Lazing on a sunny afternoon.

Sleep until seven this morning and open the curtains on a glorious day. The weatherman says this will be the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures pushing 23 degrees Celsius , about 73 Fahrenheit, inland. For a Yorkshire in early May, that is almost tropical and a blessed relief after the long cold winter. I breakfast on soft boiled eggs and rye toast, Normy has his usual Baker's and runs back into the house at a sprint when he hears me pour it out, so he seems back to normal. We collect Teddy and Dolly just after nine, the coast road, which runs past Tickton, already picking up early holiday traffic. There is racing today on the Hurn, and with the fine weather and the holiday, the town will be packed this afternoon and already there are many more people abroad on the common than is usual during the week. Norman is glad to see the terriers and like all dogs, enjoys being in a little pack. The trees in the wood are all now in full leaf, except for the oak and ash, and swifts and swallows are swooping over the meadow, as we make our way towards the common. Towards Black Mill we meet Diane and Pat, the former with her elderly white Westie, Rocky and Pat with her six month old Labrador, Ivy who comes over to us and rolls on her back for her tummy to be tickled. In honour of the fine weather I am wearing my shorts and sandals again, my legs gradually losing their winter pallor with exposure to the air. After returning the terriers, I ring Leslie's daughter Margaret, on her Dad's old number, where she and William are busy clearing the house prior to putting it on the market. I have arranged to call in and buy some items of furniture from her this morning, to replace some old things I acquired from my last rented house, pending the eventual sale of the house in Cherry Burton, half the proceeds of which, will eventually come to me. Pip intends to buy something smaller and live in town. William and Margaret take a break from sorting through the huge amount of stuff that Leslie had accumulated over twenty years, he hardly ever threw anything away, including countless editions of the Economist and the International Herald tribune. I select two light coloured armchairs, a desk, shelves and a pair of bureaux in light oak, from his office and a picture of three Japanese Ladies, that have been inked and colour washed by a child, and then mounted in a frame. It has no value, but he and I liked it. I chat for half an hour and then leave at noon, arranging to hire a van and collect the furniture next Monday afternoon, and realising later that I will probably have Louis, so will try to reconvene for Tuesday instead. It takes almost three quarters of an hour to drive home, usually a five minute run, due to nose to tail traffic on the coast road. The word Lemmings springs to mind and I resolve to take advantage of the fine weather and the holiday by doing nothing at all this afternoon, except using the garden for its main purpose, eating outside and sitting in the sun reading a book. So lazy do I feel today, that I can't even be bothered to cook, so Norman and I eat ante pasta, with ciabatta rolls and some sliced fresh tomatoes, before settling down to finish the Le Carre book. His writing has started to fall into a distinctive pattern, where youth and idealism are valorised against world weary cynicism and anally retentive public school attitude. Still his descriptive prose is excellent and his pacing good and I suppose his audience have come to expect this sort of thing. After a long, lazy and thoroughly pleasant afternoon in the garden, I resume work at six, and clear out the airing cupboards in the Garden Room, separating bedding and towels into piles on chairs in the Garden and then going through the usual triage of keep, dump, or wash. This done, I set up the ironing board and make my way through half a dozen shirts, before calling it a day and making a lazy supper, cream cheese and sundried tomatoes on Ryvita, as I have run out of bread. Every cupboard in the house has been blitzed now and they are now clean and reasonably tidy, but the garage is full of boxes and needs sorting and cleaning in order that I have a working space in which to remove old furniture and make room for new, (or rather slightly less old). My brother Graham has emailed me about my trip in August, he will be on holiday himself for the second half, so I have checked flights and suggested a rescheduling for mid July. He may have already replied, but I won't find out until tomorrow as BT Broadband has gone into its weekend sulk again. To bed around ten thirty.