Photo diary: week 26, 366

One third of summer is already gone, but it doesn't feel very summery, we have rain daily.

Last Sunday I was taking the orchids outside from the kitchen to spray with the orchid mister to keep them healthy.

As I was digging in the garden, I came across this old piece of vintage dish. I don't know why it resurfaced now, I've been digging in that location before. It's clearly from Queen Victoria's jubilee celebrations.

Red currants are beginning to ripen, and it's the battle with the birds. I have wrapped the red currant bushes with the netting and fleece over, but those doves managed to break the fleece on the top and have eaten all the berries they could reach through the netting.

Wednesday was an emotionally-charged day for me. I had an appointment at the breast clinic aka cancer department in Oxford. Thankfully, the mammogram didn't find anything sinister, and they think the pain that I have is the muscular pain, which is a great relief to know. I spent over 3 hours in the clinic, having my boobs examined by several different people including a student called Dora. That's the first time I meet a Dora in real life. The mammogram was more uncomfortable than painful. You have to stand like a contortionist, bum sticking backwards, head moved sideways, a boob squeeshed between the plates with the screws tightened. I was too knackered that day to take any photos.

Higgidy Pies are running an instant win competition on their packs - you might have seen promotional stickers to win Joules' picnic prizes. So now my family has to eat as many Higgidy pies as they can.

I'm the self-proclaimed queen of charity shops. Once a week I visit all the charity shops in the centre, looking for pieces of china. I have some fab finds, when I found good quality Spode or Staffordshire ironware pottery for a fraction of their cost in vintage shops. My china collection is all mismatched, but I don't mind, if anything, it looks more personal and exciting. All the china pieces in the photo are from my charity shop hunts - the tiny Aynsley creamer and little dish with jam were 25p each. The cute strawberry mug was a fiver with a matching teapot. I'm not a big fan of Wedgewood, but I was looking for a little vase for small posies from the garden, and that olive coloured urn was a pound and a half/

Earlier today Eddie and I popped into Waitrose to get the papers, fresh bread and a few other bits and bobs. At the entrance there is a big cut out photo frame for the cricket mascot competition. Though we are not into cricket, and Eddie's too young for the competition anyway (it's from 7 years onwards), he wanted me to take his photo with the cricket team.