Sleepy Saturday.

Hooray, it's Saturday. I've got a sore throat and a muzzy head so it was great to be able to turn over and go back to sleep this morning when I woke at my customary time of 5.45. Still, I've got those heavy duty pain killers if it gets bad in the evenings so I know I'll be able to get off to sleep. The painkillers are working on my shoulder and I am at last able to sleep properly at night though I don't feel there was any diagnosis. I'm back to see the other doctor on Monday re the knee x-ray so I'll question him about my shoulder as well. My regular GP (who is off with a broken leg) will only allow you the standard 10 mins and if you start to talk about a second problem she stops you and says you have to make another appointment. I usually book a double appointment to avoid this happening as it is a bother having to go to the doctor in the first place.

I spent several hours this morning filling an online form for NZ but came to halt as Pete needs to find some documents so I can fill in his section. It took such a long time because every section took ages to load and there are lots of sections and reference documents to look at.

It's been overcast with the sun trying to break through so I gave myself some time off outside with a book! (not schoolwork), and then worked until 7.30 weeding and tidying up at the scree garden.

A little plantain flower in one of the unmown parts of the garden.

These alien looking sedum flowers are only a few inches high.

The pampas grass is flowering for the first time. Our old flat-coat retriever is buried underneath the pampas grass in a corner of the scree garden.

This is the reason I try not to use slug pellets. I spotted this female blackbird outside the kitchen window pecking away at one of the many slugs that inhabit the garden. The slug slime on her beak kept causing rose petals to stick to her beak but she persevered in her attack on the nasty beast. If the slug had eaten slug pellets the bird would also have been poisoned.

Her mate came down to join her, I wish more birds would come along and eat those slugs which gather round disgustingly when it's damp. Sometimes I put on rubber gloves and put them in a bucket and then throw them into the stream hopefully for the ducks in the lake to eat.