Highs and Lows.

First thing this morning it was bright and sunny but by the time we had breakfast it had clouded right over with only a few tiny patches of blue. The clouds cleared later in the day making everything much more cheerful though with a chilly wind.

The tulips are looking quite bedraggled but I don't have the heart to cut them down yet. 

While sitting on the wall drinking a coffee I amused myself watching a bumble bee. The blue lithospermum has been the favourite with the bees for a while and now they're moving on to the aubretia.

I've had a good day. After a busy Friday I enjoy having the whole day (without commitments) to get on with things in the garden, house and kitchen. I've managed all three today.

Painting the knots was my 'house' job and that came with highs and lows. Finding a half-full large tin of white vinyl satin paint was a high but when I gave it a stir the unpleasant smell told me that it had 'gone off'. That tin will have to go to the dump. I've marked on it that it is off to stop anyone taking it home to use. They have two large cages for paint tins at the dump and nearly all of it is white paint so I'll have a look there first before buying more of the vinyl satin. They don't mind people taking paint from the cages. Last time I got a half full tin of black Hammerite which is always useful, a medium sized tin of red floor paint perfect for around one of the outside drain covers and grey paint for carnival stuff.

In the garage I found a tin of white vinyl matt paint to use on the knots for now as the dark brown knotting solution will need a number of coats of white to cover it. That was a high but then as I was about to paint I was surprised by a very large spider sitting on the side of the tin. I put her outside in the garden as I didn't want her crawling on me while I walked through the house to the garage. Painting was fine until I discovered two more knots that hadn't had the knotting solution and even worse one more knot that still needs rubbing down. The knots have had two coats today and I shall keep on going until the brown is covered over.

My house or rather kitchen job was to make another jar of vinaigrette dressing for this weeks salads which was quickly done.

I spent the afternoon cutting back the escallonia hedge. It now looks very bare on our side, just brown sticks. I began by thinking 'yeah, it will grow back' which then became a slightly more worried 'I hope it will grow back'. I have cut it back hard before and escallonia puts out leaves from old wood so fingers crossed.