A busy but uneventful day

Today’s guest picture comes from my sister Mary. She came upon a herd of deer on a visit to Somerset yesterday.

We woke to a grey and wet day here, and although it dried up, it didn’t get much less grey until the very end of the day.

With nothing better to do, I put some of the newspaper index into the Archive Group database after breakfast. I have resolved not to start the crossword until I have done some of the database work every day. It will be intriguing to find out how long that resolve lasts.

It was very gloomy when I looked at the birds after I had finished . . .

. . . but it was good to see a greenfinch, a goldfinch and a chaffinch instead of just sparrows.

The rain eased off enough to let me have a quick look at a dark dahlia in the garden . . .

. . . but Sandy arrived for coffee in the rain, and it was still wet when we were joined later on by Margaret. By the time that Sandy left, it had stopped raining, and after Margaret went home, I was able to walk up to the town to do some shopping without the need for a rain jacket.

The gull was standing on its favourite rock beside the suspension bridge.

. . . and it was noticeable that the recent rain has not done much to raise the river level.

The dry ground is soaking up all the rain as it falls.

The willows growing on the gravel banks in the river bed have done very well in our dry summer and the church looks as though it is gradually disappearing behind them.

I had a walk round the garden when I got back.

A late poppy really stood out, even though it was bent down near the ground.

The runner beans have had a very odd year. The plant is looking very well and is covered in flowers . . .

. . . but hardly any of them have turned to beans so far. This is a mystery. It has never happened before and it it is hard to say what might have caused this. Perhaps a lack of pollinators, perhaps the dry weather, perhaps the long cool spring, any of these or something else entirely might be the cause. We will have to see if these later flowers come to anything.

Looking at the bed where the early potatoes were grown . . .

. . . one can only marvel at the vigour of Mrs Tootlepedal’s cover crops. The bed should be greatly improved by next year.

I saw the very last flower on the weigela . . .

. . . but there are plenty more waiting to open on the yellow crocosmias.

In contrast to the front gate, which is being overrun by nasturtiums, the back gate has a covering of fuchsia.

And once again, the only sunshine was being provided by sunflowers.

I didn’t go out for a walk or a cycle ride after lunch, even though the weather was much better. There were tasks to be done in the garden instead. I hover mowed the no-mow lawn and push mowed the mown part, and then I edged to whole thing.

The result was pleasingly green.

I was keeping an eye open for butterflies too. There are quite a lot of peacock butterflies in theb garden just now, but they are not settling for photo shoots. I have to catch them when I can.

I spotted this one before I mowed the lawn . . .

. . . and these two after I had finished.

I shredded a lot of cuttings from yesterday’s tidying up work by Mrs Tootlepedal, and then had a lot more to shred as she pruned back the gooseberry bush. This turned up a pound and a half of unpicked gooseberries and we recovered enough . . .

. . . to make another gooseberry fool in the evening.

As well as edging the middle lawn, I used the strimmer to tidy up round some of the raised beds in the vegetable garden before it ran out of power.

Then I mowed the front lawn while Mrs Tootlepedal tended to some more tidying up work in the front beds. She had staked some of the taller flowers in the left hand bed yesterday, and they were looking better for it today.

I took a dahlia picture . . .

. . . before we went in for a late cup of tea, and in my case, a slice of toast as well.

I have had quite an active week, so I was happy to sit quietly after that and finish putting the week of the newspaper index into the Archive Group database. Sandy took several weeks away with him this morning. Between us, we should be able to catch up on the backlog.

The regular Zoom with my siblings revealed that they had been so active, going to a film, visiting a cathedral. touring Somerset and going shopping in Chichester, that I was quite exhausted just listening to them.

The day ended with a delightful sunset, and I hope that the ‘red sky at night’ will bring us a sunny day tomorrow.

The flying bird of the day is a damp greenfinch from the morning.