30 July 2006

It’s 6.30pm, and about 27ºC and I’m sitting here with a gin & tonic (& ice!), relaxing! Mum & David left about 2.45pm to return to London (& mum to Cobwebs) and I started pottering around the house – very little to do, but I cleaned the (new!) basin in the (new!) bathroom and the (second-hand) shower tray. I’m putting off the loo (only used by builders for the last 12 months…) till tomorrow. I will do it, but couldn’t face it and was saved by a drop in temperature (mid 30’s & above; too hot for gardening) & thought “I’ll plant those plants; if we have a storm it will water them in well.” Forgetting, of course, about the entire boxful (30? 40?) that mum gave me! So I’m back to plan A: create some more space, then plant the plants. I spent 1½ hours with the piochet hacking off weeds, but I’m tired, and not really in the mood; I’d rather start at 6am tomorrow when I’ve had (hopefully) some more sleep and it’s cooler.

Whilst I was contemplating the plants, I was buzzed by a humming bird hawk moth – he loves cirsium (a type of thistle) & verbena bonariensis, but not enough to wait around while I went to get my camera! To me he looked more like a “humming bird deer’s head moth”, but that’s probably only me!