Lying in poo

When you've lain downhill in a pile of rabbit droppings to take a photo, you ought to use it really. Even if it is a bit ho-hum.

What happened today?
Tess went to the Devon County Show with a group from school and got rained on (it was lovely all day here). She came home bubbly and red-faced and chatty. She said she saw a dog show but it was boring because "it was just old ladies walking their dogs around a field". She didn't really want to tell me all about the rest of her day. I think she was too fizzy. I guess it will come out tomorrow when she's stopped buzzing.
As she lay in bed all glowing and contented, with her foot in the air while I Bazuka-ed her verucca, she read to me from one of her Judy Moody books. We needed a translator to be honest - it's very American!

When she's finished reading she's been listening to the Chronicles of Narnia as she drifts off to sleep. She absolutely loves them.

After doing a bit of thinking and tinkering, washing, lunch-making and clearing up today, I put the dishwasher on and went for a walk with Richard and the dog. Gemma was home for the day and Joel had come home early because lots of his GCSE classes have finished now and he's "revising" at home. It was nice to leave the house open and know there was someone in to get the phone and answer the door, and everything was safe.
We came home to a foul electrical burning smell, and discovered the dishwasher had blown up.
Bang (<- ha) went my plans to garden all afternoon. I've ordered a new one to come tomorrow, so will have to get up really early in case they come first thing. At least it will be a nice day tomorrow apparently. I swore this morning that I wasn't going to buy anything for a while because money's tight and then this happens.

I've uncovered my cauliflowers and they've had their first night without protection. I've watered nematodes again. It's expensive but they are effective and it's better than losing everything to slugs. I've also gone around moving solar lights to new positions and sprinkling peppermint oil around to try to confuse the cats or badgers that had a dig-fest last night. I think it was probably both. My dill and fennel seedlings are not happy about getting dug up and I'm not happy about it either. :(
I've put my first courgette plants outside (eek!) and Richard's been an absolute hero helping me get through my to-do list: he's put the 3rd wooden composter together, turned the compost over, cleared out the pond, and mowed today. He's also put a decorative bee on the wall for me.

I've also moved and replanted some roses and planted some dahlia bulbs today.

That'll do.