Hot.

The day began quite cloudy with a cooling breeze then just got warmer and warmer.

Peter went out for the day which gave me the chance to secretly bake bara brith, a Welsh fruit loaf where the dried fruits have been soaked overnight in tea, for Peter's birthday tomorrow. It came out of the oven in time for five minutes cooling outside before being wrapped in a tea-towel and hidden in the utility room.

I cycled to the community gardens where we found that the lady who tells us what needs doing wasn't there so we ended up simply having a longer time to eat apple cake and chat. I brought along a small flask of coffee and more lettuces to give away. The three hens were let out of their run for a wander round and this one joined us. She was very cheeky and jumped up to peck at the cake in one lady's hand.

On the way there, on my bike of course, I found that the minute I turned off the High Street away from the strong sea breeze the temperature shot up. It was very hot at the gardens and I was glad I'd remembered to pop a sunhat in my bag. On my way home I called in at the shop and bought some bacon to treat Peter with a bacon sandwich in the morning. He used to have a cooked breakfast in the mornings but he now joins me for much healthier porridge instead so a bacon sandwich will be a surprise. 

Back home I planned a short break before getting on with painting the front of the house. But first while Peter was still out I thought I check the presents I'd wrapped and hidden away a while back. Only small items, just a small items to mark the day. Nothing like being organised except when you can't remember where you put half the presents. I found the beers each carefully nestled in one of my socks in a gift bag so they wouldn't clink when I snuck them into the bedroom late at night but as for the other things ..... ??? I searched high and low, checked the same places time after time but no luck. After half an hour scouring the house I eventually tracked them to inside one of the flat boxes that I keep small skeins of wool in. Huge sighs of relief at that point. And only just in time as Peter arrived home not long after.

Then it was time to paint the wall. I thought it would be a quick job and then I could have a lazy end to the day enjoying the sun. But how wrong I was. The original finish is lumpy and while I had to run the brush back and forth in different directions to get paint in all the hollows the new render was a different matter. To begin with it's a nasty spiky finish that if you fell against it would scrape the skin badly but it's also a nightmare to paint. Brushing over it in the standard fashion leaves paint on the highest bits, only about 20% of the surface. Instead you have to apply lots of the thick (think custard) paint and then push it in by dabbing with the end of the brush. This takes a very long time working a few inches square at a time. I'm hoping it won't be so time consuming for the next two coats but today I ran out of time and left the rest for tomorrow. There are some large areas at the back and side of the house that still need their final coat of render and no way will they have that rough render. I don't care if a smoother finish won't match the old finish on the lower part of those walls. I've tried looking on-line to see why the finish has to be so rough but so far can't find anything. Maybe when the guy eventually comes to finish off those sections he can explain.

In the meantime I like to think that with the blue sky above the house looks a bit like a Grecian villa. I can dream.

The evening continued sunny so I got to sit out for a while after all.

 

Cloudy.

Grey again today with a touch of drizzle during the morning.

Once again I wobbled my way down to the zoo on my trusty bike. I even managed to take a hand off the handlebar to brush some hair out of my face which is an improvement. The wrist mirror is a great help as I find it hard to hear if something is coming from behind (a combination of not so good hearing, the swish of the bike tyres and the crashing of the waves) and I'm not ready yet to be able to turn and look behind me. I do breathe a sigh of relief when it comes to turning off the road onto the lane that leads down to the zoo.

There was a disaster when I got to the zoo, somebody (one of the volunteers) had strimmed off the whole of the wildflower meadow and the valerian I had planted along the fence. He wasn't there today for me to kindly but firmly ask to reinstate the path and boundary but everyone is most apologetic. I guess he just got into the zone and yes he knew about the meadow and had done the intial strimming to make the path and edges. Oh well, it will grow back.

To rub salt into the wound the woodchip play area by the ex-meadow urgently needed weeding. I got the whole area done with the occasional dark mutter. That done I moved to the gravel by the wolf-dogs and working with one of the other volunteers got most of the weeds out of there too.

How many guinea-pigs do you see?

Are you sure?

There were plenty of visitors to the zoo today including a whole class of Reception and Year One children (I chatted to a few of them). I well remember the stress of counting and recounting heads to make sure nobody was lost when we took classes of children out on trips. As we weeded the gravel we could hear the children playing in the big play area and from the level of excited voices they were having a great time.

