Zoo Day.

The weather has been a mix of everything today, from cool showers to blazing sun.

I had a very early start this morning, up and about by 5.00. Morning jobs done early including washing the windows after the seagulls had left their calling cards. I frequently wake between 4.00 and 5.00 but I may go back to sleep after I've taken my morning meds unless ..... it's bright and sunny and I'm full of energy, or ..... one or other of my aches makes sleep impossible, or ...... we're expecting builders early though they often don't arrive until 9.00 if at all. Today was mainly because I don't like being in a rush if I'm going out and of course today was zoo day. I did wonder if the rain would put a halt to my weeding and indeed when I began I wore both fleece and a light rain jacket but then the sun came out bringing lots of heat.

Today I completed the weeding of the flower bed I've been working for the last few weeks. One of the other regulars had cleared away the top growth of the weeds on that side and I just grubbed about digging out all the roots left in the soil. I thought that we need to plant up area quickly before the weeds return and as this is a space which needs something quick growing (and cheap) my suggestion of mint was thought to be suitable. Better still the person I put this to has mint growing in her garden and will bring some in next week for me to plant. I'm also thinking about montbretia of which I have plenty though I'll have to check it's not toxic to animals or especially the birds which wander around.

I moved on to weeding under some of the other shrubs around the place though I had to be careful as I kept unearthing red ants' nests. I've still got a mark from last week's bite.

The zoo is getting quieter and quieter each week. The vet's visit led to the zoo being denied a dangerous animals license (possibly influenced by negative local officials) and now all the primates have gone including I fear the marmosets who were tame enough for the public to have 'meet the animals' encounters with them where they were taken into the pen and fed the marmosets by hand. It looks as if all that will be left will be the domestic animals and a limited number of rescued 'wild' animals.

Once I got back home I threw my work clothes in the washing machine but by the time the washing was done it looked as if it would rain so I didn't put it out on the line until much later so now it's finishing off on the ceiling airer in the utility room.                                                                                    I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the sitting room curtains. I machined the hem on the first curtain and then my attention turned to the outer curtain. The natural wool blanket is a cream colour and when the light shines through the two curtains my pristine white curtains have a golden glow. I thought that if I lined the blanket curtain with heavy white cotton sheeting it might reduce the clour which it has done though not as much as I had hoped. But on the up side once the curtains are drawn it looks a lot better from the outside to see white cotton rather than a cream blanket. 

I was surprised to find that one of my orchids bought reduced at Tesco's nearly 2 years ago because it had finished flowering had suddenly put out all these flowers.

I'm blogging later than usual because Peter is watching the England vs Denmark game. At least the Danes don't cheat like the the Italians (pretending they have been fouled and lying on the floor wailing in agony until the ref ignores them when they get up and join in once more.)  

 

Grey.

Very grey and wild today with some rain.

I was woken this morning by Peter telling me the builder was here. Hmm, what did he expect me to do? Anyway, it was the lad come to finish off the drain pipe fitting the rainwater diverter to the water butt. It's a good thing I planned for the water butt to go there as the drain below is only a soakaway. There is a proper drain further back along the building but the down pipe to it hasn't been replaced. (Peter says that's okay.)

The lad also put up a board across the gap to give us some privacy.

While all that was going on I loaded up 9 bags of hedge trimmings into the car and took them down to the dump. I didn't have to wait at all but that was the best part of a long shopping trip. Next stop was Screwfix who not only didn't have the step-up but were unable to order one for some reason. Neither did they have black or white rainwater diverter kits which they have ordered for me and last of all no jubilee clips in the size I wanted. Then to Morrisons where a search of the garden centre yielded another unusual clematis with yellow lantern type flowers. They really do have a good selection of plants for a supermarket. 

