Overcast.

Not the best weather today, always overcast but one minute it was hot and humid then the next the temperature plummeted as the clouds darkened threatening rain. I felt a few drops of rain at the end of the afternoon which stopped almost as soon as they started. 

Since the arrival of the bees I've been playing the piano again in an attempt to persuade them to move on. Although I sit at the piano to play my guitar each day I had wanted to focus on creating neural pathways and building up muscle memory for reading sheet music when I'm playing the guitar. I thought that playing the piano might have created some confusion but actually it wasn't too bad. One thing I noticed was just how loud the piano is compared to the guitar. I do tend to play the piano quite loudly with perhaps too much sustain pedal but that is all to the good for creating a noise nuisance.

My gardening task today was to remove any brambles that had dared to emerge amongst the geraniums on the hill. I'm also finding some bindweed coming through the rocks. 20 years ago I rid the garden of bindweed, maybe it's taken that long for the remaining pieces of root to work their way up to the surface. I'm not going to start any major excavations now, instead I'll just pull up any bindweed I can see.

Although I'm still waiting for some of the paperwork, today I got an official letter confirming that I am no longer employed as a teacher. So now I can continue to focus on improving my health and look forward to whatever the next stage of my life brings.

A Walk Round Morte Point.

No thunderstorms last night or today but they're still a possibility for tonight so after taking down the big dam so the postman and ourselves could get through it's back up again for tonight.

It was warm and humid this morning so off we went for a walk around Morte Point. We may live close to the coast but often the weather is foul or Peter's arthritis is bad not to mention doctor's appointments that good walking days in the week have been few and far between this summer. There was a sea mist over the water making Lundy just an ethereal shape in the distance.

There was a cool breeze which made walking very pleasant. Down on the rocks were a number of seals either sunbathing or simply hanging about in the water. 

The sheep were right out at the point and even though the ewes had been shorn many of them were resting in any small bit of shade. We had just walked past this ewe and lamb who simply couldn't be bothered to move. A bit further on we stopped at our usual bench for coffee and some cookies.

Walking back up the other side of the Point there were 2 men flying a drone. They had signs out warning people to be careful so of course we went up to them to ask what they were doing. They were trialling using drones to survey the area. I would love to have a drone and take photos from the air but I can see privacy issues if too many people start doing that.

We Stopped at the Ifracombe Tesco's on our way back as I don't want to go into town unless I really have too. Back home I did a final weeding of the scree garden and some leaf collecting with the garden hoover. It's so heavy to carry slung over my shoulder that I think it might be better to use my Vax. We finished off the afternoon sitting outside with our books.

Visitors.

After a seriously bad night's sleep (my fault for trying to go from 2 to 1 amitriptyline tablets, I'll try 1 1/2 tonight) I gave up at 6.30, listened to the radio and heard the good news that today was going to be a scorcher and also a warning for isolated but severe thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow. Made myself a cup of tea then did my exercises. As I'm finding it difficult to fit the exercise bike in the afternoon I did my half hour straight away before going on to the usual round of morning housework.
Once the postman had been at midday I built up the dam and took the gratings off the gutter at the top of the drive.

When I walked up the drive to take the box of peelings to the compost heap I spotted a small, young bird sitting in one of the azaleas only a few feet away. I turned back to the house to get my camera and there at my feet was Patch who was following me to check out if there was anything good to eat in the box. That poor trusting fledgling wouldn't stand a chance with Patch so I scooped the cat up and shut him in the kitchen with some milk. After I took some photos the fledgling flew into the apple tree which is a bit higher up and for the rest of the day the cats were too busy sprawling about outside on the warm paving stones. Later on as I swept the paving around the scree garden and then crawled on my hands and knees pulling up as many of the seedlings growing between the slabs the bird appeared again. I've looked it up and it's a young robin which might explain some of its lack of fear around humans. It perched on the side of the bucket I was putting weeds into, cocked its head to peer inside with one eye then the other eye before spotting a beetle crawling across the slabs. It ate the beetle, picked up a worm before jumping into a little gully to catch another worm and then came back and ate the first worm. If I had thought about it I should have recognised this very robin-like behaviour.

I was quite glad that some of my work was in the shade as it got very hot indeed.

I was talking to Peter in the kitchen when all of a sudden I noticed a loud buzzing noise. Being somewhat wary of strange noises after hearing but not recognising the sound of the barn burning the other week I went out to investigate. There above the roof was an enormous swarm of bees. I quickly went back inside to shut all the windows. Then I got concerned that the bees were congregating above the chimney which takes the hot air from the rayburn oven. Not wanting to take any chances I put a bread crust in a foil dish into the oven hoping that the smoke from the burning bread would deter any bees from trying to head down the chimney. (That's why we can't smell anything burning in the oven.)

