Thursday

Good morning, everyone.  After a simply disgusting day yesterday, today has dawned bright and sunny.  What a change.  It rained almost all day, cleared up late afternoon for a short time and then rained agtain.  Splendid for the garden, not so wonderful for anyone needing to be out and about and I didn't half feel sorry for the teachers!  Wet playtimes are a right pain.

Yesterday went well.  The bathroom destruction is now completed and putting it together again starts today when the plasterer comes to deal with the artex ceiling (shudder) and any other bits and bobs.  I guess it will be a dusty day which isn't going to do my cold and cough any favours but never mond, maybe I can go out for a while.

Sharon duly turned up and now my hair is decent again.  She does such a good job, bless her, and I'm so lucky to have her.  Again, it is supporting a local small business.

In the afternoon, Jeff came to look at the garden and yes, we're going to give it a whirl.  He's doing two hours next Wednesday and then we will see.  I wasn't sure what to expect but he's a 'retired' chap with his own small business and he brings all his tools, etc, with him.  He was also happy to do a one off (or maybe a two off) at the allotment as well.  If we can get that sorted before the end of the month, maybe it won't be too late to get some runner beans in.

Tuition was fine but sad as it was the last session for this student.  The brief was to work on maths for the SATs and they are next week so this was the last session.  I now have a few gaps but I'm not going out of my way to fill them.  If something (or someone!) comes along, then fine, but if not, no problems.

And then it was off to Slimming World where, to my enormous relief, I found I had lost four and a half pounds.  I'm on the way again!

Today, there's very little in the diary until a spot of tuition followed by pottery.  I have to do some homework for the latter or I will have nothing to do!

I'll leave you with a few snaps of the garden this morning, carefully taken to hide the fact that it's a bit of a jungle out there!

The strawberries are looking pretty healthy and I'm looking forward to enjoying them no end!

I won't get any raspberries from these canes until late summer/autumn, but there are a number of healthy canes coming up so it's looking hopeful for a nice little harvest.

So many buds on the clematis 'ooh la la' so it's going to be a picture once they start opening.

The fuchsia (I always have to check that spelling!) plants are now sending up growth.

And finally, I've never known the mint so prolific.  Replacing some of the soil in the pot really has worked wonders.  I'm going to start freezing some of those leaves, I think.