Next I headed back into town stopping in the car park by Matalan. I was going to get another towel for the kitchen but they didn't have the size I wanted in the right colour. Into Home Stores which didn't have the particular plasters I wanted or any paper lantern light shades. I can get all these things on-line but I think it's important to try to keep the local shops viable. It would help if they had the goods I want. Then in town I went back to the shoe shop and ordered a pair of Wider Fit walking boots. I'd gone through the catalogue before consigning it to the recycling bin and discovered that the walking boots come in continental sizes and may well do. We'll see. The last item I looked for was a wetsuit for Peter's birthday present as his old one is so old it's falling apart. You'd think that being a coastal area it wouldn't be hard to find a wetsuit but it seems there's a global shortage. Even the Saltrock shop didn't have any at all and they make their own brand wetsuits in Devon. Luckily the assisatant in Saltrock told me of another shop in a tucked away street that had wetsuits. There I had the grand choice of one wetsuit in the right size and it was rather expensive. I bought it anyway with the assurance that should it not fit or the chest zip prove too awkward once Peter tries it on after his stitches have healed I can bring it back.

I was feeling quite worn out by the time I got home so all I did was watch tv with a cup of coffee. Thankfully there's still some hearty soup for supper and I bought some wholemeal muffins which will go well with it.

 

Cloudy.

Cooler today but so far only one shower.

Washed some towels first thing, hung them out to dry then brought them back in nearly dry when it rained.

For most of the day I carried on cutting the hedge. The lowest section and the change of level are now done and I've cut a line at the front of the higher section. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to tidy up the high section using the electric hedge trimmer once I've bought a 'step-up' (builders' platform on legs) which I intend to buy tomorrow. While it doesn't look too bad from the street side from our side it looks as if something has bitten a great chunk out of the hedge. It should look better after I've trimmed the shaggy top.

The hydrangea at the far end of the lower section will be shaped in the autumn and I may well take some of the high section lower in the autumn when we won't be out on the terrace so much and the passing walkers have gone home. At the moment if you stand at the far end of the lower section and peer over the hedge you can see into our dinning area and a bit of the terrace but once that's grown up 6 inches people shouldn't be able to see up to the house.

After a rest I had a sort out of light shades for the bulbs that were still hanging bare. I'm fond of plain white spherical paper lanterns and much as I look don't find anything in the shops to tempt me away from them. Yesterday I washed an old painted glass shade that we had hanging over the stairs in Dingles but when I put it up in the utility room it didn't look right. Today I replaced a small lantern from the front hall with an extra large one so that the small one could go on the second light in the inner hall. Now all I need to get are two more shades for the utility room and my study.

 'Our' bit of cliff.

Grey.

A little bit cooler today but still very cloudy with freqent showers.

After putting on a pot of hearty soup to cook it was back into my gardening clothes to carry on with the hedge trimming hacking. I left the hydrangea to be cut back later in the year and tackled the escallonia which makes up a good part of the hedge. Allowing some room for growth I took off about 2ft which will make future maintenance a lot easier. Easier as it might be to have the hedge hacked down doing it my way I can cut the thicker stems back even shorter so that I can just run the electric hedge trimmer over the new growth each year.  

For fun I looked back at past photos.

Above - 2019 after several trips up from Devon and much chopping and filling of skips. At that point I don't think we even knew there was a wall across the garden.

One year later we'd moved in and the hedge was still wild.

 

Muggy.

Very warm and muggy today with frequent light showers and then heavy rain towards the end of the afternoon. 

I spent most of the day working outside snipping away at the hedge. I was able to watch the showers approaching from the left (above) sometimes popping back indoors until the rain stopped and sometimes just carrying on. I finished the section by the terrace and began at the other end taking it as low as I can. The neighbour who lives in the cream house came out for a chat and to offer his services in cutting the hedge and maintaining the cliff top. It turns out that each house owns the land above the cliff which is why we have to maintain it. (The public have the right to walk on it but not to drive or park on it.) Our neighbour had an arrangement with the previous owner to cut the grass and maintain the wooden marker posts for a nominal sum and as the last contract runs out this August I was happy to continue having him carry on. He also repeated his offer to cut the hedge at any height I want with his tractor and hedge flail. Far too drastic a solution for the moment so I haven't taken him up on that. Maybe when I get too old to be climbing the step ladder I might have him cut the hedge down to the level of the wall.

