Making the most of ...

Another lovely day - but the last in this run of good weather. I seemed once more to have to scamper to keep up; there seems to have been very little slack in my life since we came home from Italy. At least I got a big load of washing done and out on the line by the time I'd finished breakfast - the laundry basket was becoming ominously full. Then another painting class with my friend Paddy - I've been impossibly ambitious in my choice of subject, but not in what I actually attempted today: the sun, the colour of sky, and the intersecting lines that tie the landscape together.

I had time for a very quick lunch on the patio (again!) before I met the two friends with whom I'm going off on retreat next week. We planned our domestic arrangements while walking in Benmore Gardens - we must have looked mad: three elderly women all standing mid-path staring at their phones. We were actually making notes of the various things each of us was to contribute to the larder for the four days - and this was just for breakfast. (Apart from the wine...)

Himself came out to meet me as the afternoon ended, so I drove the new car home. I'll need to move the front seat a bit, I think, to make my foot more comfortable on the accelerator. We spent a frustrating half hour when we got back trying to find out how to personalise the infotainment centre - I don't want the odd radio stations the previous owner favoured, and I certainly don't want to find my way to his house! I wonder if he'd mind if we rolled up and asked for help ...

Blipping a cluster of tricuspidaria lanceolata (or Crinodendron hookerianum or Chilean Lantern tree) blossom on a massive plant beside the hillside path. This is the tree we had reduced so hugely outside our front door earlier in the year, and I'm glad to report it's shooting out new leaves and some flowers just as I'd hoped. They seem to like it here.

Tomorrow we are promised rain, and I have to do some work. Brain work!