Cold.

Cold and overcast today though the threatened rain held off. It rained yesterday evening and overnight which was sorely needed by farmers and gardeners alike.

This morning I went for the first time, to volunteer at the local zoo. When I saw the request on FB my initial thought was 'Yay, that's just for me.' swiftly followed by 'I'm too old and decrepit, they won't want me.' but I'm glad Peter persuaded me to respond to the post. I was very clear that I'm unable to do heavy work but they welcomed me anyway. When I got there everyone was friendly and the other volunteers ranged from college students (16/17?) doing practical work towards qualifications to others more my age. After coffee and filling out a form I was put to weeding some gravel along with another volunteer and the manager. It was quite surprising how many similarities there were in our life histories from careers, places we'd lived to horses. And of course it was just great to have people to chat to. I could, like the lady I was working with go there every day but for now I'll stick to one morning a week while there's so much to do at home.

Afterwards the manager took me on a tour of the zoo. It's been closed since last year due to the pandemic and recently changed hands with a change of some staff too. It needs lots of work but the animals look to be in good condition with decent enclosures so I'm happy to help out. Some of the animals are at other locations for now. There's a gorgeous family of silver foxes (top photo), parents and three youngsters. The albino wallaby has an albino joey, so cute and of course the meerkats are crowd pleasers.

Back home my afternoon was spent curtain making. First I joined up the curtain pole and cut it to length. It isn't terribly straight (the pole not my sawing) but at least the pieces are firmly fixed together. With the curtain I've got to the stage where all that needs doing is the hand sewing. Today was mostly pinning, pressing and hanging up a number of times to make sure I had the lengths of the curtain and lining correct. I have to say that hanging the curtain, even standing on some steps, was the most strenuous of all today's activities. We're both very pleased with the result where the colour matches the touches of colour in the room and this afternoon's sea too.

Just before we had our supper I saw a man in an official yellow coat walking down the road. I thought he was a policeman but when I checked the photo I took of him (as you do) I saw that he was part of the coastguard search and rescue team. A bit later a whole team of coastguards arrived to practise abseiling down the cliff. Funny how a number of our neighbours just happened to be out for a walk then.