Cooler.

Still a bit of a chill to the wind today but once out of the wind it felt very warm.

It would have been a good day to cycle to the zoo but as I had a lot of plants to transport I opted for the car. Which I was quite glad of by the time I finished four hours working there. The first thing I did at the zoo was weed over the gravel by the wolf-dogs before doing my best to plant everything I had brought along with me. I didn't have an overall plan but put things in where the gravel layer was shallower over the clay subsoil. The plants I put in today were; santolina, pheasant grass, a purple ground cover sedum and thrift. I hope most of them survive the heat and the odd bit of trampling by the visitors. As I was working I suddenly realised that one of the volunteers was walking Willow, a goat, on a lead like a dog. She lives alone which is why she gets walked. I made sure to ask that she isn't allowed to nibble on the plants that I've just planted. The wolf-dogs got very excited when they saw her and I don't think they wanted to play. Having had fun planting things I was then back to my usual task of weeding. I did most of the large play area which was getting overrun again. At least it is easy to pull the weeds out of the dry soil/woodchip. It's half-term next week so I wanted to make it look a bit smarter.

 

Back home the honey bees were on the thrift while a brown banded carder bee preferred to visit the lamium.

I finished off my day by going down to Pilates which helped unwind my old muscles. 

The local surveyor in Devon got in touch with Peter as there is a boundary dispute between our old neighbours and the latest owners of Dingles. Our old neighbour is claiming that the wall is his but I know that the wall and three feet behind it lie inside the boundary. Unfortunately the plan in the deeds  is tiny but our neighbour was very possessive about 'his' land and no way would he have permitted me to plant the Rubus Spectabilis hedge or all the plants in the wall on his property. 

2014.