Dull and Cold and Damp
14 June

It's been the most miserable start to June that I've known for a very long time.

The clouds have been low throughout the day; sometimes clearing for a fine evening. The temperature has been mostly oppressive and enervating; sometimes dropping so that, last Saturday for example, I put the central heating on rather than suffer any more. Some days the rain has fallen intermittently; other times it has been so dry that the ground has lost all its moisture.

The garden is in a strange state of stasis. After nearly three months, the last of the wallflowers have gone and with them the last of the great splashes of colour. All the spring flowers have gone and the summer flowers are delayed by the lack of comfort in the weather. Everything feels stunted and held back. Only the aphids are thriving.

Work has similarly been dull and uninspiring. I am working on a terminal project and, try as we might, the final ounce of energy is missing from us all. Only the fact that we are now in a position to certificate our customers' efforts through City and Guilds give us any onwards impetus. It was a great pleasure, for example, to hand out our first certificate as an approved centre just this last week.

Some of the customers have been making good use of their newly acquired skills by producing a collage which has graced the entrance to our LearnDirect Business Centre.

There's not been a lot on the social front either.

Ross and I watched Fargo, an extraordinary film by the Coen Brothers. I'd seen this many, many moons ago and had loved it then, as I have loved many of the Coen Brothers films, like Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, Barton Fink, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?, etc. Ross was duly entranced as well. We gave it a clear three stars.

I've polished off a couple of books for younger people. A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett was a joy from beginning to end. I'm just amazed by the way his creativity flows on from one year to the next; one book to the next. And, at base, all of his books are about growth and growing. Excellent.

I was disappointed by The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer. Having loved the first book in the series, Artemis Fowl, it's really been downhill from there. The Arctic Incident didn't get a good rating from me and I've noted that the third book, The Eternity Code didn't get a mention last year at all. This one just feels tired and hackneyed. But, no doubt, if the books continue selling (and there's a film in the offing) then the publishers will continue to ask to more.