Big Grandson is 13

Big Grandson was 13 on Wednesday. 13! A teenager! Fortunately he's showing no signs of being a grumpy one. None of our children were difficult teenagers either, so I'm hoping that this continues. He's a lovely chap. They came here for tea, he having been with his dad on a bus trip round the city - which he loves doing. 

They usually come on Fridays, and yesterday he had a nostalgic play with the Brio that now resides in cupboards most of the time (there's a lot of it!). He and Biggest Granddaughter had a good time with it and he requested that it be left out so that they can continue with it tomorrow. He used to play with it every time he was here, but (sniff) now he's mainly grown out of it. It takes up a lot of room in our house... 

And today we went for a walk with our walking chums. 

It was very enjoyable. The weather was warm (at last) but we mainly walked through woodland so it wasn't too sticky. 

Then we came home and I wandered round the garden for a bit. It's very flowery. The perennial sweet peas are doing well. 

The (pestilential but pretty) Japanese anemones are growing into the phlox again. 

This is a pretty hydrangea which my work colleagues gave me when I retired. For a few years it refused to flower once I'd planted it in the garden, but after I threatened to dig it out, it did flower and has continued to do so every year since then. 

I love this verbena. It's taller than me. I hope it survives next winter - it got through the last one, but that was quite mild. 

This fuchsia at the front of the bed is very hardy; I love it. 

This is a good clematis, though unfortunately the slugs agree. 

This clematis hasn't done so well as usual, this year; presumably it's been too chilly for it. 

Just as I sat down in my little reading nook, our neighbour started mowing his lawn, very noisily. He's very meticulous and likes to mow it in stripes. Eventually he stopped, but by that time it had started spitting very slightly. I tried to ignore this, and read on for a while. But then the rain became just a bit too damp. Oh well. It saved me from having to water the pots.