Sunday

 Good morning.  It was another lovely day yesterday with wall to wall sunshine and a real warmth in the air.  Lovely.
Today's forecast looks pretty good.  In fact, it looks great for the next fortnight although that can change, of course.  Still, good for the plants and good for us - no complaints.  
I treated myself to something I have wanted for decades - a max/min thermometer.  Now I am exercised as to where to put it - would you keep it more in the shade or in the sun?

I pootled off to Abercorn as planned and there was lots of good stuff there, including some tomatoes but, sadly, no sungolds.  I did get a couple of tomatoes though, a yellow Tumbling Tom and (hang on, I need to go and check) one called Shimmer which I've never heard of before.
I've grown Tumbling Toms before though; they're a bush tomato so no need to pinch out any side shoots.  Shimmer is a cordon variety, like all the others. I also got a lupin (I love lupins - shame the slugs and the blackfly like them too), a pelargonium, a nemesia Wisley vanilla which smells gorgeous, a filled planter and some yellow freesia which smell even lovelier!  Oh, and some parsley which is now sitting on my kitchen window sill.
There weren't any plant rings either - oh, Abercorn!

I went over the road to Lathcoats as planned and they had a few bedding plants including some trailing somethings which I got for a planter that hangs on the fence.  They also had some locally grown asparagus so that's a treat for next week.
The strawberry picking might start as early as the end of next week, depending on the weather.  Good oh - mine should just about have stopped by then.

I do need to plant rings so I decided to drive on to the Hanging Gardens nursery where I got the rings but no sungolds - no veg at all, in fact.  I forgot they don't do veg.  I was going to drive further out along the 141 to another garden centre but, annoyingly, there were 'road closed' signs but no indication as to where the road was closed.
I will try Longacres and B&Q next week.

I came home and got stuck into gardening again.  First the back and then the front.  The camellia is now in ericaceous soil and I used the rest of the bag to top up the blueberries (which are doing nothing at all this year - they do seem to be bi-annual).  
A few photos:

The lupin, nemesia and pelargonium planted in the middle bed.  They need to fill out and there's still one gap so I will need to look around and see what else I fancy.

This is the start of a new 'pot spot'.  Formerly the bags of potting compost were stacked next to the bamboo.  Now next to the bamboo is the camellia, hopefully much happier now, behind that I have put the tumbling Tom pot on top of another ceramic upturned pot to give it a bit of height - if it's going to trail, I want it to have some trailing space! - and beside that is the Shimmer with the freesia in front.  The Shimmer and the Tom should grow quite high and then, next to the Shimmer is the pot on the fence that should trail down - the contents, I mean..  I think it will look quite nice once everything gets going and fills up the space above (or below). 

Yes, I will deal with that weed!  Cheeky blighter!  :-)

Then I went round the front and worked on the front patch.  It now looks quite nice although there's not a lot of colour yet, and the planter is now looking pretty beside the front door.

MUST remember to water it!

After I'd finished, I did a little video clip - sorry, no voice over.

Once that was done, I got the egg chair out, mixed up a not-Pimms and relaxed in the warm sunshine.  Lovely!

I nearly forgot - in between all of that, I did some washing, dried it all on the line and got it all ironed in the evening.

All in all, a very satisfying day indeed.

Today starts with an early swim (the gym opens at eight) and then I need to get dinner sorted before Alex gets here.  Once he goes, I will take the rest of the day nice and easy, probably dozing off a few times.  It's Sunday, folks!!

Well, I'd better stop and get on with my Facebook admin duties.  Are you having a lovely weekend too?  I do hope so.

Take care and happy Sunday to you.  xx