Dry.

The day began grey, chilly and with a few spots of rain getting brighter as the afternoon progressed. Right now I've had to draw a curtain against the glare of the sun.

I don't know if it's because I'm finally clearing a nasty cold virus (not Covid) or that I've had a couple of decent night's sleep but my mood is a lot better today. Instead of pining over the fact that we aren't in Borth I'd like to focus on being more positive. I hope to use this time to either prepare for the move by sorting and packing stuff up or to do jobs that I would need to do where ever we are and to keep up with my music. Maybe even learn a few phrases in Welsh. At the moment I can say Thank You, What?, Slow (painted on roads), Police (painted on police cars) and not a lot more. There are videos on line but the Welsh spoken in north Wales is different to that spoken in the south and we're right in the middle. I'll have to get Peter to help me out as he's been coached by his contacts in Borth.

As well as staring at photos of the front garden as we left it and in its heyday I've worked in the garden here. I cut one branch of the big buddleia to reveal more of the hydrangeas from the sitting room while still keeping privacy from the public path. The holly bush had a further trim and the blob bush by the front door had a quick snip with the garden scissors. I feel sorry for that bush in that every time it attempts to grow it gets cut back. Later the sun tempted me out to scrape the old mortar from another of the paving slabs in the back garden.

My main job of the day was to write up my journal notes for this Spring. Those notes began with life going on as normal and then Covid hit, changing all our lives. Let's pray that when I come to write up the notes for summer the threat will have passed and we will be happily ensconced in Borth. But more importantly that friends and family will have escaped the worst consequences of this terrible pandemic. 

PS. Speedy is fine with the new cushion cover.

Cold.

I don't like this summer weather, cold, wet and grey. (Today's photos are from yesterday.)

I changed my plans several times this morning. Initially I'd intended to go shopping but seeing the rain lashed windows thought it might be better to stay warm and cosy at home. But then, this is Devon and despite the weeks of hot weather I do own a coat and with no excuses of feeling unwell I decided I might as well go out and get the shopping done. There was a nasty chill wind and some rain but at Lidl's I was able to walk straight in. I was very restrained and didn't buy any chocolate at all nor did I sneak any treats into my trolley apart from ...... oh dear - some ice cream. In Tesco's two reduced croissants slid my way, but they're not pastries, not really. However I did come across jars of plum butter, like thick jam, in the Polish section. They don't often have it and it was on special offer so I bought 4 jars. It tasted very nice on a warm croissant.

Still very few people wearing face coverings though most shoppers are good about giving each other space. Locally we can see many visitors calling in at houses even today when without doubt the visit isn't going to take place out in a garden.

Windy.

A very windy day. A perfect day for going out for a walk (no such luck) with plenty of sunshine interspersed with grey moments and the odd brief spot of rain.

This morning I had to go up to the hospital for my two week heart monitor. As it was looking a bit grey at the time I took up Peter's offer of a lift to the hospital. There I was fitted with a smaller monitor than the one week one. Only two electrodes instead of four and rather surprisingly the unit will only record ten events. For two weeks? Admittedly with the medication changes  I'm not getting anything like as many or as severe symptoms. If I get to ten events I have to ring up the hospital to make an appointment where they will check the readings and either re-set the unit or stop the monitoring. There was a lot of obvious distancing at the hospital and I was given a surgical mask to wear while in the hospital. I didn't spend long in the hospital and was soon out marching down the hill to the High Street. I rescued my final box of tablets from Boots, phew but when I tried to hand over some unwanted tablets for disposal I was told that I'd have to wait while somebody gowned and masked up first. I'm sorry to say I took the tablets home and threw them in the bin. 

The traffic seems to have returned to pre-lockdown levels and apart from at the hospital I counted only seven people wearing face masks in and around the shops. Even though the scientists all recommend wearing face masks/coverings when out in public the govt. is only going to make it a requirement for people using public transport. Our next General Election is not for four years when no doubt the Conservatives will continue to claim a 'great victory' over Covid despite the fact that currently the UK death toll is the second highest in the world and greater than the whole of the EU which has four times as many people. That's not per million but overall!  Are they hoping we'll all forget the catalogue of mistakes and delays that have led to so many deaths?

Back home after checking up in the loft that I have indeed given away all our spare pillow cases including a couple of brown ones, I unpicked a couple of cushion covers and quickly ran up a cover for Speedy's pillow. The fabric is a bit slippery so I don't know if he'll be comfortable on it. Once the charity shops are  open I might have to buy a pillow case anyway.

Grey.

Cooler today and although it looked as if it might rain at any moment it's been dry and windy.

After a surprisingly refreshing sleep I woke at 4.30 in time to see an enormous red moon dropping down below the horizon. The photo above was taken with the camera sitting on a box of tissues and the exposure set on auto. I then switched over to manual settings and happened to hit upon a setting that gave a truer sky colour though it failed to pick up the redness of the moon. 

Before I went back to bed and to sleep I spent some time on my PC. As well as watching the usual FB videos of kittens I bought a metal mail box to go on the wall by the new front door in Borth. I went for the cheapest on eBay as eventually there will be a letter box slot either in the porch wall or the outer door. 

I also did some bird watching, Mr Crow was strutting around cleaning up the grass and just before I took the photo below the two jackdaws had had a squawking fight on a roof  with two seagulls over  some food.

Later the morning light lit up the fields as clouds loomed over the sea.

