First Mowing.

It's been a lovely sunny day warm enough for me to spend some time reading outside in the afternoon while washing dried on the line. Yesterday I saw on FB that somebody locally was giving away some ornamental grasses that she had dug up. I walked round with my shopping trolley and accepted a medium sized clump. Once I got home I realised that it wasn't a grass but a carex, an easy mistake to make. I haven't decided yet if I'll keep it or not.

The fat buds of a white magnolia tree.

Back home I decided to give the lawn and the communal grass their first trim. After mowing, I did my best to level the lawn by shuffling up and down squashing any bumps with my big wellies. (I always mow in steel toecap wellies.) Then I set to work with my hand moss rake to clear some of the patches of moss. That left parts of the lawn looking very straggly but although the moss looks okay when conditions are wet if we were to have another hot summer the lawn would be full of yellow patches.  

It doesn't show too well in the photo but the celandine flowers shine brightly in the sun like little lights. I'm so glad I left them to grow. Their flowers will be over by the time the hardy geraniums  remerge and fill the flowerbed with clumps of white, purple or pink flowers.

A very different sunset tonight with muted pastel tones which turned dark pink for a short time before the sun dissapeared. Right now I'm doing a singing warm-up before trying to learn the words of 'When the snows of winter fall.' for choir. Peter is staying at home because he's having an arthritis flare up which has left his knee swollen and painful. Apart the recent cold weather he puts it down to not be able to exercise after his cataract operation.