Changeable.

The weather today has been a bit of everything, lots of clouds, occasional showers and very hot spells with fluffy white clouds in a blue sky.

I woke very early this morning. Looking out of the window the view was obscured by mist above the river and sliding along the sides of the hills. 

I've had quite a productive day which leaves me in a good mood even if my back is twinging a bit. I went down to the garage and found another tub of white matt paint which I used to paint the wall of the conservatory. I'm planning on one more coat tomorrow. 

As I went in and out of the front door Speedy was so desperate to go outside that I took pity on him. Off came his cone and on went his harness and lead. There was a lot of sniffing of marking spots but he walked remarkably well. With only the occasional attempt to divert into other gardens he walked along the path and then down the steps leading to the next street. All I had to do was to call him occasionally. The return trip was a little less dog like and I had to pick him up when he became engrossed in eating a particular grass and there were a few lying down incidents. I finally picked him up when he set off one of the two elderly dogs belonging to the older couple who live opposite us. I had a bit of a chat with the gentleman explaining why Speedy was on a lead and why he had to spend most of his time indoors with a cone on his head.

During a warm spell I cut the big buddleia bush in the front garden back a bit as it's getting so tall that it blocks some of the sky from the sitting room view. I know that I've cut off the flower buds but I hope that it's early enough in the season for side shoots to form. It's a very tired, ordinary wild variety that doesn't have a lot of flowers to attract the butterflies. The 'Black Knight' variety that I planted next to it is doing very well. After reducing the pile of cut branches to a bucketful of cut up pieces I had a tidy of the new climbers. A couple of them keep reaching over and twining around the canes in the neighbouring pots and have to be gently untangled. I also had to empty the water out of the three big tubs that hold a number of the pots. One moment I'm out there every day watering and the next there's a couple of inches of rain water in the tubs. To finish off the day I baked some chocolate chunk cookies for Peter. They came out better this time.

Yesterday in Tesco's I finally found a green 'Dissectum' acer to complete our little collection. Although Peter is not a gardener he does like acers.