Welcome back

sun!

I probably shouldn't have pointed the camera at full sun while it was still so strong and without my UV lens filter on. Naughty. I took a few photos like this and couldn't see properly for a while afterwards.

The sun made me throw open doors and windows and wash loads of washing. I hadn't washed a thing for about 10 days. There was no point - I couldn't have dried it. Five people create A LOT of washing in 10 days, plus we had our guests' bedding from last weekend.

The sun also made me realise the sycamore and buddleia/buddleja were shading the house and ready for pruning. So I gave them a haircut.

Richard and Joel went to work, and Gemma went off to do something rather interesting: she might be starting a tattoo apprenticeship and so spent a day at a tattoo shop. The chap who runs the shop likes her artwork very much, and she'd been in for a visit last week to meet him. It looks like it would mean giving up college (again!) after only a couple of weeks back, so we have confused and mixed feelings about it - some of them good of course and some of them a bit parenty :)

Tess and I were at home alone with the dog and the sun, and Tess had found an old skipping rope that I'd confiscated a couple of years ago because she was using it to hang herself and generally cause serious parental angst. This time she used it for skipping. A lot of skipping. She seems to like to challenge herself physically and can keep something up for ages - long after a normal person would be worn out.

After my wash-a-thon and tree hacking, Richard came home from work about 4pm and we took the dog for a walk on the beach. As we headed back up to the carpark at about 5.30 there were people hanging out in summer clothes and bikinis and men with no tops on, and everything felt very mellow.