Sunny.

Another sunny day with the afternoon temperature going up to 17C/65F so I wasn't too surprised to see my neighbour doing her ironing in her front garden to catch the afternoon warmth. I had washing out today but I did my ironing in the sitting room with the tv on.

I began my day by taking two bags of garden rubbish to the dump and then calling in at Tesco's for some shopping. I'm a fan of the self-scan system as all you need to do at the end is pay. 

I finally got around to planting the various seeds I'd bought. I usually think about seed planting far too late in the year but for once I'm on time. I didn't put any labels in the trays as I'm sure I can distinguish between sunflower, nasturtium, cosmos and thunbergia seedlings. I was wondering how to keep the cats off the trays when I realised that a clear storage box would be ideal.

Sunny.

Happy Valentine's Day.

As I'm running out of space to put orchids, this year Peter bought me a dozen red roses as well as Lindor chocolates and  some fancy profiteroles for dessert so today has been very indulgent. (I had told Peter I wouldn't be dieting today.) We've never bothered with going out for a special meal on such occasions preferring to relax at home.

Today has been bright and sunny with temperatures set to climb into the mid-teens (55-60F) in the next few days. There was a little breeze making good drying weather for the two loads of washing I put out on the line. Today's gardening job was to tidy the front garden. It was time to cut back the dry stems of the yellow loosestrife but I left about six inches to deter cats. At the same time I removed any weeds, mainly chickweed and tidied up the lawn edges. After mowing yesterday guess who turned up this morning? Yup, the council men with their big mower that leaves the grass cuttings. At least the size of the front garden means a manageable amount of work. 

Patch decided to come out and sit in the sun. Later we had lovely golden light before the sun went down.

First Mowing.

It's been a lovely sunny day warm enough for me to spend some time reading outside in the afternoon while washing dried on the line. Yesterday I saw on FB that somebody locally was giving away some ornamental grasses that she had dug up. I walked round with my shopping trolley and accepted a medium sized clump. Once I got home I realised that it wasn't a grass but a carex, an easy mistake to make. I haven't decided yet if I'll keep it or not.

The fat buds of a white magnolia tree.

Back home I decided to give the lawn and the communal grass their first trim. After mowing, I did my best to level the lawn by shuffling up and down squashing any bumps with my big wellies. (I always mow in steel toecap wellies.) Then I set to work with my hand moss rake to clear some of the patches of moss. That left parts of the lawn looking very straggly but although the moss looks okay when conditions are wet if we were to have another hot summer the lawn would be full of yellow patches.  

It doesn't show too well in the photo but the celandine flowers shine brightly in the sun like little lights. I'm so glad I left them to grow. Their flowers will be over by the time the hardy geraniums  remerge and fill the flowerbed with clumps of white, purple or pink flowers.

A very different sunset tonight with muted pastel tones which turned dark pink for a short time before the sun dissapeared. Right now I'm doing a singing warm-up before trying to learn the words of 'When the snows of winter fall.' for choir. Peter is staying at home because he's having an arthritis flare up which has left his knee swollen and painful. Apart the recent cold weather he puts it down to not be able to exercise after his cataract operation.

Grey.

An overcast but dry day. I drove across town to do some shopping and get some garden supplies. Speedy's feet still have raw patches which I'm sure are from scrambling up the rough concrete of the garden wall. I got some pet antiseptic to prevent infection and will keep him in for the week. It's not worth putting the cone back on him at the moment because I've seen him contorting himself so that he can lick the underside of his feet. I've also bought two pieces of trellis which I'll fix to the wall to give him an easier way up. While I was in BJ's and then B&Q I bought some seeds for the summer garden. Last autumn I noticed that the begonias in my neighbour's hanging baskets lasted better than my surfinias so I thought I'd try them this year. I've decided to go with oranges and yellows, to compliment the orange brick walls, for the hanging basket, wall planter and the tubs that had tomatoes in last year. Although they were fun it was a lot of work for an average amount of tomatoes. Instead I've got some trailing nasturtiums and I found some tall cosmos also in oranges and yellows and some cream and orange thunbergia (Black eyed Susan). I also got some tall sunflower seeds to plant by the unused poles that had the birdfeeders on. Now all I have to do is to start planting.

It was a hard session at Pilates tonight but as it's half-term next week there'll be no session next week.

Sunny.

I walked into town this morning and took a few photos along the way. The day was bright and not too cold. I even saw one man wearing shorts and t-shirt. Later on as the sun began to go down the air turned golden and for a short time we were treated to a gold and orange sunset. 

In town I had a parcel to post and a few things to get in the shops. I also got Peter another pair of cargo trousers as the ones he is currently wearing have repairs on repairs.  

Our mundane High Street was enlivened by a couple of buskers including the lady who plays her saxophone to an amplified backing track. I'm sure I'm not the only person who ends up walking along in time to the street music. 

Back home I first phoned the estate agent to find out about the construction of 2 houses, both were of standard construction but one is now sold. Then Peter and I went through my list, found one house within the flooding risk zone, eliminated a couple of others and have just three left to view. Peter doesn't want to head out on a long trip until he's finished the antibiotic eye drops so we're not rushing off this week. Maybe I can find another couple of houses to look at by the time we head off. 

Windy.

A very windy day with sudden heavy showers including a bit of hail. I took a chance and washed the very large fluffy fleece throw that covers the sofa. The wind did a good job of drying the fleece and even though it was a little cold, 'cos naturally I was in shorts, I found brushing up the pile while the throw was on the line worked well and I was able to take it indoors when rain threatened. In the past I've brushed it indoors which not only took a long time but left white fluff all over the sitting room. Now it looks as if there's been a light sprinkling of snow in the back garden.

This morning I gave myself the task of going through yesterday's pick of possible houses and on reflection they're not too bad. Now there are 7 post-its up on the map, 3 are possibles and 4 are maybes. I need to speak to the estate agents tomorrow about two of them to check if they are of standard construction or if the outer walls are made from concrete panels. This was a system used after the war to build houses quickly but mortgage lenders won't touch them as the concrete can deteriorate and they lose heat quickly. The solution is to knock down and rebuild or build outer walls of block or brick. Not something we want to do. I found a handy map produced by the environment agency which shows the risk of flooding either by the sea or rain and both of the houses we were worried about are outside of the at risk areas.

Stormy.

Lots of rain and wind today. After yesterday's initial excitement at finding some possible houses to look at the house search has hit a low. Not only have I failed to find anything that I would class as a maybe possible but when I revisited yesterday's prospects I found that 2 of the possibles and 2 of the maybe possibles although within 10 miles of Aberystwyth as the crow flies by road the distance is 30 miles. Too far for a medical emergency for us so those houses were removed from the list. Of the remaining 2 the one my heart would like, the garden backs on to the sand dunes and then the beach, is maybe not the sensible choice. Location is of paramount importance and we're prepared to rearrange room layout but it was hard to see past the clutter (below) in every room including the bathroom. When the owners of this house move they'll have an awful lot of packing to do.

This afternoon Peter and I played scrabble which lasted for hours as we're very competitive and now following more fruitless house searching I'm blogging at ten to twelve.