I wasn't confident that it wouldn't rain this afternoon so didn't attempt painting the front but the forecast for tomorrow sounds promising. Instead I did my Welsh and played the piano. Just time now to fit in an execise bike session before supper.

 

Cloudy.

We had a grey start to the day and with a forecast of possible showers I didn't want to risk painting the house though in the end we only had one brief spell of drizzle. There was a slight improvement over the day until we finally got to see some blue in the sky late in the afternoon.

I still got to spend the afternoon pottering about in the garden and sorted out the last trough along the side of the house. I've kept a couple of troughs with bulbs in on the garden wall there as they made a nice sight seen from the window over the sink. That freed up one more trough to take round to the street wall which has been put in place and planted up with montbretia and nasturiums.

The sugar snap peas are just appearing but I've given up on the french beans. Not sure if the seeds were no good or if something ate the seeds or the shoots before I saw them. Instead I sowed more sugar snap peas with some spicy salad leaves planted between the rows. I've re-sown two rows of the beans but I'm not holding out much hope. It's strange because other plants in the garden are so lush and vigourous.

Peter has managed to find another electrician as nobody seems to be able to get hold of the chap who did the whole house. The new chap turned up this afternoon to quote for putting lights and sockets in the garage and the outside. It would be good to get that job done.

I sat out on the terrace and read for a while but I did need to wrap up against the wind.

 

Cloudy.

Looking out to sea there was the occasional patch of blue in the sky while inland the sky was filled with dark grey clouds.

Hoping that it wouldn't rain (it didn't), this morning I painted the front of the house with sealant (watered down pva) in preparation for painting. Sploshing the sealant over the painted areas I had to be careful that it didn't drip off the end while the bare textured render simply soaked it up. Now I need to wait for the next fine day to start painting and smartening the outside up. 

Painting done I did a little gardening, mainly weeding and found a spot for the orchids to sit outside that doesn't get much sun. 

That's the way to my heart, a new cold chisel.

There was enough time left to try out the cold chisel which arrived in the afternoon. It is so much better than the old brick bolster and I was able to clean three blocks.

Just listening to an article about car hire on today's You and Yours. The recent price rises are eye watering, in London it's gone up from £183 per week to £700 and a lady who ended up driving her own car from Ireland was quoted £250 per day from a UK airport. And if that's not enough in Switzerland it's around £900 per week. I may be daydreaming about going on holiday next year but don't think car hire would feature. Local public transport and the occasional taxi has always done for us.

 

Sunny.

After a little drizzle today has been sunny with a few clouds.

I woke very early this morning, 3.45 to be exact and by 5.00 I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea and wondering why there was a group of 5 young people walking along the coast path towards the village. Had they been up all night and walked the 7 miles from town or were they also early risers? I'd had to get up because not only were the usual aches making themselves felt (I discovered this evening that I'd been so tired last night I'd fallen asleep before taking the last round of pills - shows I need them.) but yesterday's treat of falafel from Tesco's wasn't helping. I have a keen sense of smell/taste and the taste of cheap industrial cooking oil filled my mouth. I can still taste it now but this morning it was most unpleasant. I shall not be tempted to buy supermarket falafel again.

At least getting up so early meant that I got the breakfast things ready, did my Duo Lingo and went on the exercise bike as well as swiffering the floors (Peter usually does that), cleaned the shower and put some stuff in the washing machine all before a leisurely late breakfast.

I gave myself and the neighbours a break from the banging of my block cleaning and instead took myself off for a walk along the beach. There I came across a number of different kinds of jellyfish. (Above) Compass jellyfish have a painful sting, a bit worse than stinging nettles while the moon jellyfish (below) doesn't sting.

This was the first time I've seen cyanea lamarckii a very pretty blue jellyfish. This one looks a bit sandy from where I had to flip it over with my boot as I rightly guessed the hairy looking blue tentacles have a nasty sting.

I had a bit of fun imagining pictures within the random strands of seaweed left on the sand.

And what about this one? An octopus or a seated lion holding a gift basket?

