A plog of that hot summer weekend mid-June

Mid June we had a tiny heat wave: a few days that we reached 30C and above.  Excellent moment to settle the little pool in the east of Belgium.  We missed such a pool in the heat waves of 2019-2020 and last years, ironically , we had set it but never enjoyed it due to the cool overly wet summer.   Lesson learned: enjoy the pool when possible.  However we had other appointments in the agenda as well.  So we split up part of the weekend


On Friday night, Beertje and I drove to my mom and stayed overnight. This way we could avoid the Saturday morning horrendous traffic jams to the coast.  Packed with cooled water and some snacks, we hit the road.  Despite a weekday the traffic jams around Brussels weren't as bad as anticipated.  At the same time Jan drove with Kabouter and his best friend to the east of Belgium.  

The heat had unfortunately already cumulated in my mom's house, so we all had a sleepless night. 

We continued our busy agenda's and hit the road again, in the opposite direction of the stuck traffic on the E40.  I could drop off Beertje at the birthday party  of his class mate where the mother guaranteed us to make them drink sufficient cold water and keep them in the shade. 
Due to the heat and lack of sleep, I didn't feel well at all and I profited at home to catch up an hour of sleep. 

Partially refreshed, with new bottles of cooled water, I did my pick-up round to pick up Beertje from the party and another of Kabouter's classfriends to also drive to the east of Belgium.  The heat was really bordering beyond my comfort levels. Fortunately, we manage to keep the house cooler than in the past and fortunately no real long-term heat wave was predicted.   So I rushed to also enjoy a bit of our east-Belgium garden before rain would arrive. 

4 boys racing around the cool house and profiting from the late summer nights to test the little pool a little. At least it's been used one day this year.   Once we found a sleeping spot for all boys, I enjoyed chilling on the deck and cool down. 

Aaaah outdoor breakfasts...is there anything that states summer more than outdoor breakfasts in pyjama? 

While threatening rain clouds were already cooling of temperatures below swimming pool comfort temperatures, we did enjoy another morning in the garden while getting messages of the rest of Belgium already being rained out. 

Upon our return back to the centre of the country, Kabouter and his friends got arranged in one car, while I took Beertje back with me.  He reluctantly got assigned harvest duty on the farm with me when we got back into town. Once he got to climb into the cherry trees to help me pick the ripe cherries, he cheered up again.  The message that everyone could pick as many strawberries as they wished, even for jam making, had been followed well this weekend as there weren't many left for us on Sunday evening.  That's ok, we already had our stack in the fridge and Jan was already amidst his jam making duty when we arrived home.