Meltdown...........

So, today has been the hottest this year, a fact to which I can attest, having been incarcerated all day in 'Hell's Kitchen', aka the workroom.

I did escape briefly at lunchtime, to envy small dog lying in a little patch of shade on what passes for our lawn.

Then finally, at the end of work today, when we were released from our shackles, we decided to have a BBQ.

Namely, lamb escalopes with onions and peppers, with new potatoes and a huge mixed salad.

Yum!

Initially all went well. Sunlight on the patio. Brick walls reflecting heat. Preparing the food outdoors on the table, with a glass of chilled white wine.

Perfect.

Until.

We happened to be both in indoors in the kitchen, preparing potatoes and cutlery etc.

A huge white seagull swooped past the kitchen window, snatched a piece of lamb from the plate and made off with it, small dog in hot pursuit.

Sadly small dog can't fly, or she would certainly have engaged the seagull in mortal combat. So we had to post a guard on the food, while small dog patrolled the perimeter , ever alert to enemy action.

I kid you not........I felt like I was either on the set of Hitchcock's "The Birds", or alternatively in the Arizona desert, down to my last few thimblefuls of water, crawling across the sand with a sign saying, 'Eat Me'.

The sky above our garden was suddenly full of wheeling birds, encouraged by the chutzpah of the gull thief, and with a beady eye to the main chance.

Then, to add insult to injury, one of the swooping gulls emptied its entire digestive tract right onto the lid of our George Foreman grill!!!!

Splat!

All three of us stood open mouthed.........but not for long in case the same thing happened again.

Mere seconds earlier the grill lid had been open.

We quickly covered the salad bowl, plates and wine glasses, and small dog tucked herself under the table, while gulls, magpies and other avian hooligans laughed their silly heads off.

Thankfully, between the three of us, we manage to keep them all at bay until we had finished our meal..............

So, in the sultry heat of a balmy July evening, I give you small dog, kicking back and relaxing in our garden.

No it's not a wild flower meadow, just a very overgrown lawn...........