It's been a blissfully sunny and probably very hot day here. I say probably because it is so windy it is hard to stand upright and tilt your face to the sun unless you clutch something solid. I put out the washing this morning and fifteen minutes later I had to remove the sheets again before they pulled over the house, let alone the washing line post.

We headed inland hoping for less breeze - to a garden that was open under the NGS scheme. It was a manor house and promised a lot - a mature, one acre garden. I can only conclude that the majority of flowers had been blown away too, as there was an awful lot of green and not a lot of colour. Green is good when there is lots of contrasting form and foliage shape, but not in this case. But who cares about the garden when the WI are in charge of teas. But this was a bit of a let-down too. Last year we got scones and cream. This year we had to settle for fruit cake.

Honestly, I could have stayed at home in my garden for that kind of experience, except even the fruit case would have been a let-down and we would have had to fight over the last cream cracker in the house.