A pleasant day - sunny and around 12c

This seems to be the best version of my panorama because in the one which I cropped even thinner, the tulips looked very 'blocky'. I certainly have not mastered this programme yet. Another problem is that there were two more frames, to the right, which I couldn't get to join on to the rest of the picture. The programme does, however, have many strengths. In my opinion it is a better bet than a wide-angle lens because you don't suffer from problems with verticals and barrel-distortion. It's a tricky one and I sense that I am on a fairly steep learning-curve with it. Great fun though ! And it is good to keep acquiring new skills. The garden is leaping forward - almost by the hour it seems. These tulips and forget-me-nots are between the front lawn that you can see the edge of in the Panorama and the big-room window. All Yvonne does each year when she pulls the old plants up - the forget-me-nots that is - is give them a good shake all around to distribute the seed. And she always obtains this gorgeous informal result.

Sorry about the bamboo plant-support! I simply didn't notice it when I was taking the picture. At one stage we weren't too keen on the yellow and red tulips mixed in the same bed and we tried to eradicate the red ones. But they are more robust than we are, so Yvonne planted some whites, which you can just see top-right, to break the effect up a bit. It is a great bed because there is always something following on.

I had a shock when my homepage loaded on my lappy this morning and told me that the Nottingham temperature was 22C. It actually felt as if it would be struggling to be 10C but, after a few minutes, they changed it to 12C. Steve was awake and at work very early this morning and we exchanged Google Talk at 6.50am!

Yvonne rang the Halifax and confirmed that we didn't want their potential buyer on Saturday morning and Beryl rang and asked us to get her a few bits when we went shopping. We called in and collected her list around 10.30am and she is much recovered but by no means completely. She commented on my 'new car' which she didn't recognise as the one I've had for 2 years and she has travelled many miles in. Ah well - she is still not bad for 85. We did 'administrative tasks' with Building Society books being brought up-to-date and libraries etc., and I called in at SASS and bought a 'powered' 4 USB hub because I am convinced that the ill-fitting freebie I had from Serif, has been the cause of many problems. I'm using it now and it seems much better. It means I can have 'mouse', 'webcam', 'printer' all connected at the same time, and still have spare ports for 'camera' ,'MP3 player', if I wanted to go daft! While I was in SASS I spotted a potential present for my list. A laptop Car adaptor/charger which would be great on holiday. For birthdays, Xmas etc., I'm asked what I want and I can never think of anything so Yvonne suggests that I keep an ongoing list.

We went to Lidl and Morrisons for general shopping and were careful not to overstock milk. It does seem to have a tendency to go 'off' even when refrigerated and before sale-by date. I now keep my overnight-tray milk in a little thermos flask which I have pre-chilled. Lisa also reports having had the same problem.