it, so here is a picture of some of the washing-up.
Our weather station has been hors de memory crash for the past week so does not know that we have had ample rain recently, so according to our figures, May 2025 was averagely warm and exceedingly dry (a mere 0.6mm). The solar panels are working though; May 2025 was the third sunniest May and the eighth sunniest month ever.
A2 is rereading When the Devil Drives by Christopher Brookmyre.
Big Broken Mushroom
A battered autumnal fungus in spring.
A1 is rereading Dead Ground by MW Craven. A2 is reading Hollow Grave* by Kate Webb.
Let It Bee
A spoilt-for-choice bee approaches an allium flower. Apparently plants listen to bees and produce more nectar when they hear them buzz.
A1 is rereading The Botanist by MW Craven.
Ladies Day
Loads of ladybirds enjoying Spring Bank Holiday on the thistles.
A2 is rereading Where the Bodies are Buried by Chris Brookmyre.
Happy Birthday Dave
Dave cuts himself a slice of delicious parkin cake after his post-birthday dinner of stroggers and pizza. And we scored a respectable 12 on the GSQ at last.
The One That Got Away
The cat made its annual attempt at catching a baby starling but A2 managed to usher it out of the house before it became a fluffy cat snack. Here it is catching its breath in the bushes before it flew away.
Sad news: our weather station has stopped working. We were expecting it to rain in the near future but now we’ll never know. Unless we look out of the window.
A1 is reading Hollow Grave* by Kate Webb. A2 is reading Buying Time* by EM Brown.
Strawberry Cheesecake
Another family meal, another creamy pudding. Since the Co-op shop was hacked there have been shortages on many shelves but a vast oversupply of sell-by-date cream. A1 served up a delicious beef stew and A2 concocted a creamy courgette gratin for the vegetarians. We enjoyed it all and scored our usual substandard 9 on the GSQ.
A1 started The Girl in the Woods* and The Cuckoo*, both by Camilla Lackberg, but couldn’t get into either of them.
A2 is reading The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison; a miserable book about horrible people with a specially ghastly protagonist.
The Secret Garden
This peony blooms unseen behind the spreading apple tree. A2 pushed through the greenery to photograph it and got nettled for her pains.
A1 is reading The Dark Wives* by Ann Cleeves, compassionate and absorbing. A2 is reading The Hymn to Dionysus* by Natasha Pulley.
Sunday Lunch
We had chicken and/or vegetable creamy pasta for lunch, followed by this strawberry sponge cake which was snapped up before it could be snapped, and scored an improved 10 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading The Cuckoo* by Camilla Lackberg.
Turkey Tail Fungus
The multicoloured fans of Trametes versicolor growing on a tree.
A1 is reading The Shadow by Ajay Chowdhury. A2 is reading The Vinyl Detective: Underscore by Andrew Cartmel.
Dejeuner en Famille
Dinner with the family in their lovely new house: salmon, salad and cherry cake for afters. What a treat!
Faye was our quizmistress and kindly gave us a score of 9.
A1 is reading The Vinyl Detective: Underscore by Andrew Cartmel. No proper recipes this time, but more on Vinyl Detective Macaroni Cheese, which is now credited to Sam Wong’s article How to Hack Your Macaroni Cheese in the 23 Nov 2022 issue of New Scientist (behind a paywall, but free to Leeds libraries members).
A2 is reading The Girl in the Woods* by Camilla Lackberg; child killers and child-killers, with 17th century witch trials added in.
The Garden After…
…the second driest April on our records. The tulips are packing up and the bluebells are pushing through. Compare two weeks ago and all previous May Days. As well as being the second driest, April was our third sunniest and fifth warmest April of all time. May Day started well with 28°C and 10.6kWh but it won’t last if the forecast is correct.
A2 is reading The Dark Wives* by Ann Cleeves.