Back home I planned to finally do some alterations to an over-large vest-top. I'd bought it as part of a 2 piece set in a sale last year mainly for the other top. But after some pinning and trying on I decided to abandon the whole plan and give it to the charity shop as the top is semi-see-through and I can't see me ever achieving a slim enough tum to wear it. Instead I took the orchids outside and yet again sprayed and wiped to get rid of the wolly aphids. I'm getting fed up with the aphids, I'll keep on until the end of the summer and if they're still there I may get rid of the orchids. For the time being I'm going to see if I have a shady spot in the garden where I can put the orchids out for the summer.

 

Dry.

In the morning it looked as if we were in for a day of showers but in the end we had a dry day. Warm in the sun and chilly in the shade.

I had a parcel to post and as our local Post Office counter is closed on Saturdays that meant an early run to town. After sending off my parcel I did a quick shop in Lidl. It's common now to see gaps on supermarket shelves and today there was a lack of toilet paper. Only half a section of a 2-ply brand which wouldn't be my first choice. Also completely missing were any tins of cat food. As I also needed frozen cauliflower, something I eat regularily, which Lidl's don't sell I drove over to Tesco's. Still no tins of cat food and I don't want to start buying the pouches of cat food as Speedy is getting picky now so I just bought extra dry cat food. He is pampered enough as it is. He likes gentle classical music, his head drops lower and lower and then he falls asleep, so Peter often leaves Classic FM playing on the radio for him.

The lawn.

My outdoor work for today was cleaning a few more of the facing slabs. The second one I chose had been stuck down with concrete which needed chipping off flake by flake and took forever with the old brick bolster. Peter is going to order me a cold chisel as I fear there is more concrete to remove. 

That took all afternoon by which time my wrist and fingers were aching and I'd had enough. I think I may have to restrict myself to just one block a session. But it would be silly to waste the blocks we have and apart from the cost I'm not sure if you can even buy this design any more.

Before settling down with a coffee on the terrace I went down to admire the hydrangeas. There are all sorts in the garden. The large mop-head above has blooms the size of a person's head while the deeper blue ones below are the size of a fist.

The only lace-cap which I think is my favourite has blooms the size of dinner plates. 

I finished the day with a bit of sewing on the terrace. I've been meaning to fix my comfy everyday trousers for some time as my weight loss has left them in danger of falling down. It was an easy job to run an extra piece of elastic through and stitch back the waist band. It's funny that now I don't go to work and have an image to maintain I have reduced my wardrobe to functional basics and more or less wear the same clothes every day. Comfy clothes for in the house, a bit smarter for trips out, old clothes for gardening and even older clothes for diy. I still keep all my other clothes as you never know when they'll be needed plus my size goes up and down though hopefully not too far up.

 

Showers.

The day began by being overcast, ever the optimist I put some washing in the machine and by the time the rain started in the afternoon it was nearly dry. Right now at the end of the afternoon it's raining heavily not that the surfers and wing surfer seem to care.

Peter was out in the morning which so my plan was to use the drive to pack away a large tarpaulin left by one of the builders which had been taking up a lot of space in the garage. But when I carefully spread it out I realised that it is just the thing to cover the terrace when I start painting. So I folded it roughly ready for a dry day. I'm not a particularly messy painter but I don't want to get any drips of sealant or paint on the stone paving. Once I've finished painting I'll see how small I can get the tarpaulin and pack it into a bag or tie it up.

My next outdoor job was to plant up another trough by the street wall. That sounds very simple but when you're recycling materials things take a lot longer. First step was to decant one trough into another removing any weeds and yet more bits of polystyrene packing from the compost. This was because even though the troughs are old and marked I'd rather only have orange ones by the street and keep the green ones for the other side of the house. Then I discovered I didn't have enough cleaned bricks to build the next support for the trough. Fortunately I still have some of the concrete bricks in the front garden so next came a long bashing session as I cleaned off the mortar from another nine bricks. That done I carried them up to the troughs, built the next support and then filled the trough. This was then planted up with montbretia and nasturtium seeds. Seeds are expensive now, in my view but once the nastutiums flower I'll be able to save plenty of seeds for next year.

 I had kitchen stuff to do in the afternoon and by the time I'd finished the rain was here. Peter had been home and then popped out for a rowing club meeting. He got very wet coming home from that.

What to do when the fruit bowl is full.