Thursday 29th August

 Today threatened to be another day of 'nothing'.

I slept so badly last night that I ended up listening to 'The Franchise Affair' by Josephine Tey for far, far longer than was sensible. I use cosy-headphones, which are in a soft headband so I can sleep in them. I do look a bit like a demented old bat in them, but if the lights are off, who can see? I've got a small tablet beside the bed, with the headphones connect by Bluetooth so I can choose what I listen to without switching on a light.

I realised that half my slothfulness was caused by tiredness, and the other half was due to a number of fiddly jobs that needed doing  but I couldn't face them. 

Somehow I summoned up the willpower to drive myself to get them done. It's astonishing how much better I felt once they were done and dusted and the bits and pieces of paper cleared away! 

I did pootle out into the garden a couple of times for a bit of fresh air. 

My unexpected rewards were;

Watching a very large dragonfly hunting for prey at the bottom of the garden, methodically criss crossing the lawn

Seeing a large bee land on a salvia flower, only to have the flower give way under the weight so bee and petals crashed through the leaves together until the bee sorted itself out and managed to fly back up before it landed in the flower bed

Wondering about a black and orange beetle sunning itself on a mauve verbena flower. It was about as long as my little finger nail, not very wide, with symmetrical markings.

Touching the seed heads of the cardoons; they look as soft as thistle down, but have hidden spines making them surprisingly prickly