Windy.

A windy day with the occasional burst of sun. The wind was coming from the north and brought a real chill. I guess autumn is truly here.

I cycled down to the community gardens for what is my last cake and culitvate meeting for the time being. Next week I shall be working the old brain cells as we start Year Two of our language course. The other day we had a proper chat (in Welsh ) with one of the postmen when he delivered a parcel. Peter takes every opportunity to converse in Welsh while I am a bit more reticent.

I couldn't see anyone around when I first got to the gardens so I went up and had a lie down in the hammock. It was very peaceful looking down on the village and swinging gently with the chickens searching the grass around me. Don't laugh but I had never been in a hammock before. There's a first time for everything. (That's got me thinking about some of the more unusual things I have done; swum (fully clothed) in a canal lock in central London (dangerous!), ridden in a horse drawn carriage (not as a tourist ), milked a goat and sheared (shorn?) a sheep with hand clippers. How about you?)

My job for the morning was to complete some repairs to the mosaic around the Watershed doors which had been damaged in the last bout of vandalism. The vandals tend to kick the bottom of the doors to try to break in. Where possible the bits of glass had been replaced and set in a light grey tile cement and today I went over the repaired areas with a dark grey tile cement mixed with wood glue. To finish I used a cloth to clean the grey mix off the glass and china.

I took along some of our giant radishes to share and some strands of a trailing houseplant (parthenocissus striata) that grows like a spider plant. It has done so well in the sitting room that some of the strands have almost reached the floor so I thought I may as well pass them on.

I got home to find Peter had been working on the bath. He'd located the stopcock for the old pipe system and disconnected the bath which was good news but then came the bad news. The bath is a cast iron bath and far too heavy even for a couple of strong men to move. Peter in his days as a plumber had come across these before and his solution was to smash it up with a sledgehammer. I looked on Google but the only alternative offered was to cut it up with an angle grinder. And I was so looking forward to using it as a raised pond in the front garden. I looked into ways of making a raised pond only to find that owing to the weight of the water the sides need to be constructed from concrete blocks or railway sleepers with an inner liner and even a ground level pond needs quite a bit of construction. Not like in Devon where all I had to do was dig a hole in the wet clay soil and wait. Then I had a lightbulb moment. We're on good terms with our plumber so how about asking him if he ever has to remove a more modern lighter bath bath could he drop it off at our place. That way I'm still recycling something that would have to go to the dump and all I need to do is disguise the sides which I can do rather than build the whole thing from scratch.

With a possible solution to the pond I turned to clearing the montbretia from under the hydrangeas. I've been pondering what to plant in the gap along the wall. My first thought was maybe the pyracantha given to me by the nephew of the last owner or perhaps a deep purple buddelia that's in the back garden but in the end I took a chance on two hydrangeas which had been growing too close to the steps. They are the same as the ones next to the gap so I know they can cope with the conditions and they wouldn't grow too high blocking next door's window. If they don't take then there are several more of the same variety in the garden and I can try plan B. I've cut the stems right back so at least one may survive. I thinking to put some small spring bulbs under the hydrangeas also I have some black 'grass' which spreads well.

Lots of people on the water later on, I think that's a surf club or organised lesson.

Speedy trying to convince me that he hasn't just eaten a whole sachet of cat food and extra dry food for his supper.