Zoo and Pilates.

The weather was much the same as yesterday's, cloudy with sun at times.

I wont be growing these round courgettes again as I'm not impressed with the taste but look what magnificent flowers they have.

As I looked out to sea this morning I spotted a flock of cormorants and shearwaters massing above a shoal of fish. But no dolphins.

The day was nice enough for me to cycle down to the zoo for four hours of weeding. I spent the whole time down by the guinea fowl though I postponed working on the main gravel patch by weeding the narrow strips bordering the various pens. I think having those bits weed free makes a big difference but also the bigger gravel area in particular is hard to do. One end has little gravel and is the main route through the zoo so the ground gets compacted and the weeds are harder to remove. Even today's efforts didn't quite get me to the end of the gravel but I'll start with that next week. 

My weeding was accompanied by the sounds of the birds in the nearby enclosures. Chickens clucking, guinea fowl being noisy, quail burbling and fan-tail pigeons cooing. Not to mention George the cockatoo, out of sight but not sound. He's in the 'staff only' area and if no one is around he starts to screech and yell for attention.

Before setting off for home I was able to pick more sloes and I've now got enough to start the sloe gin.

Pilates is now back on so off I went to the Hall for an hour of bending and stretching. I had thought I would be fine since I've kept up my daily squats and returned to riding. But of course with a break for the toe op recovery and my good intentions of doing extra exercises having fallen by the wayside I'm already feeling like I've run a marathon. And I'd forgotten about the dreaded mermaid  stretch and even worse the exercises where you have to lie on your side. My hips although very flexible do not like those at all. (At one point I had numerous injections into the hips for the soreness from my doctor through to a consultant but it turned out not to be bursitis just random pain.) 

Tonight's sunset.