Saturday, 23 June 2007

Today we were to host a small garden party for friends and family. But there has been heavy rain for several days. Members of the extended Jones family in Wales and the north of England called earlier in the week to offer their apologies. This morning it was still raining heavily if intermittently, so despite the hope offered by occasional bursts of sunshine, Jackie and I decided to cancel the garden party. Regardless of this, my Mum came to visit and the boys did manage to cook an edible BBQ sheltering under the umbrella from cloudbursts. We sat in the new pergola also under umbrellas and enjoyed each others company and conversation.

Latest reading

I finished Church and Parish by the West Country historian J H Bettey – a wonderfully detailed and readable introduction to 1,000 years of history including so much I simply didn’t know - or had previously misunderstood. This book is a great introduction to its subject and so much better than the frankly dull Observer Book of Church Architecture.

I have also skimmed through The Guardian publications Notes and Queries. This was really quite dull too: there is nothing so unedifying as Guardian readers among their own kind in full rant.

Unless of course it is the sight of Europe's political leaders smugly celebrating a new treaty purposefully designed to by-pass the democratic voice of the European people. Why are Europe's instincts so brazenly and arrogantly anti-democratic?