Sunny.

Lovely and sunny today with a light but cold wind raising a few whitecaps out at sea.

Peter and I set to work fairly early first putting up the last of the short trellis over the raised beds. We had started off putting one up using a spirit level to get it level. Once the first one was up it should have been a matter simply butting them against each which was fine until one side was out of true causing a slight upward slope of the panels. However even with the line of the fence behind it doesn't look too noticeable to me and once the plants have grown it will be fine.

Trellis up we then began bringing in the gravel and soil from the dumpy bags in the drive. Having given away the old wheelbarrow before we moved (and I don't think emptying one into the raised beds would be easy) we came up with an alternative method of transport, using our flat bed trolley, boxes and buckets. (Will post a photo tomorrow.) It didn't take too long before there was sufficient gravel in each raised bed. Next step was to lay down some weed membrane to stop the soil working its way down between the gravel and blocks. I'd paid for a 1m x 15m roll but because they didn't have any in stock they substituted a 2m x 25m. After a coffee break spent sitting in the hot back garden we moved on to the soil and filled the first raised bed. That's when we called a halt to the manual labour for the day. Then came the most exciting part - planting up the first bed. I put in three clematis; pinkish white, purple and purple & white and some old English pinks as the permanent planting and then popped in the hardy geraniums which will eventually be split and moved to the raised bed in the front garden when it gets built.

After all that work what else was there to do but retire to the terrace to enjoy the sun? Speedy found an old plant trough in which to take a nap.

The moon seen through the blossom on the tree in our neighbours' garden (it can be seen above the far end of the trellis in the photo above). This morning, at 4.30 to be precise it was bright orange. This I know because I had woken at 4.00, taken a tablet and was attempting to doze off again when my attention was caught by a radio program about the Lyrid meteor shower which they said could be seen at that time. Faithful readers will know I can't resist a meteor shower so up I got and headed out to the terrace. Ice-cream in hand and clad in my warm dressing gown I settled down to watch for meteors. I limited myself to the time it would take me to eat the ice-cream and sadly not a meteor did I see. I could see the main constellations clearly but there was a high haze blocking out the less visible stars and as the predicted rate was about 18 per hour that wasn't surprising. Looking on-line it seems that tonight just after sunset and before sunrise should be better so maybe I'll give it another go.