Damp.

A muggy and damp day today. The sea was flat and the moisture in the air dampened down all sound. (6.30 and the sun is breaking through bringing heat and amazing cloud patterns against bright blue sky.)

But first - last night. Even though the peak of the meteor shower had been the night before I thought I'd give it another try. I waited until midnight then wearing; a pair of winter pj's, two bodywarmers and two dressing gowns I settled down on a sunlonger with Speedy on my lap to see what I could see. There was about 50% cloud cover but the stars shone brightly between the clouds and I saw a good number of meteors. Even without the meteors it was so nice looking up at the stars and reminiscing about Perseid watching in past years from a family outing up the hill with a friend and his girls (that was the badger year) to sitting by the ponies' field with a cat on my lap and a pony snuffling in my ear. Here it was lovely to be able to watch on the terrace though with a street light just 10ft behind me I could only look in one direction until it switched off at about 1.15 (I think the timer was affected by frequent power cuts) when the view was so much better. With the warm wind blowing and the sound of the waves I found it hard to stay awake so I went to bed at 1.30. 

Despite the intermittent drizzle this morning I couldn't wait to begin wall building. I may not be a skilled bricklayer but at least I looked the part with trowel, string and spirit level. I didn't have quite enough mortar to complete the wall so the last four bricks will have to wait until I buy another bag. Once I'd built the wall I began filling the bed behind. First with the remaining gravel and then with various bags of soil and compost that I've been saving for this job. Much as I'm keen to start planting I still needed to bring up a lot of soil from the front garden and my back had had enough so planting will have to wait until tomorrow. 

It didn't take long for Peter to fix another of the large trellis panels across the end of the oil tank and I'm really glad with the result. I planted a honeysuckle and a purple clematis to grow up this panel.

An interesting rare sighting of a humpback whale in our local waters, or at least off Pembrokeshire. You can read about it here. I never imagined that they would be seen in our waters.

(Image - Falcon Boats)