Colour

It was a gorgeous day today, but I only caught the sun at lunchtime since today was an office day. I walked from Embankment Gardens, where office workers were playing table tennis or sitting on deckchairs, over Hungerford Bridge to the Royal Festival Hall. There are many brightly painted beach huts in front of the RFH, each promoting a seaside activity or a local business. I had a wander amongst them, basking in the colours.

Back at home and it's just me and the menagerie since Fred's away for a few days. The cat is most put out that there's only one Food Slave in the flat. I had his full attention this morning - stamping down the hall, yowling, prodding paws, sharp claws and jumping onto the bed (and me) from great heights. Tomorrow I'm going to get my revenge. The second round of Olympic tickets are released at 6am and I'm going to be up extra early to press all the internet buttons in super-fast time. I'm sure I'll be up before Whisky cat. However, he'll be really excited to be fed early so I don't think that counts as revenge. I might just wake him up every hour of the working day by saying "hello" to him while he's in deep day slumber. He won't like that.

Tomorrow I'll also have to deal with a stem of Japanese knotweed that's in my back garden. I didn't know what it was until I watched the BBC's excellent "The Life of Weeds". I also discovered the names of a few other weeds that are friendly and I actively nurture. I've never liked the knotweed stem so it's always ripped out by hand when it appears every year. Luckily, it never seems to grow more than one stem annually. However, this time I will need to dispose more carefully of the ripped-out plant - perhaps burning it and putting the remnants in plastic to stop growth.