Windy.

The day began bright and sunny but still windy. That was a shame as the rowing club had an Open Day and had planned to take people out for taster rowing sessions but the waves were too fierce for rowing with beginners.

We had our croissants this morning but didn't listen to The Archers because Peter needed to leave for the Open Day. They had 14 people turn up and although they couldn't have a go at rowing they had a talk about the club and rowing in general. Hopefully they will be able to run the taster sessions soon.

I didn't have any washing to do but thought conditions would be good for airing out some of my clothes that have been kept in storage. But when I checked my 'occasion' dresses in their bags they were fine apart from a slight chemical smell from the clothes bags so I put a couple of them out anyway. However it was a great excuse for a dress up session. I will admit that having lost so much weight I thought I might find my dresses too big but all of my dresses were bought (mostly eBay) when I'd been on diets for upcoming occasions and fit perfectly. Still it was fun to see them again and imagine going to a special event. 

Going through my dresses I came across two 'crinkle' dresses. I always though they would be perfect for trips abroad, maybe to Greece or Italy to visit ancient sites, as they twist and pack so well and look much more chic than sloppy tourist wear of t-shirt and shorts. But unless you are stick-thin like the model above they are unforgiving and show every bulge of excess weight. Also fat chance of going abroad when Peter's comfort zone appears to be no further than 10 miles from home or 20 on a good day. That said they don't take up much room so back in the box they went as I'm not ready to send them to the charity shop yet.

My day has been spent gardening again. More pebble sifting, washing and carrying up to the back garden before I dug up the roots of the dead hydrangea and cleared lots of ivy and some brambles that had been growing behind the hydrangea. Digging down I can see that the main issue with this garden is going to be lack of water as the soil was bone dry. I've already got one water butt in place though I need to fix a hose pipe to the tap at the bottom so that I can water the plants in the front garden. At the moment I just scoop water from the top for the air plants weekly swim. I've also got a base in place for a water butt by the garage but want to wait until the rendering is finished and I paint the house before putting a butt in position there.

I also did some gardening by the street wall putting three more troughs in place after some rebuilding of the brick supports. I got one trough filled with montbretia and will carry on filling the other two as I dig up the montbretia from under the hydrangeas in the front garden.

By the time I'd finished gardening the clouds had rolled in but it was still nice to wrap up and sit outside for a while.