Sunny.

I woke this morning to cloudless blue skies and though the clouds gradually appeared it has been lovely and sunny all day long. There wasn't much breeze to start so instead of washing sheets I put all the cats' bedding in the washing machine and then put on another load of dark washing all of which has almost dried.  

I had earmarked the large ceramic planter by the front door for the tomato plants but now some big red shoots are emerging. It will be interesting to see what they are.

For a day scheduled for paint scraping I spent a lot of time outside. As a break from the never ending scraping I mowed the front lawn and part of the communal grass. While my neighbour borrowed the mower to do the bit outside her house I carefully squished down the ground beside the ruts left by the inconsiderate neighbour driving on the soft ground. Once the mowing was done we carried on chatting and after my neighbour swept up some broken glass in parking area we decided to sweep up the whole of that area which we'll do sometime next week as I wanted to get on with the paint scraping. That said we carried on chatting for a long time. I offered some gardening advice and then my neighbour invited me in to see her newly decorated kitchen. Her husband is a decorator and her house looks like something in a magazine. It was interesting to see a different version of the same room plan though their sitting room stretches right to the back of the house while we have a wall closing off the dining room. Both layouts work but I'm happy having a separate sitting room and dining room especially as we have the conservatory leading off the dining room. Eventually I got back to carefully removing the paint from the stair spindles before stopping for exercises and a bike session. It is so warm that shorts and vest were sufficient for the exercises and I haven't needed to change while the sun is streaming through my window keeping this room nice and warm.