Sunny.

A sunny day with a cooling wind.

I had a wonderful night's sleep and didn't wake up until 8.30. We never rush in the mornings unless we really have to so it wasn't until later that I went down to the zoo. There are times when I wish I didn't have so many commitments and would much rather remain at home or rather in the garden. But I also know that it is important to keep a wider social circle especially as you get older. This is something I make a concious effort to do. And every time I'm out I enjoy the varied activities, company and different surroundings so it is worth it.

At the zoo I weeded to the end of the gravel that I began two weeks ago. From there I cut back some shrubs that were threatening to escape their flower bed and to end with I did some weeding around the gorilla. Not a real gorilla but a life sized model that is also a collecting box for a gorilla sanctuary. 

After I put wire netting around the bases of these buddleia bushes last year to protect them from the rabbits and gave them a good spring pruning we are now being rewarded with a mass of flowers. One bush has purple blooms and the other is covered in pink. Hopefully we will see some butterflies soon.

Back home I carried on gardening. No weeding but I made a start on clipping the longest shoots on the hedges as they're beginning to look quite raggedy. Then off to Pilates. A different teacher this week as our usual teacher is on holiday. She couldn't get the music or microphone to work so I moved down to the front row to be able to hear. It was different to our usual class, I think each Pilates teacher has their own style, but it was still good. We did a lot of roll downs and downward dog which we don't do in the class and lots of straight arm plank all of which I find not too hard so fun for me. I struggle with anything that bends the spine in the other direction and also with sit-ups. She was quite surprised to hear the seagulls stomping about on the roof. The metal roof amplifies the noise and it does sound as if a flock of ostriches is crashing around up there.