For some reason known only to the climate, it got very warm in the south-east last week. Warm weather never lasts long in England but three days in a row of 31C weather is unusual and in London during a commute, painful.
So it was hot, I was getting over the remains of a cold and the office air conditioning was still broken, it was freezing. I was taking clothes into work to put on in the office and we had heaters running when it was 31C outside. Madness.
I was also grumpy. What’s new? I hear you ask. I know, grumpy and tired is my default setting but I was grumpy for legitimate reasons.
- The heat.
- The commute.
- Weird dreams on Wednesday night about my dad. In my dream he was trying to get me to agree to let some random person, that he met in the pub, live in my flat. I haven’t lived with my father for roughly 23 years and he’s been dead for 15, so it was odd. I don’t often dream about Noel, well not since the one just after he died when apparently I was burying him next to the budgie in the yard of my childhood home and he, like the budgie, was wrapped in a j-cloth. (Look I can’t help it, I don’t dream these things on purpose!). Anyway it was unsettling.
- The idiot on train on Thursday morning, who wanted to talk to me about what I was reading. No, I didn’t make eye contact with him or do anything that indicated I wanted to talk to anyone and I wasn’t on fire or anything that someone needed to draw to my attention. I had earphones in and I was reading, it was rush hour. People should know better than to communicate with me in those circumstances, especially when I am listening to the Hamilton soundtrack.
- The return of the wake up light. I finally had to give in and start using it again
- Friday’s rain. The hot weather broke and there was rain. Epic rain with thunder and lightning during the rush hour. It was exactly as joyous as you would expect.
The week was redeemed by two days on the allotment. 
And hearing about Oli’s first proper football match 
I’m still under slept and this week is going to be busy, the only way out is through….
I’m still looking for ways to use up my courgettes, because I don’t want one of them to be left behind. The courgette marmalade was a bust but t
I’ve made 6 batches of this so far and naturally, I made some changes to the recipe.
On Wednesday I managed to get it together and have yoghurt and peaches for breakfast and rice and a vegetable sauce for lunch. For dinner, I had the rest of the rice mixture with roasted cherry tomatoes (yep the ones I’d grown!). I’m also eating raw tomatoes with salt and finding them the most delicious thing, which is the strangest thing for me.
How amazing was the cake that I did not make, Laura has the decorating thing down pat!
This week I will catching up on the Archers, getting a lot of sleep and if the weather forecast is accurate being very warm!
Pathways also provides rented sheltered housing in Ealing (in other boroughs as well) and has 54 flats across the road from the allotments. Their plan is to redevelop that site to double the housing and build 18 homes for social rent and 4 for sale on the allotment site. They estimate that this is take up about 10% of the allotment site, they have since confirmed that they don’t know if that’s a correct estimate because they haven’t surveyed the site. The full scope of the plan, so far can be seen 
But it seems shortsighted and wrong to do this, because in a city like London, once we lose the green space it’s gone. If you are local to Ealing, you can contact Pathways about this via 
This is what happens when I shop when I’m tired and don’t have a list. I spend £14.20 at Lidl and £6.95 at Sainsburys. A total of £21.15.
Monday dinner was bacon and courgette saute with salad which I put into a tortilla.
Tuesday night dinner was salad, with grilled courgette, feta and balsamic seeds. 
Nic Dempsey 