Well it seems I'll live a little longer. My MOT results are in. ECG, BP and P are AOK. Blood fine apart from a high cholesterol reading. As I haven't changed my diet in the last 12 months, I can only put this down to lack of exercise. I'll have to make a conscious effort to walk more even if Bossman won't come with me, but finding the right time of day might not be so easy with the temperatures being so high. A blast of hot air coming up from Africa has raised temps past the 40ºC inland, but we do have a breeze here on the coast. The new set of lily bulbs I bought from Lidl have been fantastic, and I have been meaning to take photos. The hot wind has dessicated them, and this is the only plant to have flowers that survived the night. I've been feeding them with a weak solution of Miracle-Gro, so next year they should do even better.

Pottering around with my watering can this evening, I had a nice surprise;

a flower pushing its way up to the light.

Only one this year, though. On other occasions I've had as many as 6 or 7. I think the long cold Winter and cool wet Spring is not what it has been used to. Bossman thinks I should re-pot into a larger size, as this plant is so top heavy now, and completely pot-bound, but as it would grow high up in the fork of a tree in its natural habitat, I'm going to leave it as it is until the cracked pot actually falls apart. It is kept from falling over by a chunk of railway sleeper in front, and closely packed pots at the sides.