Sunny.

Sunny with a chilly north-westerly wind.

We had to be up early as the builder was coming so for once I made it down to the zoo by 10.00.

I had planned to carry on with weeding the large play area but that all changed when I got to the zoo. First off another volunteer asked me to help her and take out a prickle from her arm which she had got a day or so ago and was already turning nasty. Luckily I keep a pair of glasses in the car and eventually I pulled out the offending thorn with some tweezers from the zoo's first aid kit. Then as somebody had strimmed the patch of grass by the main gate I finished the job by weeding and tidying up the edge of a flowerbed next to the grass. That bed is full of mature aloes and the spikes at the ends of their leaves are vicious. I was nearly ready to head off to the woodchip when I was asked if I could find a task for a disabled volunteer, an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair who turned up with two carers. They had brought along a hand fork with an extra long handle so I suggested that he used that to turn over the woodchip in the smaller play area. Although that wouldn't remove the tiny weeds growing in the woodchip it would at least give the compacted and soggy wood chips a chance to dry out. I think his carers did most of the work but he was happy and then a carer who turned up with another person really set to work. She used my hand hoe to turn over the woodchips and by the time she left the whole area was turned over. 

I'd been weeding flowerbeds nearby and then went off to work further away.

This rose was filling the air with the most glorious scent.

Another volunteer was mowing and went over the paths in the wildflower meadow which is now looking pretty good. I counted at least 10 different flowers already.

By the time I got home the builders had finished setting in the lintel for the new window. I'm just so disappointed at how far into the middle of the wall the window is. It was planned to be as close as possible to the corner on the left hand side and this is what I got.

The window fitter is coming tomorrow- maybe, but that shouldn't be messy. I took down the dust sheets and put back the stuff from the walls before washing the floors. I did the whole house starting at the front and working through to the back door. While the floors were drying I watered the back garden as the wind dries out the plants very quickly. Another blow, it sounds as if the rest of the bathroom work won't happen until at least the end of the summer. Silly me to have got my hopes up. At least Pilates took my mind off things for a while.