Windy.

I woke up very early this morning. It was one of those times that I needed to get up and stretch my back but even by the time I had done my whole exercise routine it was still dark. If there had been any signs of a proper sunrise I may well have gone out for an early morning walk but sky simply went from black to dark grey and then mid-grey. I took the above photo at 11.00 when the sky was still grey with that peculiar yellow light I think of as storm light. Hurricane now down graded to Storm Ophelia seems to have hit the country north of us. It was fairly windy early in the day but then the wind died down and we had a couple of hours of sun. The sky began to darken later in the afternoon and right now it's getting windier with sudden gusts making the trees dance. We checked the surf-cam this morning but the wind was in the wrong direction for spectacular waves. One of these days we'll make it down to the beach when the big waves come blowing in.

Today I packed away the rest of the books from both sets of shelves in the sitting room and gave the shelves and the wall behind a good wash. The shelves were put up before the walls were plastered smoothly so behind the shelves is a reminder of how horrible the textured walls were. I've done my best to wipe them down but it's not an easy surface to clean. I hope the new people have lots of books or DVDs. No date set yet as their upcountry solicitors are still fussing about things that are perfectly normal to us country folk.  

I spotted this Red Admiral butterfly during the sunny spell. it was only when I looked closely at the photo that I noticed it only had one antenna.