Wet Then Hot.

It's been a day of contrasts weather-wise. The morning was grey and wet and then mid-afternoon the cloud disappeared and the temperature soared. I indulged in ten minutes of toasting myself outside as I waited for the washing machine to finish and I expect the washing will dry nicely out on the line..

More packing today and I've now reached box number 50.  Today I packed up the bedroom shelves. If it just involved taking things down and putting them in a box I don't expect it would take too long. However I don't like the idea of packing things that are dusty or generally grubby so I had a clean up as I went along. I also took the opportunity to sort through stuff and was able to chuck some things out. As I won't be teaching again I didn't need to keep the half bottle of nit lotion. I never really needed it but had it as a precaution and used it once when a couple of children I taught had nits. When the shelves were finally clear I gave them a wash and as I had a bucket of hot soapy went on to wash the dust from the tops of the plastic storage boxes that live under the bed. I'm constantly amazed at the amount of dust in this place and certainly don't want to be taking any along with us. At least this time it's not the panic packing that happened last time when we had less than a week's notice.

 The last of the birthday flowers.

These four photos were taken at the same time. It remained cool in the shade and there were a number of sparkling cobwebs around the place.

Just listening to our PM announcing a tightening of the restrictions country wide as well as locally. Not a surprise really especially considering that some communities still believe that the health risks are 'fake news'. Now the PM is boasting about the testing which sadly is a lot of bluster. Most of these tests are not the ones which say if you are infectious but rather the ones that tell if you have had the virus. Also there has been a major cutback in testing centres. People are being told to go to test centres up to 100 miles away. Some people in Devon were told to go to Swansea which admittedly is only 20 miles away, so long as you don't mind crossing one of the most dangerous stretches of sea. I had a quick check and currently in Devon we have three test centres; Exeter which is 45 miles away, Taunton 68 miles or Plymouth 96 miles. If you don't own a car and on a low income how are you supposed to afford the £11 train ticket to Exeter? 

That plant emerging between the garden walls looks to be a Japanese Anemone, a double one at that.