Cold.

Grey, windy and cold today.

This morning I had a phone appointment with my doctor. I'd been hoping that she'd tell me to rest properly for a week or two; feet up,  no housework that sort of thing but unfortunately not. The latest set of aches and pains are most likely here to stay and I'll have to adjust my exercise routine  and tablets accordingly. I think long walks along the beach will become part of my days once we move as well as continuing to work on flexibility and increasing muscles. (Only to counteract the decrepitude of age.) Today I've gone back to my exercise routine while trying to work out which ones affect my ribs the least. Speedy assisted by giving me a stomach massage as I lay on my back.

Other jobs today included washing down the wheelie bin after the bin men had been. With the possible increase of infection in the area it is even more important to take care of any possible vectors. When you think that the bin men handle bins from every property in the district which would include from homes with sick or asymptomatic people it seems sensible to take precautions. Better to be too cautious than not enough. Already on the national news several pubs have had to close and trace all their customers after individual customers tested positive for covid. And that's only after three days.

I also put some photos on a pen drive for a printing session at Tesco's and did a few other small admin jobs.

No go with the last set of house viewers. They've settled on a cheaper house not in this area. Oh well.

Sunny at Times.

A mix of grey skies and bright sunshine today.

Peter had to go into town today so I grabbed a lift with him and then made my own way home. We parked by the river from where there were good views of the 'new' bridge (above) and the old Long Bridge (below). 

I think this will be my last trip to the High Street unless I have to go to the bank as I'm sure that the infection risk is going up with the influx of visitors. (Visitors is the local term for tourists.) Today I called in at Wilko's which has become my favourite shop to visit during the lockdown. They generally have some reductions and because their supply chain has problems you can see something one week and the next the shelf is empty. This adds an element of surprise as to what you will find in there. I had planned to buy two small rectangular cushions, perfect for supporting the lower back, that I saw last week but they've vanished. Instead I saw they had an offer on seat pads which were black, red or cream. I looked at them, thought the colours weren't quite right and walked on. Then I realised that I would be making removable covers anyway and as I expect we will be spending time sitting at the dining table looking out of the window at the view seat cushions would be very useful as our dining table chairs have wooden seats. I worked my way back to where I'd seen the cushions, decided on black and found only two black cushions left in the large display, had somebody bought the rest? Only then did I see there was another display box which was the one I'd been looking at first. I was faced with the problem of lugging around four cushions and later a red cabbage and carrots that Peter had asked me to buy but it was worth it. I also found some smaller bargains in Wilko's; pens, toothbrushes and a silver velvet covered notebook. I popped into Primark for a quick look and bought some t-shirts for Peter and a work out vest for me, black of course. I've already altered it by taking it in under the armpits. Buying the largest size has given me a loose top that's nice and long too.

When I got home I found Peter determined to cut the grass. He cut half of the communal grass as the council hasn't turned up to cut it as they should. Before I mowed our lawn I cut a wavy path through the long grass of the top corner. I thought the kids might find it fun even though there are tyre tracks from one of the neighbours having to reverse up onto the grass as he was blocked in on the hard stand. It was quite hard work cutting our little lawn as the hydrangeas are sprawling out over the grass and it would be a shame to damage the blooms.

Windy.

After a grey start the day brightened right up.  It's been very windy making it too good a drying day to miss so into the machine went some washing. I made to sure to double peg everything to stop it flying off across the neighbours' gardens.

Today seems mainly to have been about cleaning. Yesterday when I was baking the cookies I noticed that the glass oven door needed cleaning. When I lifted it off today I saw that it was very greasy. Yuck. I don't like using strong chemicals preferring elbow grease and a Brillo pad for oven cleaning. Glass made sparkling I moved on to the shelves. Spurred on by my progress I pulled the fixings from the sides of the oven and finally turned to the oven walls themselves. I was doing well until I peered into the back and then examined the roof which is covered with charred on grease. I gave it a few wipes but have come to the conclusion that before we move I may well turn to one of those oven cleaner sprays. There's no requirement to leave a spotless cooker, or even any cooker at all but that's the way I am.

Even though we couldn't go out today we had a pleasant spell sitting outside without any intrusive radios playing. Instead it was possible to imagine we were by the sea, the sun was hot on our arms, the wind roaring through the trees sounded like waves and every now and again there was the chink of ropes on an aluminium flagpole in the big house behind us which sounded like ropes on a boat's mast.

I moved the agapanthus even closer to the wall to protect the one flower. I thought this was a pot of blue agapanthus but now I'm thinking it might be a white one. I bought both varieties when we were on the Isles of Scilly but eventually the slugs at Dingles destroyed one. Agapanthus do well by the sea so I'm hoping to grow them in Wales. Will just have to make sure they're in a sheltered spot.

Grey.

A grey day with frequent showers.

We've got the tidying up routine well organised so there wasn't much to do for this afternoon's viewing. Being a second viewing we let the couple wander round by themselves while I waited in the kitchen with an impatient Speedy who thought it must be supper time. (It wasn't.) Peter didn't get to sit in the car as he was stuck with some important phone calls which had taken longer than he thought. It must be a good sign when prospective buyers come back for a second viewing. When they left they asked for directions for the quickest way to Manning's Pit and went off to have a look. They both work for the local Dogs' Trust and I think they have dogs. Manning's Pit is ideal for dog walking and it is literally only a few minutes away. Fingers crossed.

