Hot.

The day began quite cloudy with a cooling breeze then just got warmer and warmer.

Peter went out for the day which gave me the chance to secretly bake bara brith, a Welsh fruit loaf where the dried fruits have been soaked overnight in tea, for Peter's birthday tomorrow. It came out of the oven in time for five minutes cooling outside before being wrapped in a tea-towel and hidden in the utility room.

I cycled to the community gardens where we found that the lady who tells us what needs doing wasn't there so we ended up simply having a longer time to eat apple cake and chat. I brought along a small flask of coffee and more lettuces to give away. The three hens were let out of their run for a wander round and this one joined us. She was very cheeky and jumped up to peck at the cake in one lady's hand.

On the way there, on my bike of course, I found that the minute I turned off the High Street away from the strong sea breeze the temperature shot up. It was very hot at the gardens and I was glad I'd remembered to pop a sunhat in my bag. On my way home I called in at the shop and bought some bacon to treat Peter with a bacon sandwich in the morning. He used to have a cooked breakfast in the mornings but he now joins me for much healthier porridge instead so a bacon sandwich will be a surprise. 

Back home I planned a short break before getting on with painting the front of the house. But first while Peter was still out I thought I check the presents I'd wrapped and hidden away a while back. Only small items, just a small items to mark the day. Nothing like being organised except when you can't remember where you put half the presents. I found the beers each carefully nestled in one of my socks in a gift bag so they wouldn't clink when I snuck them into the bedroom late at night but as for the other things ..... ??? I searched high and low, checked the same places time after time but no luck. After half an hour scouring the house I eventually tracked them to inside one of the flat boxes that I keep small skeins of wool in. Huge sighs of relief at that point. And only just in time as Peter arrived home not long after.

Then it was time to paint the wall. I thought it would be a quick job and then I could have a lazy end to the day enjoying the sun. But how wrong I was. The original finish is lumpy and while I had to run the brush back and forth in different directions to get paint in all the hollows the new render was a different matter. To begin with it's a nasty spiky finish that if you fell against it would scrape the skin badly but it's also a nightmare to paint. Brushing over it in the standard fashion leaves paint on the highest bits, only about 20% of the surface. Instead you have to apply lots of the thick (think custard) paint and then push it in by dabbing with the end of the brush. This takes a very long time working a few inches square at a time. I'm hoping it won't be so time consuming for the next two coats but today I ran out of time and left the rest for tomorrow. There are some large areas at the back and side of the house that still need their final coat of render and no way will they have that rough render. I don't care if a smoother finish won't match the old finish on the lower part of those walls. I've tried looking on-line to see why the finish has to be so rough but so far can't find anything. Maybe when the guy eventually comes to finish off those sections he can explain.

In the meantime I like to think that with the blue sky above the house looks a bit like a Grecian villa. I can dream.

The evening continued sunny so I got to sit out for a while after all.