Cold.

It has been quite chilly today but thankfully the rain cleared by mid-morning. As well as my usual housework I went through one of the kitchen cupboards clearing out crockery, casserole dishes and mixing bowls that we no longer need. That cupboard has an awkward space which is hard to reach and things can get lost in there, literally. I discovered a box of carrot cake slices dated 2008!, some Lidl's chocolate that was not so old and a bag of flying saucers. I might try one of those as I don't think that rice paper and sugar would go off.  Reluctantly I had to go to the supermarket to get some milk and also some tomatoes to add to my daily salad which would have been unexciting with just lettuce and red onion to go with a little smoked salmon. Normally I combine shopping with other jobs but there wasn't anything else I needed to do today. As it is the same distance I decided to have a country drive and go over to Ilfracombe where there is a small Tescos on the edge of the town. At least I got some good views of the Bristol Channel with the shadowy Welsh mountains in the distance.

On the way back I stopped to take photos of our valley. I thought that having cut down those trees our house might be visible from the road but the woodland screens us nicely. The white house in the middle is our neighbours' house and in the distance are the hills of Exmoor.

I spent the afternoon outside working in the old chickens' run which needs a good tidy up. When the hens were in there they kept the weeds down but now it is getting overgrown. My first job was to start taking down the wire fence. We put the fence up nearly 20 years ago so it is not surprising that the posts have rotted in the metal post-holders. The hardest part of the job was digging out the bottom 6" of the wire netting which had been buried in the soil to discourage burrowing foxes. Lots of roots to clear there as well. Last of all there was the gate post which had been set in concrete when we moved the gateway after getting rid of the leylandii arch. That was a real case of me not thinking things through. I heaved and hauled until I got the post and the bucket sized lump of concrete out. Then I looked and thought "That's a big hole", and "I need to saw the post to separate it from the concrete". So I hauled away again, got the post and concrete back into the hole and then started sawing. Not very good ergonomics. 

Apologies for the blurry photo but this is the first rose of the season growing halfway up the front of the house.