Summer sunshine

I love the way that the sunshine makes everyone feel cheerful - we'll all be back to our grumpy selves soon, as apparently today is the last day of sunshine. I don't hugely mind as I'm back in a run of 6-day weeks, so I'd rather the weather saved itself for July and August and September when I won't be at work very much at all! Plus my sandals are making my feet hurt, so I'm desperate to get back into my knee length boots. On the other hand, we bought an ice cream maker last week which arrived last night, and I know my boyfriend is desperate to play with it, and rainy weather doesn't encourage ice cream eating so much. There will be, I'm sure, an ice cream element to this blog very soon.
Anyway, various other things to feel cheerful about:
1. The large stack of books which had arrived from Amazon when I got home last night and nearly prevented me from getting in the door. Somehow everything I'd ordered arrived all at once - 3 second hand Viragos, a Persephone, Emma Smith's the Maiden trip in beautiful hardback, and a copy of the Rough guide to Happiness which I think my boyfriend and I will enjoy reading. I'm now up to 826 books on librarything.com; I'm not sure this is a good thing.
2. WH Smith and the Times run a 2.99 book offer, where if you buy the Times in WH Smith you can get a book for 2.99. I've got quite a lot of things through this offer in the past, but there hasn't been anything I've wanted for ages. But this week it's the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society which I've been desperate to read but is always on loan at the library. So I went and got that this lunchtime.
3. I loved Joan Bakewell's All the Nice Girls... I don't think it was exactly great literature, in terms of the writing, but it was very cleverly crafted, keeping you guessing right up until the end. And it was obviously hugely well researched. The book is mainly about a school and a selection of pupils/teachers during WW2 which adopts a ship under the British Ship Adoption scheme (apparently the scheme existed during the 1930s, and was essentially developed in order to help give the children extra geographical awareness); but there is also a story set in 2003 going on. Really really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it.
4. I've just started reading A particular place by Mary Hocking, which you may remember was one of the books advertised in the back of a book I was reading last week. Apparently she's a bit like Barbara Pym. We'll see if I agree. Anyway, she's written a lot so if I enjoy this one...
5. I'm off to London tomorrow for work, so I get an extra couple of hours reading time!