Cloudy.

We had a bright start to the day then all of a sudden the clouds darkened and we had heavy rain. After which the weather got better and we're having a sunny end to the day.

It stopped raining in time for me to walk down to the Charities Fair in the Hall. I try to support all the charities but as I'm at the stage of trying to de-clutter our home it was mostly by buying raffle tickets. I was hoping to get some tomato plants as a replacement and extra for the one that the snails or slugs ate. Even though I was at the fair early somebody had already bought most of the tomato plants leaving two Tumbling Toms. Those I bought and have planted them in a trough up on the wall. I also got a pink tall sedum to put in the tub where the purple leaved variety was (lost it in the winter) and another verbena bonariensis. At 50p each they were a bargain. I also bought a set of cheap paintbrushes and some hand made birthday cards. I had hoped to get some home made cakes but as I didn't fancy Rice Krispy treats or a whole chocolate cake just bought a couple of spinach and feta pastries. It was nice to chat with people I knew and others whom I didn't.

The nice weather meant that I was able to get a wash out on the line and everything apart from the towels was dry by the end of the afternoon.

The coastguards who are based in the RNLI station spent the morning doing their cliff abseiling training in front of the house.

I did more painting of the shelf supports and then escaped to the garden to tidy up the inside of the hedge. As it involved quite a bit of stretching (which my body doesn't like) I left the top with its waving honeysuckle strands for another day.

The female blackbird was not impressed by the fact that the woodpigeon had eaten all the seeds, again.

On the other hand the white tailed bumblebees were finding plenty of nectar in the garden flowers.

Here you see the bumblebee drinking the nectar from the 'horn' at the back of the flower and below a carder bee is feeding on the linaria flower in a more conventional manner.