Low Cloud.

Today's weather was the reverse of yesterday's. After a sunny start with brilliant blue skies by 10.00 all was grey. I drove the rubbish up to the road at lunchtime and you can see how low the cloud level had got. (The grass in the field has gone yellow after muck spreading.) For the rest of the afternoon it was damp with a light to heavy drizzle. I did go out and do some gardening. This time I sat on my mat picking moss off the big clump of iris in the scree garden. Flag iris like to have their rhizomes baking in the sun so having their rhizomes covered by a soggy blanket of moss is not good. I found that a pair of dissecting tweezers worked well for removing the moss strand by strand. The new leaves are beginning to emerge and liable to damage when I use my fingers alone to pick off the moss.

I think these light coloured daffodils must be more porous than the yellow ones because whenever it rains they droop down and the minute they touch ground the slugs start munching. That's why I picked this bunch so that I could enjoy them indoors.

Even though they are small I really like these mugs. I discovered after our visit to Stoke that they are made at the Middleport pottery by Burleigh ( blue calico design) and they have a factory shop in Stoke. I'll definitely be heading there the next time we go up to visit Romas and Laura and I dropped a big hint to Romas that if he ever gets stuck for gift ideas factory seconds would be most appreciated.

Last night I heard a most interesting programme on Radio 4 part of which was about these fascinating creatures, Tardigrades. About the size of a full stop, when faced with a difficult environment they go into a dried up state and can remain like that for up to 30 years. They can survive radiation and have been found in live volcanoes and nuclear reactors and it is believed they could withstand outer space. Amazing!