For the last couple of days my super sensitive nose has been detecting mould in my study. First I checked everything on the windowsill - under Speedy's towel and behind the plant box, but nothing. Then I looked behind everything leaning up against the outer wall but again nothing. Nothing too behind the big mirror or behind my PC. I took the plant box out anyway but the smell persisted. I had got to the point of planning to move everything from my metal filing cabinet to check behind it when at last the source of the unwanted smell was revealed. A pair of very grey and mouldy apricots. They'd been a bit too sour to eat when I'd brought them upstairs and I'd put them aside to ripen. They'd gone well past that stage and went straight into the outside bin. That'll teach me to keep my study tidy.

Today I ordered some more flooring samples. My first instalment of three samples arrived a couple of days ago. Two we ruled out straight away and one was a maybe. We're going for laminate flooring as engineered real wood is prohibitably expensive. Even the laminate flooring isn't cheap, £30+ per square meter for guarenteed waterproof and thicker kinds while the wood is at least double that. There are cheaper laminates around but we want something that will last.

Wet.

Two days of sun and now we're back to our usual British summer weather, grey and wet. It still feels pretty warm but I can see at least one set of neighbours have put their heating on.

Speedy has spent most of the day sleeping in his new bed while I've been working on my St Ives photobook.

There didn't seem to be much difference in the price of photo books from the main companies so I went to one I had used before. Sorted through my photos again and then uploaded 104 photos onto the site's editor only to have the whole site freeze. So I began the whole process again with another company that I've also used before. I've kept the text to a minimum, just a few captions to aid the memory process in the distant future. Right now it's all done but I'll have a final read/look through before placing my order. St Ives may be overrun with tourists, well not right now, but it has a special place in my heart.

In between the light rain showers the blackbird sang out his happy song sitting on a garden fence post. Last night I was watching out of the bedroom window, always hoping to see a fox or something, when a large bat flew into view hunting insects drawn to the light of the streetlight at the bottom of the garden. (For some reason that light doesn't switch off until quarter to two.) The bat was bigger than the little pipistrelles we had at Dingles but I didn't get a long enough sighting to make a guess at which of the other seven common species it was.

Hot.

Still very hot with a constant cooling breeze. Looking at the shower of rose petals I wonder if it was worth cleaning them up yesterday. 

I've decided to try and take things easy at least until Friday. Hopefully then I'll be able to begin exercising while I've got the heart monitor on. Today I went through my photos for a St Ives photo book but then I thought it would be worth looking round for any offers on photo books. They're a bit crafty really as you don't find out the final price until after you've gone through the whole process. I suppose they are counting on people not wanting to have to do that several times to find the best deal. I've found one site which is supposed to tell you about any special offers. With Fathers' Day, a purely commercial invention, coming up there should be more offers around. 

I did spend a little time scraping off old cement/mortar from one of the paving slabs in the back garden using a heavy metal file which was something I could do sitting down. I cleaned off most of the slabs the first summer we were here but then other jobs needed doing. I much prefer to be 'doing' something when I'm outside rather than just sitting and reading. 

Hot.

The first day of summer has been suitably hot. Hardly any clouds in the sky but the welcome breeze gave respite from the searing sun which according to my thermometer got the temperature up to 110F/43C.

Not a lot of progress with Red Roofs. Peter rang round but there's still no plaster and my attempts to order the kitchen tap came to naught again. However ....... I had a phone call from the hospital today asking me to go up on Friday to be fitted with the heart monitor. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things don't close down again before Friday.  The one positive spin I've been putting on the delay to our move is that it's given me time to get closer to a diagnosis and treatment of my heart flutters.

Having given myself a rest day yesterday I foolishly overdid things today. Peter did the hoovering which today was the downstairs but then I realised that instead of sweeping/picking up the fallen rose petals on the decking it would be easier to use the hoover which is what I did. While I was doing that I had a conversation with my neighbour. This is not the neighbour who lives with her family on one side but the retired police lady who lives on the other. Conversations with her are a bit odd because although the solid garden walls/fences are about 5'6" high her garden is a good 4-5ft lower. So we converse without being able to see each other. Today she asked if I was hoovering and when I explained that I was she was most amused. Once I'd finished and emptied the reusable canvas hoover bag (and brushed off the cat hairs inside) I decided to wash the bag. This I did in a bucket outside giving it a good scrub with an old brush and leaving it  on the line to dry in the hot sun. It would be less bother to use disposable bags but it's better for the planet and my pocket to have a reusable bag.

Then I gave the holly bush a very good trim. Not only to save anyone with bare legs, ie. me, from walking past and  getting scratched but to keep the bush in a decent shape when we leave here for Borth. After being out in the very hot sun and getting dusty emptying out the hoover bag it was time for a refreshing shower. We did spend time sitting out together in the back garden at the end of the afternoon.

Yesterday I had a phone chat with an elderly friend from our days at the farm. Things are so different for people shielding, which she is,  out in the countryside. Her son who is also shielding is with her but the only other people she has seen or exchanged a word with face-to-face are the delivery men and a neighbour out walking his dog- once. That's in 10 weeks. A far cry from here where there are always people around to say hello to or have a conversation. The families are out at the moment and one of the smallest ones has fallen over and is wailing.

The scientists are saying it's too early for easing the lockdown, the test, track and isolate app isn't up and running yet and the R number is still too close to 1. Oh dear.