A late start to another day tending the fish and pond whist watering the games lawn before a nice fried breakfast and then the day working on administration and financial planning. Off at midday with the girls to the White Hart children’s' riding school in Great Gidding where Della had a lesson.
Percy phoned at great length with suggestions for forthcoming meeting agenda and then Mr Peter Frenette of Cock Audley came to complain speeding traffic that plague the road that goes past his house
I slept well last night and needed the rest and sleep after all my recent exertions. Di was rather late to get us going and, although I took some time to get washed and ready, she had still not cooked the breakfast by that time and so I spent a half hour in the conservatory. I fed the fish and watered the plants with a mixture of pond water and fertiliser. The plants grow so quickly there that they need feeding so regularly. A nice fried breakfast which I could eat with a clear conscience having been working so hard lately and becoming slimmer as a result. I toyed with the idea of planting out some of the Asters and Lobelia that I had grown from seed, but the ground is so dry at the moment and the nights cool that I do not think they are ready for that. Instead I put the sprinkler onto the games lawn and went into my office to work on my year-end financial summaries.
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My legs and back were still aching from yesterday and so it was as well to rest and not try to do so much. I had a large file of information gathered since February and it took a long time to sort the documents and start to get up to date. I had to work out the year-end balances on each of our building societies and investment accounts (for Diana and I and then each of the Trusts) for the tax return and then identify each account's interest rate for investment purposes. Then each of the year's interest and income transactions had to be added together and the list of our investments made up. I use a microcomputer program for the additions and layout but there was still much to do. At midday, I had to break off and go with the girls to this new riding school in Great Gidding. Fiona had recommended the White Hart childrens' riding school and Di had got Della a lesson for 1.00pm. We arrived early and had a look around. It was a very well-organised and tidy place - not a bit like Fitz farm - and Della had a good half hour lesson on a grey pony called "Toby".
Once back, we had a rather late lunch and then I worked on all afternoon and then again this evening. All the time, I was also constantly adjusting the sprinkler and, as well as finishing the year end investment and income summary, I was also pleased to see the games lawn was greening-up and will recover well from this drought if I keep removing the weeds and looking after it. I also had a couple of other distractions this evening. First Percy phoned at great length and launched into what I eventually worked out to be suggestions for forthcoming meeting agenda which I really wanted to discuss jointly in meetings with Sally anyway. Then Mr Peter Frenette of Cock Audley came here and launched into his problems over the speeding traffic that plague the road that goes past his house. I finished off early to write up my diary and then got to bed in good time. Today was still cool overnight with day-time cloud and a brisk north-east breeze, but it brightened up a bit later.