Sunny.

The best time to watch the Perseid meteor shower should be tonight but when I looked out last night and saw a starry sky that was me set for some meteor watching. This time I did it in style, loading my sun lounger which goes right back, into the car and driving up the hill. As usual I was warmly clad, 2 pairs fluffy pj bottoms under joggers and 2 body warmers under a padded coat. It may be August but it soon gets cool at night. It was lovely lying back under the Milky Way and watching all those constellations. The meteors were a bonus. I counted 19 in the hour I was up there which wasn't up to the usual count which can be 60-80 in an hour but after the cloudy skies of the last 2 years it was good enough. I was so cosy that I nearly fell asleep which was when I decided to call it a night..

Today has been a brilliantly sunny day. That makes 4 good days so far in August. However we have been promised heavy rain and possible thunderstorms tonight or tomorrow. I was up early and painted the porch ceiling before breakfast. It dried quickly and I was able to paint a second coat, this time of undercoat, in the afternoon. Nearly there.

Next I packed up the car with the old wire netting which I had taken down in the chickens' run and took it down to the dump at Ilfracombe. As I had a look around the for sale area I found an seed bird feeder on one of the tables. I was checking to see how you put the seeds in when I dropped the piece at the bottom. I heard it hit the floor but there was no sight of it. I looked all around, even got down to check if it had rolled under a nearby pallet. Laughing at the mystery I told one of the guys who works there what had happened and he joined in the search. He did find it in the end, it had rolled even further under the pallet but then when I asked him how much he wanted for the feeder he gave it to me for nothing. I dropped in at the Tesco's which is on the way home for a few things and they had a table of books being sold for a local charity so I gave a donation and got myself a book as I've finished all my library books. 

On the way home I stopped near South Indicott farm to take a photo of our valley. The white house in the centre is our neighbours' house and we are out of sight in the trees below it. In the distance is Exmoor and beyond that the Bristol Channel.

At home I was tempted to sit and enjoy the sun after painting the ceiling for the second time but instead I cut all the grass before the rain sets in. Then I sawed the pallet that the delivery man gave me in half so that I  could put it in the shed. And finally I went up to the chickens' run and burned all the branches etc that Sam had piled up when he blitzed the overgrown section. Because there are a lot of overhanging trees it had to be a very controlled fire also I didn't want to melt the washing line. A stunted apple tree that had fire blight disease was cut down and burnt straight away and I manged to clear everything else that could burn. Whenever the fire looked too hot I added leafy branches from the willow tree that needed a good cutting back. I also got great satisfaction from adding stinging nettles to the fire. A brave act considering I was in shorts and flip-flops. The sun is still shinning and I feel satisfied with my day's work.