A Scorcher.

Still sunny and extremely hot but with a lovely breeze.

As I sat outside the rising sun (to the right of the photo) shone through a gap in the houses lighting up the ornamental grasses at the end of the garden. Later on the sun rose high enough to shine on the raised beds. At the moment these are filled with aquilegias and valerian which together with the yellow Welsh poppies in another raised bed are all self seeded. I haven't planted a single one of them and if left unchecked they would cover the whole garden. Some I leave but I have to be hard hearted and weed out many others. Unlike at Dingles where the aquilegias all reverted to washed out pink these are mostly deep purple, the exact same shade as the small flowered hardy geranium that is flowering now.  

 

With it being such a lovely day we decided to head out for a walk. We drove to Furnace, about 15 minutes away, as we knew there would be a cooling breeze once we made it up to the rough hillside.

We paused a while at the viewpoint where my Sunday group usually stops for lunch (we go at a much slower pace with many stops to examine and discuss plants, trees and insects along the way).

But it was too soon and too early for us to stop for lunch there today and we carried on circling the hill planning to stop by the lone tree again.

However that spot was already occupied by some of the Welsh ponies that live out on the hillside. These are not true wild/feral ponies as all the horses and ponies that roam the open spaces of the UK under common grazing rights have owners. The last time Peter and I were up there we met the owner of these ponies who was going up the hill to check on them. Today we ate our lunch on a rocky outcrop just below the ponies who were sheltering in the shade of the lone tree.

It was pretty windy on the hillside and this brown pony doesn't look happy with her 'bad hair day'.

One of the nice things about this walk is that all the uphill work is right at the beginning and the last section is through the dappled shade of this narrow lane.

Back home I did some gardening before relaxing on the sun lounger on the terrace feeling as though I was on a Mediterranean holiday. I didn't stay out too long as it was incredibly hot. Peter always tells me I shouldn't put the thermometer in the sun but I'm interested in knowing how hot it is where I'm sitting, not the official temperature taken in a shaded box.