It's raining. Still. Again?

Not torrential rain this time. Just heavy, very persistent rain. Large swathes of Northern Sheffield are flooded, with roads and schools closed. Fortunately (from my point of view) the south seems a little better. But only a little. Lots of roads in Chesterfield are closed too, including the main roundabout on the A61 and one of our main roads around the back. Will need luck if we are to make it home tonight!

Had rather a nice weekend. After we (The Builder was picking up some overtime too) finished work on Saturday, we went round to Bea and Steve's place, where they were hosting a barbecue. Happily the rain more or less held off and there was a gazebo against the drizzle, so we actually did manage to cook and eat (and drink!) outside. There were several people there, including some quite astonishingly well behaved teenagers. And a toddler. We ate and drank and chattered and drank and debated and drank and tried to set fire to the gazebo and drank. And I coma-ed off to bed. The Builder in the meantime stayed up - playing ten pin bowling on the Wii!!!!! Didn't come to bed till after 1 am :-0

Sunday was a nice quiet day. We arose, still at Bea's place (naturally) at a pleasantly late hour of the morning. Well, by our standards, anyway. Had a cup of tea and then made our way back to Chesterfield calling at the Dunston Hall garden centre and the Hardstoft herb nursery on the way. Since then it has rained fairly consistently and the herbs remain in their pots. At about 2:30 I asked what The Builder would like to drink, expecting tea or coffee or perhaps hot chocolate to be the answer. But no. "Hmm," said he. "I think I'll have a vodka and tonic". OK. Well it is Sunday. I shall have a gin and tonic. And so we gently slurped and slumbered our way through Sunday afternoon in a pleasant and relaxed sort of way. The Builder took advantage of a break in the rain to dash up to the allotment and water the tomatoes (which can see the rain inside their greenhouse but don't get to feel any of it, unless someone intervenes and buckets it onto them), and of another break in the weather when he went down and picked a colander full of pea pods and a basin of raspberries and cherries. It made for a lovely dinner. Fresh peas (with asparagus not from the garden) with our main course and raspberries, cherries and ice cream for dessert. Magnificent.

It's been quite an eating week. We were at Roger and Kate's on Wednesday evening. Their washing machine had broken down and they've bought a new one. Roger is awaiting a hernia operation and couldn't push the new machine into its new place so The Builder volunteered to help. Well, he volunteered after I told him he had volunteered! For 10 or 15 minutes "labouring" he (and I) were fed stir fry beef in black bean sauce and raspberries and cream and given prosecco to drink. And it *wasn't* raining!