Sunny.

The cold wind made for a choppy sea this morning. There had been talk of frost again last night so I covered up some of the plants just in case. The sun has been shining all all day and anywhere that was sheltered from the wind felt lovely and warm.

Far out in the bay a trawler was checking its lobster pots while (on the left) a gannet went into vertical dive mode. There were far fewer gannets today and even though I spent quite a bit of time staring out to sea there were no signs of any dolphins.

With less wind than yesterday it felt like a good day to tidy up the hedges which were beginning to look a bit unkempt. I even managed to level up the bottom hedge which has always had a decided slant. Peter helped by sweeping up all the debris which came to less than a bagful and saved me all that extra bending. After a disastrous time when he chopped great holes in the hedge, and that was with hand clippers I won't let him do the cutting especially not with the electric trimmer even though stretching over the hedge isn't good for my ribs. Afterwards my neighbour kindly offered to take the bag to his land to burn. 

Earlier as I sat outside with a coffee I spotted two newcomers to the spring display in the garden, the lamium which has gorgeous foliage and the brachyscomb an impulse buy from Lidl last year. Considering it is a half-hardy perennial from Australia and is often grown as an annual I think it's doing really well.

The tomato red azalea is covered with flowers much more than the pink one. It was the red one that I dug up as best as I could and moved away from its clashing pink neighbour so that's another surprising success.

Although I have spent most of the day outside I did do a bit more in the utility room. Having cleared everything from the cupboard that will be cut down so that the freezer can fit next to it, I was able to remove the doors. I also undid many screws but came to a halt at the metal bar that runs across the top of the cupboard. When Peter returned from playing pool we had another look and following his suggestions I was able to prize out the last fittings and also remove the central supports. All that needs doing is to cut the beech worktop and the cupboard, make good and move the freezer. No doubt it won't be as easy as I imagine but I'm sure we'll get there in the end.

Later - The gannets were back for a while and this time they were accompanied by a flock of Manx Shearwaters.