Poppy

The large blousey ornamental poppy in the back bed is doing very well indeed. It merits being the focus of my blip. The splodge in the thumbnail is a bee, and that bee was one of several on the poppies, the fox gloves and the lupins. We spent a happy hour in the sunshine this afternoon with a beer, after doing some labouring work in the garden. I was clearing the bottom area where we park the car (outside the walls / fence) and Mr A mowed what is left of the lawn, strimmed the corner of the side garden that has so far been neglected, and then started digging it over. That is more or less the last piece of the garden to be brought under control.

This morning, we spent another happy hour out the front, deadheading various things, tidying stuff up, contemplating moving various plants and then sitting in the sun with a cup of tea on the front bench. I think that's the sort of gardening most people can get behind. I hadn't realised until we started really to get into our garden here just how essential an item the plant support is! My bamboo climbing sweet pea seedlings are in the extra.

And last night after I'd done my blip, we were also out in the garden, with a couple of beers, taking advantage of our new heated chair covers. They make all the difference, especially when combined with a blanket on top of the legs. That will definitely extend our sitting out options.

In between the two sessions in the garden today, I spent 75 minutes on the spinning bike doing a hard peloton workout. I've only previously managed 75 minutes once, so that was quite a stretch.

It's amazing how much you can exhaust yourself without ever leaving the property. No swimming for me today. I needed to concentrate on things at home.