Summer garden party

We held our summar garden party at the Old Vicarage on Sunday, and did we get lucky; occasional cloud, but the sun shone regularly from 12noon until late evening. This, despite the fact that the Met Office had warned that it would rain most of the day Sunday and Monday, and on Monday they turned out to be right.

Mary and I were joined by 280 guests for our 41st wedding anniversary, which was meant to end around 3.30, but the last guest didn't leave until 4.45pm, so we only had an hour's break before opening our garden and the marquee again for a charity event for the Lewin Stroke Centre at Addenbrooke's Hospital. Another 300 people attended this and it raised a considerable sum for the hospital. When the last guest left at 8.00pm, we were all exhausted, and I didn't even get the chance to see England beat the West Indies at what on paper looked like a very boring game. Chanderpaul once again left the field with another 50 not out, and Nasser Hussain suggested he should go higher up the order to number 3 so he could start scoring centuries - he should go in the night before in front of the openers, because we just don't seem to know how to get him out.

Before climbing into bed, I looked down at the lawn to see that 600 people had left their mark; Mary assured me that with this weather, sun and showers, it will be back to normal fairly quickly.