Cooling Down.

Well we've reached the first of July and the weather has been quite gloomy and not very warm. The patch of blue in the photo below was the one and only moment of brightness in the whole day. The final photo is a better match for the rest of the day. It began warm and muggy but then got noticeable chillier when the wind swung round to the north.

I didn't wake properly until 8.30 which might have been due to taking an antihistamine (for the insect bites which are driving my hypersensitive skin crazy) earlier or simply tiredness catching up. The good thing is that if we need a slow start to the day we can have one. 

Since I've been unable to get out so much I've been making an effort to keep up my piano and guitar practice as quite often it gets left out on a busy day and then I feel cross with myself. Today everything got done.

Look! A pond skater on the pond. Apart from the water snails (there's one in the water just above the pond skater) which I introduced, this is the first pond dweller that has arrived under its own steam in our tiny water feature. I've just been looking up some information and found that they can fly. There are 9 UK species and the common pond skater is also known as a pond strider though I found them referred to as water dancers which sounds much nicer. 

Other jobs done today include painting a second coat of grey on the shields and altering another yoga top. It was at least three sizes too big so I'm guessing I bought it in sale at Tesco's back in Devon. (Where I got most of my 'active wear'.)

The final event of the day was walking down to the surgery to have my stitches taken out by the nurse. There was a bit of an intake of breath when she took off the dressing. Not so much at the bruising on my toe but (I think) at the lack of finesse in the stitching. She remained professional and her only comment was that the stitches looked very tight. But out they came without a hitch. Although I had been hoping to return to Pilates next week her advice was not to do any of my activities for a few weeks yet but let my toe heal up completely first. I shall have to content myself with exercising at home.

It's a good thing that I walked to the surgery as currently the High st is closed due to roadworks and I wouldn't have been able to get as far as the surgery. To get to the other end of the mile and a half long village would involve a diversion of about 10 miles. But they are only digging a trench along the edge of the road and unofficially they've said (so I've been told) that once they go home people can move the cones that are across the road and drive through. (The actual trench has its own set of barriers.)