26th July

At last the Summer has arrived. Today and yesterday the weather was sunny and almost too warm - long may it continue. Everything, including people's temperament and mood seems to lift when the weather is good. This morning five of us from church took to the streets to talk to people about our faith and to invite them to church. It was good and we met a few people. newly moved into Harrogate, who were actually looking for a church. We will be doing the same thing every Saturday throughout August - hope the weather continues to be warm and sunny.

After that I took my motorbike up into the Dales for a few hours. I just rode out in the general direction of the Dales, deliberately getting a bit lost, but knowing that eventually I would see some familiar road signs that I could follow to get home. It was a brilliant ride and worked out as I hoped it would, with me finding signs for familiar places which took me through some beautiful villages in the Dales and some great biking roads.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up our living room where the work to install our wood burning stove has virtually finished. The stove and the new lay out of the fireplace is going to look great. All that remains to be done is for me to do the painting of the walls and skirting board and to get the carpet back down. I have to wait for the plaster to dry first which could take several days - but the bulk of the dirty work is done now. We now have extra space in the room because we have removed the hearth and fire surround. We have a wood burner stove which not only looks superb but is also plumbed into the hot water tank and also gives us a radiator in the bathroom. Everyone tells me, including the plumber who has been working in our house, that the stove is ultra effective and that we will get a lot of heat and as much hot water as we want from it. Can't wait to try it out but that will mean saying goodbye to this lovely warm weather and having to tolerate the bittingly cold, damp stuff again. Getting rid of some of our bigger pieces of furniture and general clutter will also give the impression of more space in our living room. In a few weeks time we will start work on the study which will be transformed into a second, smaller living room which we can also use as an extra bedroom. Again there is a lot of work to be done but it will be really nice when finished and will give us greater flexibility and choice about how we use the house. We will put our dining table in the conservatory and use it as a dining room throughout the year. Heating it with a small electric fire when we want to eat there is not expensive and is very effective. Our plan is to get the bulk of the work done before September.
No cycling this weekend. I am beginning to feel a bit sluggish so will have to do something very energetic before too long.