Looking over the garden I caught sight of Speedy out on the cliff hunting the creatures that live in the long grass.

Last night it didn't look as if we were going to have a decent sunset then suddenly the sky turned pink and gold.

It's so hard to capture the colours, above is too light and below is too yellow.

The last photo is nearest to the true clolours but neither of the cameras I used picked up the blazing red of the sun itself.

 

Partly Sunny.

Alternating hot sunny spells and cooler cloudy moments today.

I made an early start and was in town just after 10.00 hoping to beat the queues at Lidl, which I did though as I left the shop people were already having to wait outside. My main reason for going into town was to visit a shoe shop that I'd found which stocks Wider Fit shoes in the hope that I could find out exactly which size my feet are. That way I could order from their catalogue even if the shop didn't have anything I liked. Unfortunately my feet are not only very wide but they are a half size which Wider Fit don't do. The shop lady tried very hard to find shoes to fit me but with no success. However when I jokingly mentioned that maybe I would have to save up and get made to measure shoes she said there is a bespoke shoe maker in Machynlleth. Here is the website but .... big gulp, it would cost around £700 for a pair of short lace up boots. Let's see how long I can manage with flip-flops and crocs. Incidentally I saw a pair of Crocs in the Oxfam shop and they were priced at £20. For second hand plastic shoes!

One thing I did buy in another charity shop was this glass light shade for the toilet. There was another one which was exactly what I'd been thinking of, a bit bigger with frosted glass in a tulip shape. But the glass was very thick and extremly heavy and I thought it would drag on the wires. This one will do, it has a bit of a Victorian vibe to go with the patterned floor tiles and roll top wall tiles and at £1 it won't be a loss if I find something I like better.

Back home I levelled up the end hedge and began trimming down the hedge that runs down the side of the garden. Using my string method to get a line I found that the section I was working on could come down even further than I had cut it last year so there were some thick branches to cut through. While I worked I began thinking about the height of the hedge and I may have found a way of reducing some of the hedge without compromising our privacy. I'll start at the far end and go down bit by bit until I find the right level.

Hooray, I have one lacecap hydrangea.

A bigger hooray, another dolphin was having some fun leaping out of the water and splashing exuberantly.

Finally, I was talking to Peter about the local helicopter and in my search to find which garden it lands in I found this video from 2016.

Overcast.

A grey day today. It looked as if it would rain at any moment but hasn't so far.

Thinking that I'd take advantage of the dry weather while I could I headed out into the front garden to give the hedge at the end a bit more of a trim. Instead of just going by eye or holding up a long metal rod I pegged a string along the top of the hedge to get a straight line. That made things so much easier and I got what I thought was a neat top line. That's apart from the bump on the left which is ..... something different. Any ideas anyone? My current guesses are laburnunm, wisteria or willow. It's deciduous growing out of some very thick twisty stems, not quite wisteria if I remember correctly (quick blast of bad feeling at the buyers of Dingles who chopped down the 25 year old wisteria). Maybe its identity will become clearer as the summer progresses. While I was outside I saw a dark helicopter taking off from the village which I believe is the one owned by a London consultant (medical) who has a holiday home in the village.

Despite doing a tidy job I wasn't that happy with the hedge, that's not to do with the distinct slope in the top line which I only noticed when I looked at the photo, but because ...... and it took me a while to work out, a squared off hedge is too urban for me. Or maybe even too suburban. But the hedge protects our privacy and on the other side is a semi-wild garden much more to my taste. Can't bear that slope so hedge straightening tomorrow if the weather holds.

In the afternoon I made some bread rolls from a bag of pre-mixed flour that I'd bought for Peter when he expressed a desire to try making bread. It had been sitting in the cupboard for a while so I thought I'd give it a go.

 Peter just called me saying there were two dolphins playing by the rocks.

Lots of jumping out of the water 

and splashing.

    

The rowing club boat had just entered the water so they had to wait until the dolphins moved further into the bay before they could row out into deeper water.

For some reason I can't change the size of the photos. Not sure if it's me, Blogger or our broadband. 4 hours later and it works.