Sunny.

There was a touch of blue in the sky this morning but also quite a few greyer clouds. It stayed windy all day but the afternoon sun cheered everything up.

I had been sorry to miss my riding last week though of course the carnival was fun so it was a relief to be heading back to the stables this morning. Also a relief was finding that sections of the extremely potholed track to the stables had been given a top layer of tarmac (asphalt). It's generally a real obstacle course winding my way around the potholes some of which were pretty deep. I still have to be very careful going over the railway by the stables as there are two potholes there which I've fallen into several times.

 

There were only four of us in the class today and I rode Margaret again. One of the girls took the lesson rather than the owner so it was all trotting. Lots of sitting trot. Euw! I've just noticed a large blister on the side of my finger which must be from the reins. I wear riding gloves which normally are enough to protect against blisters but not today. Not that Margaret was racing on, in fact for most of the time she was trotting very slowly but I was working on getting her neck rounded (on the bit).

After riding I dropped off more garden waste at the dump, collected Speedy's vaccination card at the vets and then went on to do the food shopping at Morrison's. As usual I checked out their outside 'garden centre' which will be closing soon for this year. There I noticed that end of season reductions included some of the pots and planters.  I didn't see anything amongst them that caught my eye but being me asked the lady in there if the ones that I did like were reduced. Sure enough the sets of three frost-proof planters were reduced from £20 to £12. There was a choice of colours and I chose these green-ish ones. I also bought a pair of half-price secateurs and two gro-bags which were only £2 each. Better than the bags of compost which were still full price.

I haven't quite decided what will go in the planters, maybe I need to buy some more plants? I did move 6 paving slabs up from the front garden and used them to make a step by the drive. That will make it easier for me to get my bike up onto the drive which is higher than the back gate.

I also did some baking. I had been seduced by a cake recipe from  FB video. Sure enough it came out looking light and fluffy but with the ingredients being just eggs, sugar and cornflour of course it wasn't going to taste of much except eggs and sugar. I had put in a splash of salted caramel flavouring but it was still a disappointment. Spreading on some butter helped but I shan't be using that recipe again. Plus the cornflour made it very mushy when eaten. I should have known better.

The rest of this afternoon's gardening consisted of sitting and watching the wildlife. I took these photos with the normal single shot setting for a change.

All that remains to do is bring the washing in and maybe sit out in the sun again for a bit.