Showers.

The day began by being overcast, ever the optimist I put some washing in the machine and by the time the rain started in the afternoon it was nearly dry. Right now at the end of the afternoon it's raining heavily not that the surfers and wing surfer seem to care.

Peter was out in the morning which so my plan was to use the drive to pack away a large tarpaulin left by one of the builders which had been taking up a lot of space in the garage. But when I carefully spread it out I realised that it is just the thing to cover the terrace when I start painting. So I folded it roughly ready for a dry day. I'm not a particularly messy painter but I don't want to get any drips of sealant or paint on the stone paving. Once I've finished painting I'll see how small I can get the tarpaulin and pack it into a bag or tie it up.

My next outdoor job was to plant up another trough by the street wall. That sounds very simple but when you're recycling materials things take a lot longer. First step was to decant one trough into another removing any weeds and yet more bits of polystyrene packing from the compost. This was because even though the troughs are old and marked I'd rather only have orange ones by the street and keep the green ones for the other side of the house. Then I discovered I didn't have enough cleaned bricks to build the next support for the trough. Fortunately I still have some of the concrete bricks in the front garden so next came a long bashing session as I cleaned off the mortar from another nine bricks. That done I carried them up to the troughs, built the next support and then filled the trough. This was then planted up with montbretia and nasturtium seeds. Seeds are expensive now, in my view but once the nastutiums flower I'll be able to save plenty of seeds for next year.

 I had kitchen stuff to do in the afternoon and by the time I'd finished the rain was here. Peter had been home and then popped out for a rowing club meeting. He got very wet coming home from that.

What to do when the fruit bowl is full.