Sunny.

Today has been warm with hardly any wind. And there was enough sun to dry the washing I put out on the line.

As it was such a nice day what else could I do but spend it gardening? Or at least spend the afternoon outside as walking up, having breakfast and doing the housework generally takes up most of the morning. 

The first of my garden jobs was to retieve the concrete 'bricks' which last year I had put inside the front garden wall. That was to hold the plastic mesh in place to discourage people from putting dog pooh bags through the wall. I need the blocks now to put down as the bottom row before I start cementing the facing blocks to the front wall of the raised bed under the terrace. To keep the mesh in place I used cable ties looped through the fancy blocks of the wall. Even though I had a long sleeved top and gloves on sliding my arm down to reach the heavy concrete bricks resulted in scratched arms from the hedge and more scratches when I took my gloves off to fit the cable ties. Later I chipped the mortar off a third of the bricks I need so it shouldn't be long before I can start mixing up mortar and sticking the facing blocks on to the raised bed.

We've had a run of dry days so it was a good time to get the mower out and tidy up the front garden. After my enthusiastic shaping by eye didn't turn out so well last time today I used a rope and cane to mark out a perfect circle for the wild meadow part of the lawn which I may keep or may turn into something else. Initially I used stones and then put flour down before mowing a path around the outside of the circle. I replaced the stones after mowing until I do more weeding and tidying up. 

I finished my gardening afternoon with some chipping away at the concrete bricks before stopping to do the ironing. No point in putting off the housework.