Sunny.

Not everyone in Russia supports Putin. This is Yelena Osipova, a 76 year old artist protesting against the war in St Petersburg. May there be many more brave people like her.

Today was still sunny but with more clouds and haze. I woke early, prepared breakfast, played the piano, pedalled on the exercise bike and did some DuoLingo all before breakfast. While cycling I watched the early walkers heading off along the coast path and one brave soul entering the water sans wetsuit for a very brief swim. 

After breakfast I went straight out to the back garden to work on the narrow bed. Even though I'd already gone through it twice a third turning over of the soil yeilded more bits of plastic and rubbish. Mainly pieces of some sort of fabric which initially I thought was garden fleece or matting but now I think are the remains of those little bags you get small plants in. As I don't think that any gardening was done there for at least ten years you can't call them readily biodegradeable. Not the nicest things to find in the soil. After digging out the tree root and meta post I needed to top up the soil (looks like bought compost) with the rougher soil from my big heap. Lots of mixing together and then I walked over the lovely heap of crumbly soil to pack it down before I do any planting. In the meantime this is Peter's hydroponics project on the kitchen window sill. He has been buying Little Gem lettuces for his lunchtime sandwiches and was very interested when I told him that instead of throwing out the stumps he could put them in water and regrow the leaves. He's almost at the point where he can start harvesting the leaves.

While I was gardening in the morning the builder turned up with the replacement ridge tiles for the roof. He had planned to do the work today but his assistant had tested positive for Covid and it's a two man job. Our builder tests daily because his father is 95 and he doesn't want to take any chances. Instead the builder will be coming tomorrow with a different worker so we've had to postpone our planned day out. We're trying to go out one day a week but building works take precedence.

All too soon it was time for our Zoom class. Nothing much of note today but I did have to dash to open the door to the postman. He'd brought me a pair of Japanese divided socks that I can wear with my flip-flops. I have a pair of flip-flops with arch supports that I wear all the time at home but sometimes my feet get cold so the socks should help. I wasn't sure if they would fit as I have large feet and I don't think Japanese people do but the socks do fit. I got the idea when I saw somebody in a television drama wearing them.

After class I pottered around doing small jobs in the kitchen as I waited for somebody to call round but eventually I gave up, changed into my grubby work clothes and went out to carry on gardening. I hate waiting for people.