Sunny.

It's been a warm and sunny day, perfect for working in the garden. I was able to do two coats of stain on the scruffy old decking. I wouldn't normally have chosen such an orange shade but I needed to tone in with the dark upright posts. At least now the decking looks a bit smarter. Later I gave myself a long break sitting at the top of the garden, sunhat on head and book in hand.

In between staining the decking I mowed the lawn in the front garden. It's such a tiny patch it almost took longer to go and get the mower from the garage than to do the mowing. I decided to show some community spirit and cut the section of the communal grass in front of our house. Apparently everybody used to do this but gave up once our selfish neighbour began driving over the grass so that he could park right by his house. Hopefully we are far enough over to be safe from his depredations. 

After I took this photo we were chatting to our neighbour who was trimming the shrubs in her front garden and she borrowed our mower to cut the grass right up to the path. Grass cutting should be done by the council but I doubt if they'll ever get round to it in spite of the council tax going up 4.9%. Blame our Conservative government who in the past 7 years have  cut the council's budget by 76% in real terms.

After a busy afternoon sleeping in the sun the cats curled up together in the sitting room. I went off to Pilates this evening and have returned tired but with a feeling of achievement. Patch has just returned from his evening wanderings outside. It's still fairly mild even though it's a clear starlit night. I had thought we might not see the stars now we're living in town but they're still visible. The street light at the bottom of the garden turns off around midnight and then I can watch the night sky.