Hot.

From the pretty pink evening sky it looks like tomorrow is going to be another hot day. I was staring at yesterday's evening sky which was even prettier with assorted clouds when my attention was drawn to four black dots moving above the sea in formation. A closer look with binoculars revealed them to be four helicopters, a small one at the front followed by two medium sized helicopters with a chinook bringing up the rear. Being less than a mile from the hospital and the marine base at Chivenor not yet closed down (I think) plus the coastguards, helicopters are fairly common but four together was an unusual sight. Later on when it got dark the air was filled with the sound of helicopters until one in the morning. At times it was so loud I couldn't help sitting up to look out of the window, not an easy thing to do when you've still got earphones in attached to the bedside radio. A lot of the time the helicopters were out of sight but I did watch one zig-zagging back and forth over the sea. Must have been some sort of major military exercise.

While the 'summer' remains we've been busy planning trips with the campervan though I hadn't expected campsites to be so expensive, £40 per night. Being the age we are it is impossible not to compare current prices for anything with the equivalent prices when we were much younger. (I was horrified a while back to see people paying £30 for a bottle of prosecco at a dinner.) We've decided that for the time being we'll go 'off line' when we are away apart from the back up of Peter's i-phone. We have a small analogue tv which will probably work with the van's aerial but who wants to watch tv when you're in the middle of beautiful countryside? And for the moment we don't need a lap-top or tablet though that might change when we are in serious house-hunting mode.

As advised by the weather people I stayed out of the sun between 11.00 & 4.00 though I did sneak in half an hour lying flat to try and even up the backs of my legs with the fronts. Currently my tan is every shade from pale white to deep tan. It's so ingrained in our psyche that a tan = an outdoor/heathy life or expensive holidays whereas in previous generations a tan = being a poor person who had to work out of doors. 

Plenty of bees and the occasional butterfly visiting the garden.