Free time

I got two extra days off work this week, today and tomorrow. It was quite unexpected; my contracted days for the 2025/26 school year were done last Friday. I go back on Wednesday, which is the first day of the 2026-27 term. I hadn't been paying attention, but my principal caught it and thank goodness! I'd have been working extra days for free otherwise. 

It's too hot to do much of anything. At the moment it's just normal summertime heat and humidity, but later this week and next weekend we're supposed to be getting a record-setting heatwave. Thank goodness for a/c! I feel so sorry for all of you in Europe who are dealing with these kinds of temperatures without it. I think it's been cooling down a bit (at least in England) for some of you and I hope that continues. 

Thanks to the heat I haven't been doing a lot of cooking, but I did finally get around to baking bread yesterday. Gregg and I agreed that these ended up being the best loaves I've ever made!

 Practice is apparently paying off.

The garden continues to flounder. We finally got a few tomatoes (one Black Sea Man and three or four small Romas) and some peppers, but that's it. So disappointing! The other day Facebook showed me a photo I posted this time last year and it hurt my heart a little:

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go swimming at a friend's house. At our last book club she mentioned that the pool is cleaned and ready and issued an open invitation to the group to come over and swim anytime. If she's not busy tomorrow, I plan to take her up on it. Pool time is a real treat when it's this hot, and it will be good to see my friend (outside of book club) too.