Sunny.

It's been sunny for most of the day only becoming hazy towards the end of the afternoon and hardly a drop of wind.

I've spent my day cleaning up in the back garden. Both greenhouses had been lined with several different types of bubble wrap and one in particular had become brittle and would disintegrate when touched leaving small shreds of plastic blowing around the garden. I find cleaning up isn't that bad when everything is dry but pretty disgusting when wet. Hence the urgency to clean up before we get any rain. 

Clearing away some large sheets of bubble wrap and all the little pieces was the main priority. Once that was done I worked my way down the length of the path weeding out all the cracks and sweeping the slabs clean. I was very glad to be wearing my padded knee protectors. Then came the tricky job of dismantling the aluminium staging that had been left behind. This would have been relatively easy with the new socket set Peter bought just before we moved. Unfortunately we couldn't find the set though as Peter bought it to change the battery in the camper I suspect it's sitting in the camper which is in our neighbours' drive. Instead we had to make do with pliers and wrenches which eventually did the job. To finish off the day's work I took down all the ivy that had been on the painted wall. I'm pretty happy with the result so far.

In a way I feel sad that I'm taking away this wildlife haven but the birds will have to find new places to nest. Not only was the robin was my constant companion today but the air was filled with the sound of many other birds. At one point while on my hands and knees sweeping the path I looked up to see a blackbird feeding on the berries on a plant just a few feet above me. Even when I stopped to watch the blackbird was unconcerned and carried on selecting the red berries, eating some and dropping others. There was a noisy family of starlings based in a bush on the other side of the rickety fence who would come and sit on top of the fence for a while before hopping over the fence again. Then the peace was shattered by a goldfinch having a fight with the robin also on top of the fence.

Having had a productive day I was about to hit the shower when Peter suggested going for a walk on the beach so off we went. Just before we went down the slope to the beach the peace was shattered by a helicopter taking off behind the houses a few hundred feet away. We're used to air ambulances being red and this one was in military camo so we wondered what was going on. Then as we set foot on the beach we met another neighbour who was walking back along the beach having been to the shop. I asked her if she knew what was going on and she told us that it's a private helicopter owned by somebody (rich) who owns one of the expensive beachside houses. We'll just stick to our little car.