Salads all week

 I've just put washing out and it's already too hot for me out there, thankfully the bungalow stays fairly cool, especially with windows open and curtains shut.  Husband said he was going to the gym this morning but has since changed his mind, he's gone off into town to buy some wood ready for putting up the fence trellis panels.  We'll have to do this work fairly early in the morning this week, to avoid the excessive heat later.  I want the trellis panels put up this week as yesterday we heard neighbour Mr X telling someone that the building work is "all systems go" from now on, which means it'll be noisy.  So far it's been sporadic, with generally only one man doing any work, as the builders are still currently finishing off another building job nearby....that job looks to be almost completed so I guess all of them (3 blokes I think, plus Mr X and his brother doing the labouring on odd days throughout the week) will be here imminently.  If it gets too noisy at any time, then we'll take Betty and go out in the car somewhere - preferably up on the moor where there are lots of trees for shade!

I'm not doing much, if any, cooking during this week's excessive heat - perhaps an omelette or 2 or boiling some of our homegrown new potatoes but that's about it, salads all week.  Husband's having cottage pie tonight, his choice, I suggested he have a salad with it but he wants baked beans.  I'm having a beetroot and feta salad today, tinned salmon tomorrow.  I do love salmon, whether it be tinned, fresh or smoked, it's my favourite fish.

Betty does like to lie outside in the sun but is pretty sensible, after 5 or 10 minutes she either moves into a shady spot or comes indoors.  We do have a cool mat for her but she rarely lays on it, she might sometimes rest her head on it!  

I've been watching the Jilly Cooper series, Rivals, on catch up TV, I don't know why I missed it the first time around....it probably clashed with something husband wanted to watch.  I read all the Jilly Cooper books years ago so I know the story well.  A few things about the series strike me - firstly, I never realised Danny Dyer was such a good actor, I only really know him from Eastenders and appearing on game shows, where he basically just messes around.  David Tennant is excellent too.  And the smoking - my word, seems like virtually everybody was a chain smoker back then.  I smoked myself, although wasn't a heavy smoker, 10 a day usually, and I gave up about 30 years ago.  The rampant sexism is a bit hard to watch sometimes, especially when a young female character was raped (by a clergyman) and then persuaded (by David Tennant's boss character) to cover it up in case it hurt the franchise.  Have things changed all that much nowadays?  I know it's talked about more and there's the 'Me Too' thing, but I think some older men do still have sexist attitudes, as that's how it was back then and some of them haven't changed - the likes of Jim Davidson spring to mind.  It seems also that there's a new generation of young men with a terrible attitude towards young women, fuelled by them watching Tiktok videos put out by that awful man Andrew Tate (seemingly a millionaire but what he actually does I don't know) who's clearly misogynistic, and the equally awful Tommy Robinson, basically a rent-a-gob.

Well, enough of that, I'm off to plan a week's menu of salads!