Dry.

Only one photo today, taken in the afternoon when it had become fairly grey and much colder.

The day began so much nicer, a real 'Borthbados' day with blue sky and sea. The sea was so calm that we weren't surprised to see paddleboarders out as we ate our breakfast. First was the chap I saw yesterday with a companion alongside returning from south of the Monument. I wonder if they got to see the dolphins again? Then came another paddleboarder, an older woman wearing a jacket over her wetsuit. She disappeared out of sight returning later when she stopped on the calm water of the bay and began doing Pilates/yoga exercises on her board. I watched with my binoculars and gave Peter a running commentary on each pose. Next, skimming across the water was a single rower in a skiff looking like a water boatman except that he was going in straight lines rather than circles. Then into sight zoomed a very powerful speedboat, a large one with super powerful engine (technical details supplied by Peter). It went here and there, made a couple of circles and eventually left. A very expensive 'boys' toy'. The final appearance was somebody clad only in red swimming shorts, lying on his board and paddling with his hands. We didn't watch him for long and now I'm wondering if it was one of the lifeguards keeping fit?

Just been out and taken several photos as the light is more interesting now.

After breakfast it was time for my big trip to town. The queue at the dump was much shorter today, only half an hour of singing time before I was able to go in and unload. The person in front of me had waited for the same amount of time but when we neared the gate the dump worker manning the barrier came and told him he was there on the wrong day. He had an odd number plate and today was for even numbers. That must have been annoying. I never even thought about it as I sat behind him otherwise I could have got out and told him earlier. Peter had kindly loaded up the car for me which meant I forgot to put the gardening gloves in the car as usual. That was an extra reason to stop at Morrisons first to give my hands a proper wash as some of the bags had been grubby from the garden. Then into town parking by Matalan as you get 3 hours free parking there. The sun was shining and the streets were full of people. Not too full for comfort but enough to make the place feel alive again. I had a list of things to get but I couldn't resist going into the charity shops first. I've so missed the thrill of looking for treasures. Didn't find anything special today but it was fun to be looking. I took my curtain fabric samples with me to buy the correct thread. I'd looked up the haberdashery shop which was a treasure trove of tempting fabrics and 'notions'. It was hard to resist all the lovely colours and textures but I did, for now. We could only find thread to match one of the fabrics so I went to another shop that is more of a craft shop. She also had thread and when I wasn't sure which was the best match for my second fabric the owner unwound the cotton and then both of my choices looked as if they matched but I took her advice and got the slightly greener one. Shopping for pleasure done it was back to the car park to drive over to Lidl, do the food shopping and then off to the builders' merchants on the way home to order soil and gravel for the raised beds. I caused a problem by not being able to give them our home phone number. I thought I'd got it written down in a small notebook I had in my handbag but only had number for the vet. (House phone number written in now.) I offered my email but that's too high tech for them to let me know about delivery. They're not getting the soil in until next week so I've got time to drop in again and give them my number. (If I was to phone them up with the number it looks like the sort of place where they'd write it down and lose it.) I have to go in again anyway as they need to know the measurements of the terrace before I can order the paving. I gave them the square metres but that rather confused them. Choosing the paving wasn't that simple. They had a big display board with the different sorts but the chap wasn't sure they were labelled correctly. He showed me the stone in crates and I wasn't too happy with the colour variation. I know it's a natural product but one I chose had some very orange slabs in amongst the greyish yellow which I thought looked terrible even though the lad kept telling me they look really nice. He suggested some grey slabs which were more even in colour but to my mind looked just like concrete slabs and I'm afraid I told him so. In the end we came to a solution in that as you can buy the slabs singly I could pick out or at least reject the orange slabs. However he wasn't sure how many slabs I needed so I need to take in the exact measurements of the terrace. Then they can put my selection to one side until our builder is ready to lay them. At least that's the plan.

I was worn out by the time I got home and very ready for a cup of tea.