Showers.

We had some sun today when the morning's heavy showers eventually eased off to give quite a nice afternoon.

I had intended to go on the group walk this afternoon and had checked out where to meet but after a very wet morning I chickened out and stayed at home. I'm not sure if I was just giving in to my tendency to hide away at home or simply being sensible. 

Instead I went out to do a little work in the garden starting with the unsavoury task of removing a dead rat which must have lain unnoticed for quite a while under the table up on the terrace. A couple of garden shovels and a flick over the cliff got that sorted and then I was able to move on to actual gardening. I did some weeding and then relocated some bluebells from the gravel to under one of the hydrangeas at the bottom of the garden. I'm hoping they'll be flowering before the hydrangea has put out too many leaves.

The poor echium pininana which arrived in the garden last summer got hit hard by the cold spell we had before Christmas. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it may have survived under all those blackened leaves.

And then I made a small start on what I hope will be my yearly house-blitz (can't really call it Spring cleaning.) Of course I do regular housework to keep the place clean and tidy but I would like to get everything thoroughly cleaned including emptying out all the cupboards during this gloomy time of the year so that later I can escape to the garden or outdoors in general with a clear concience. That won't be so easy while we still have stuff in boxes and building works left to do but I'll do what I can. So this afternoon I began in the sitting room moving furniture and washing, wiping and hoovering as needed. I don't have a particular schedule but hope to work through each room in turn until it's all done.