Time For Fishing ?

The day has been very warm but apart from the briefest of moments this morning the sun has been hidden by the clouds. No chance of seeing the Perseids tonight.

Word must be out that fish are around. Everyone from paddleboarders, kayakers, men in dinghy's not much bigger than wheelbarrows, fancy fishing boats and even the cormorant have been out fishing. But sadly no sign of the dolphins yet.  

 

My intention today was to tackle the big hedge and then finish pressure washing the wall.

Pete was going to use the extending trimmer while I swept up and kept an eye on things. But it did not go well. For a start I wanted Pete to see for himself how awkward the trimmer was for me to handle on my own. Hence I let him work without any assistance from me. I'm not sure he understood why I was so 'unhelpful'. Then he has an aversion to being corrected but I couldn't stay quiet when the top of the hedge was being cut on a slant or having chunks cut out of it. After some snippy words (to say the least) we agreed that the trimmer is unwieldy due to having the weight of the motor at the top and it is also a great disadvantage not being able to see what you are doing.

In the end it was a lot easier for me to get the step-up out and use the normal trimmer.

Next on my list was to pressure wash the wall but first I needed to extend the hose as my 'long' hose hadn't been long enough. I searched high and low for a hose-to-hose connector (Pete was out by then) and having almost given up on the job borrowed a connector from one of the water butts.

Having given the whole wall a thorough clean as there is no point painting over dirt, (I know builders do it but then they don't have to repaint in a few years) I mixed up a bit of mortar and filled up some gaps between the coping stones. Once those are dry I can start painting.

All that took me up to 5.00 and left me worn out. Tea, tablets and a long restful sit out on the terrace in the balmy air were exactly what I needed.

Earlier there was a great kerfuffle of gulls above the cliff. Looking at them through the binoculars I saw that amongst our regular herring gulls were many black headed gulls. Not sure what they were arguing about though.