Humid.

Rather humid today, mostly overcast with some spells of hot sun and even a few spits of rain.

(If you enlarge this beach photo you may spot two girls on horses and someone in a beach wheelchair amongst the beachgoers.)

I cycled down to the community gardens for our Thursday get together. Although I have a basket on the front of my bike it's not that large (I used to have a supermarket wire basket on the front of my old bike and you could get plenty in that) and I found my cake container wouln't fit in it. Luckily my next-door neighbour drives to the gardens so I was able to ask her to bring the cake along. 

The sitting area has been improved by the addition of two new benches  bought with grant money and put together by one of the garden members. They're good solid benches with higher seats which is better for some of our less flexible members.

Before 'cake and chat' some of us got to work cutting back the brambles that had grown over the paths around the herb spiral and the solar panel. The solar panel is mainly used to charge the battery that runs the electric fence around the chickens' run. There was an electric kettle and some other items in the watershed but they had to be removed due to mis-use by (youngsters ?) in the evenings. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the peace of the gardens so it's a shame when a small number of people spoil it for everyone else.

The chocolate marble cake, one of my staples, went down well. Eating al fresco always makes things taste better in my view.

Back home the weather couldn't make up its mind if it was going to keep raining or not so I've been pottering about indoors doing small jobs that have been waiting to be done for ages. I also spent a lot of time on the phone, Peter's phone as calls are included in his package while they are expensive on our Sky house phone. I was trying to sort out some final banking buisiness with my old bank. I say trying because to complete the transaction they needed to send me a code on my dumb phone, except that no text arrived. Eventually I noticed I had no 'bars' and while the helpful lady on the other end of the line waited I went out on to the terrace and then round the back and even up the road but no signal could I get. Eventually we gave up until I could try again another day. Then I wondered if I'd been cut off again for non-usage so I rang the service provider's help line ready to give them an ear bashing for leaving me without a phone again. But no, my phone was showing active and eventually the problem was traced to work being done on the mast hence no signal.

I finished off my afternoon with some more gardening. As I only have 6ft canes the next lot of sugar snap peas have been given those to climb up and I'll have to find some sticks for the dwarf french beans.

Today's photos are all of the community gardens.