Cooler.

We had blue skies at the start and at the end of the day while for most of the time it has been overcast and cooler than yesterday. There's been more wind today but so long as it's not raining it's a good summer's day. This morning as I deadheaded the surfinias in the hanging baskets the sun was warm on my back and two wood pigeons were cooing away in the trees. What could be more peaceful than that?

With the blackcurrants hanging plump and juicy on the bushes it was time to make a start on picking them. Just under 2 1/2 lbs of blackcurrants are now in the freezer. The bushes are a bit overgrown with lots of raspberries poking through and the occasional nettle which I noticed once they stung me. If the birds don't eat the rest of the blackcurrants as they ripen (like they did last year) I'll pick them and have a jam making day. Just in time too as I've started on last jar yesterday when I needed a spoonful of something sweet on a homemade dessert of frozen plain fat free yoghurt with a banana mashed into it.

I also went back up in the loft to see what else needs bringing down. I'd carefully saved a large electric radiator which used to belong to my mother but as we have  a smaller and newer one the big one will go, regretfully to the dump. It's too old and expensive to run to pass on to anyone. I brought down a few more pictures and now, apart from one box tucked under the eaves that I can see but not get at, all that is left up there is my mother's art; paintings, drawings, sculptures, slides and portfolios.

I had to do some gardening as no sooner than my back was turned it seemed like the weeds were trying to take over the flower beds. Look at the size of this buddleia flower spike on one of the plants grown from a cutting planted 18 months ago. Shows what a difference being in proper soil rather than stony clay makes. While I was gardening a delivery man brought me Season 6 of Game of Thrones. An early birthday present from Peter ordered when we realised that my boxed set contains seasons 1-5 and the new series being shown this month is Season 7. We're working our way through the whole thing but we're not sure if we've seen Season 7 or not as previously we recorded and watched when GOT was being shown back to back from the start. If we haven't seen it that will be a bonus and if we have it will bring my collection up to date.