A Mild Morning.

The day began dry and mild. It was so warm when I went to sit outside that I had to remove one layer of clothing (a bodywarmer worn over my dressing gown). For a while there were definite shades of blue in the sky but all too soon we were back to grey. About halfway through the afternoon the temperature dropped and the rain began. It hasn't stopped since so fingers crossed for tomorrow's walk.

I'd set the alarm for 7.30 in the vague hope that the builders might turn up but we haven't heard anything. At least it got me up for a good start. The good weather saw me out in the garden straight after breakfast and I got three things done. First was sawing off a couple of branches from the hedge that would have been in the way of the side piece of the balustrade which we decided to have to add strength against any stormy gusts. Next thing was filling up more bags with turf for Peter to take down to the dump. The bags waiting for the builder are very full, heavy and mucky (those adjectives seem to be able to go in any order even though English has a strict order for types of adjectives) so it was better to fill some more for the car. The pile of turf is now down to about a quarter of its original size. My final job was fishing out blanket weed from the pond. I had to laugh when one of the robins came down and sang at me no doubt asking for worms. No luck at the pond though I had thrown plenty of worms on to the soil for the robins earlier. 

Once the rain had driven me inside I knuckled down to writing up all those yes/no variations, all twenty of them, with questions on the flip cards. I filled up two sets of fifty cards each and it took me hours. At least now we have plenty to be getting on with. Either revising on our own or being competitive and quizzing each other.

The birds were very quiet when I first sat out on the terrace, perhaps because I was a bit later than usual. Then a small bird on top of our neighbour's roof began singing persistently if not as beautifully as a robin or a blackbird. A closer look revealed it to be a pied wagtail. They are not frequent garden visitors but are often seen running around carparks.

He moved away from the seagulls' mess, had a little clean up and carried on singing for a while before flying off.