Earlier in the afternoon I occupied myself by removing fibres and other random items from the black fleece I washed the other day. The side that had been sat on for a long time is very matted and also had fluff from Peter's fleece tops which being twined into the long fleece needed picking out with a pair of tweezers. I got it all done and now the fleece needs plenty of brushing on that side. There is something satisfying in restoring an item almost back to its original state. Oh, and I baked some cookies. The box was almost empty and having the smell of baking in the air couldn't hurt.

After all the hype about 'Super Saturday' there don't seem to be any reports of chaos at pubs so far. Much more worrying are reports of heavy traffic on the south-bound motorway and service stations crammed full of caravans and motorhomes waiting to head down to campsites and holiday parks. That's bad news as far as covid is concerned. Give it a couple of weeks and the number of cases is bound to rise. Then things will be even more chaotic if like Leicester we get hit with a local lockdown.

Rainy Evening.

It stayed dry up until the end of the afternoon when in came heavy rain.

The local handyman arrived soon after nine to begin taking down the ivy. He kept muttering that 'he wasn't a gardener' so my plan to stay out and assist was probably for the best. As I said to my neighbour whose fence and ivy it is I'm always happy to be doing something outside so long as it's not bending or stretching too much. After taking a break to sit and watch I decided to have one last go at removing the ivy around a tall flowering stem of fuchsia. You can guess what happened. I promptly sniped through the stem of the fuchsia resulting in an un-lady-like utterance. Work came to a halt at mid-day and a fairly good job of clearing up was done. Later on I did some more gentle tidying including picking up rose petals. 

It was getting windy so I had to push the acers back and rope them to the fence for the time being. When all the ivy is removed I'll paint the bits of wall that had been covered by the ivy. While I was in the garden we got a phone call booking a second viewing by the couple that came on Monday, for tomorrow. Yay!

Here's the blackbirds' nest where it was tucked between the fences.

I don't know if this link will work for everybody as it's a FB link but in this BBC Wales video. our new home can be seen at 0.23 right next to the blue house. Nice to know that it's considered special enough to be in a promotional video.

In England the pubs open tomorrow along with restaurants and hairdressers. I foresee a mad rush to once again enjoy a staple of British life. However you will have to stay at your table, at a safe distance, and not interact with people at other tables (shouting spreads more droplets). Doesn't sound like much fun and is that really going to happen?

Cloudy.

I very nearly made it out to the beach today but alas through my own indecision we didn't go. Peter noted my grumbling and mumbling yesterday and suggested that we headed out for a stroll along Barricane beach. Yippee! I thought but then as black clouds began rolling in along with a forecast of rain I said maybe it would be better if I went and did the shopping and we went to the beach tomorrow. Guess what? Along with the black clouds came hot sun which would have been quite pleasant at the beach and now we have to be in tomorrow morning for next-door's handyman to come in and strip off the ivy which is pulling her fence down. I'll be watching him like a hawk as even the window/fascia cleaner trod on the edges of some ornamental grasses breaking the roots so now they won't stand up.

Self-seeded nasturtiums and cosmos are making a pretty display. 

My neighbour had waited until I declared the blackbirds' nest unoccupied before tackling the ivy and now I think we may have had a wrens' nest in there too. As I was about to go out to take some photos I saw a wren flit from the rose bush (they like the aphids) to the rhododendron and then up to the back fence. The yellow on its beak  identified it as a fledgling and there was one or even two more. They look big enough  to survive without a nest so I shan't call a halt to tomorrow's work.

I didn't find any bargains out shopping today but I did get myself another hat. I like hats and I'm convinced the sun will give me a headache if I'm out too long without something on my head. The usual one-size hats don't fit me so when I come across a L/XL hat, even if it's a man's hat, I try it on. This one fitted nicely and unlike my other hats it can be folded up for packing. As can be seen I'm already experimenting with a different hat band to make it look a bit more stylish. While I turn my nose up at expensive fashion I do like to alter things to fit my own tastes.  So I guess I'm just as vain as everybody else.

I was back doing some experimental cookery this evening. I planned to make some apple pancakes, nothing unusual there, but then in the spirit of using up what's in the fridge I added cottage cheese, a whole tub. That made a large amount of batter, enough for a family so I guess I'll be seeing how good they taste tomorrow as well. With the cheese in they were very soft and took longer to fry. The taste was fine but not so amazing that I'll do them again. Then of course there was the amount of time it took to clean up. I have an issue with grease so everything needed to be cleaned up straight away. That's utensils, plates, frying pan, lid and cooker all needing to be wiped down with paper towels before being washed with soapy water. So much easier to take an ice-cream out of the freezer and throw the wrapper in the bin. I'm definitely not a natural chef.

I'm Bored.

Grey and a bit wet to start with, standard July weather.

Having decided to hold off on the exercises for a while (again) I am feeling decidedly bored. I had a letter to post so I headed off to a different post box to the one I usually use and aimed for a circular walk going past Bradiford. Not very far but a bit of a change at least. The first object of interest was the Longstone which is down in the records as being 'possibly prehistoric perhaps with a commemorative purpose'. It has been moved a couple of times from nearby gardens and now sits between two roads.

The older houses in Pilton are of the grander sort while down in Bradiford they are charming cottages. My stroll took me past the pub which is proudly announcing it is opening on Saturday along with pubs throughout the country but no food will be served.

Coming up along the back of the estate some ewes and their fat lambs posed nicely for photos. 

Peter tells me that the plastering is under way and it looks like they might even be starting work on the roofs. At last! 

Couldn't bear sitting inside any longer now that the sun has appeared again, even if only fleetingly, so I've been out and trimmed the blob bush again.