Rather a quiet spell and no photos.

We are enjoying our last few days of holidays before school kicks off again.

I've thought about posting photos a few times but really... how many photos do you need to see of us at the beach?    I've even braved wearing a bikini.  But trust me; you don't need to see pictures of that either!
I was just thinking tonight that last year we would have gone to the beach 2 or 3 times (other than summer holidays)  This year we have been more times than I can count.  I'm guessing 10ish so far.  It's so lovely living close by and while we aren't there every day we are certainly there every week.

We have spent time with friends and relaxed at home.  The weather has finally settled into summer proper so many days we stay inside during the hottest parts with the fans going and all the doors and windows closed.  Then in the evening the house is thrown open and we eat outside.

The fish pond went from delightfully lush to appallingly overgrown in record time.    The water hawthorn which was looking lovely suddenly looked scrappy and hair algae took over the pond.  Imagine masses of strands of lime green dolls hair.  That's just what it's like and it tangles around everything.  It's disgusting!!!  So I got into the pond today and let the fish play around my feet while I cleared it out by hand.  I stirred up so much gunk that the filter stopped working and needed an immediate clean! However now the pond looks clearer and most of the algae has gone.   We have also put some barley straw in which is supposed to keep the algae at bay as it decomposes while not harming the fish... we shall see about that.    Fortunately the fish weren't perturbed with all the algae in their pond and are healthy and growing rapidly but I'm sure they will enjoy swimming in areas that had been blocked up until today.   I'm still putting off clearing the top pond.  But since that's where the hair algae orginated from; it's a job I'm going to have to do sooner rather than later.