Blue Skies.

There is nothing so lovely as opening your eyes in the morning to see bright blue skies behind the shimmering green trees. One of the things that I love about our bedroom is that it has windows facing east and west so that we get the sunrise and the sunset, repeated a few times in the big mirrors on the walls just for good measure. To me the views and the light are so important. It's probably something to do with my desire to spend as much time out of doors as possible.

I got up early, loaded the washing machine and spent the morning doing schoolwork outside. My attention was diverted by the different sounds I could hear - crows cawing, blackbirds calling out their chuck chuck alarm call, swallows chittering, a song thrush trilling and burbling, the faint call of seagulls high up, wood pigeons cooing, jackdaws going jack? and other birds twittering in the trees. It was fairly quiet from next door as they had gone to a local horse show at Mullacott Cross. I haven't found a way to see the screen of my laptop clearly when I'm outside so inputting data onto the e-profiles is an indoor job. In the afternoon I went to the car boot as tomorrow there may be thunderstorms. I kept mentally tut-tutting at the people walking round with no hats and already pink skin not covered up, I thought this was a sign of my age but Pete says it's my bossy teacher mode. Having sat outside all morning I covered up with a big t-shirt as well as my hat but I did wear my shorts as it was so hot. I didn't get much at the car boot and was rather cross to find they have doubled the entry charge to £1 ! Back home to more school work and then Pete barbecued a couple of steaks along with potatoes and courgettes (great barbecued) and a salad. I'm so glad that they are having lovely weather for the muster. I remember too many wet and windy weekends camping with the Knot.
The farmers are busy cutting silage till late at night, I think this contraption turns the grass as it dries in the field.

The red beech tree looks magnificent with the sun shinning through its leaves. This was one of the few plants in the garden when we first came which I uprooted and moved to this prime spot overlooking the yard.

All the plants around the pond are shooting up and looking very lush.

Even the golden marjoram is forming pretty little hummocks.

And the snow-in-summer is covered with white flowers. Some speedwell has crept in amongst the snow-in-summer but it does look pretty.