By this time the bees had dropped down behind the house. Hoping they were going off into the trees I looked closer and realised they were going into the tiny space under the flat roof that sits over where the piano is in the living room. That space is inaccessible and the only way to get in would be to take part of the roof or the ceiling underneath apart. I rang up a local bee lady, there's a good website which gives you the phone numbers of bee keepers in the area, but there was nothing she could do if she couldn't get at the bees. She did explain that often a swarm will stay for 3-5 days before moving on again so I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'm not sure I want to find out how much more I'll react as in the past for each bee sting my reaction was progressively worse. The only other option is to call the council to exterminate them, something I wouldn't really want to do. I may try some loud piano playing underneath to discourage them.

Warm.

After some early morning rain the day warmed up and the sun eventually made an appearance. 

I carried on working in the scree garden which despite the leaf and moss picking has to be one of my favourite parts of the garden. That's mainly because of the stones, in the sun they shine like silver veined with copper while in the rain they darken like rocks in a mountain stream. I carried on snipping dead flower stalks and grass edges until I could bear the flies no longer. I don't really like the idea of spraying toxic chemicals onto my skin, don't want to cover up because who doesn't want to have a golden tan so I just apply some body spray in the hope that might discourage some of the flies.

I made sure that I had some reading time outside as well. Funnily enough the flies weren't so bad down by the house. The warm afternoon sun tempted me to stay longer drying my hair in the sun but I still did my half hour cycle so now I'm running late. We'll watch the last 2 episodes of season 3 of GOT tonight. Jus 2 more season to watch and we'll be ready for the new season.

Overcast.

Unlike yesterday (above) when we had blue skies today has been overcast. The day started off with heavy drizzle which eventually stopped but it felt as though the rain might start up again any moment.

As soon as it was more or less dry I put on a coat and went out to do some much needed weeding in the scree garden. The rain didn't arrive so I kept on pulling up weeds and removing the moss all afternoon. I'm much happier with the way it looks now. I love gardening but I'm really beginning to wish it didn't take up so much of my time. 

The birds have finished off most of the redcurrants but they're not so keen on the blackcurrants.  

Sunny.

It was lovely to wake up this morning and see blue skies through the windows. Still quite a breeze but the sun has stayed with us all day.  

Peter was off rowing this afternoon while I took full advantage of the weather and climbed up and down the hillside cutting back and weeding. I dug out most of the bracken that was growing there and pulled out brambles - with my bare hands!  That was only because I couldn't be bothered to go down to the house to get my gloves. Surprisingly I didn't get a single scratch or prickle stuck in me. Oh no, I've just spotted one small scratch.

After a very good weeding session I went inside to take photos of a number of the pictures I brought down from the loft to see if the youngsters want any of them. I'm tempted to keep some of the beautiful wooden frames for family photos. Not quite decided on the pictures yet. 

Determined to have some relaxation time I got out the sun lounger and had read 2 pages when Peter returned home. However he came out and joined me for a while telling me all the latest news he had heard while he was out. By the time I came back indoors it was a bit late to do my half hour on the exercise bike so I called it a rest day though I have done my second session of core exercises. Perhaps I'll have another go with the hula hoop.

Return of the Sun.

The sun made a welcome reappearance today which together with a brisk wind made it a good drying day. It was one of those days when it was lovely and warm in the sun but the minute the sun went behind a cloud it was somewhat on the chilly side. By late afternoon when I got around to taking photos the sun had gone for good.

Today I concentrated on the front paved area, sweeping up all the leaves and fallen rose petals as well as picking them off the raised bed. Then I turned to the other side of the porch and did a major trim of the winter flowering jasmine. It had been covering half the window and at the front it provided the snails with easy access to the hanging baskets. When I tied up the fennel that was flopping out of the cane tripod the air was filled with its strong anise scent. I cut down all the aquilegia flower stalks and before dumping them I shook them over the wild bit of ground on the other side of the stream. Who doesn't like aquilegias in a country garden?

Peter did all the mowing, something I'm relieved not to have to do any more. I was happily sniping the dead snow-in-summer flower stalks when I remembered I still had to do the ironing. Determined to get that job done I went from carefully snipping a few stalks at a time to wholesale chopping and not worrying too much about cutting the leafy stems. I've found that it doesn't grow much after flowering so I wasn't too wild with the trimming.