What a difference a day makes

I'm having a little difficulty in getting my head round the tremendous variations we are seeing in our weather.  On Friday, the rain heaved down pretty much all day.  Then in the evening the wind got up.  By the time we went to bed it must have been blowing about 80mph; the weather girl reported that late in the evening there had been a gust of more than 100mph on the Isle of Wight, some 50 miles away from us.  We lay in bed listening to somebody's wheelie bin slamming into something repeatedly and plastic milk bottles rattling around the drive.

Yesterday was still windy, but much brighter and I thoroughly enjoyed a walk on the edge of Stanmer Woods and through the park for the better part of an hour in the afternoon.  Today we have sun and a cloudless blue sky.  There must have been a touch of frost overnight as there were still hints of it in the shadowy places when I walked the dog after breakfast but in the sun it felt really quite warm and spring-like.  If it manages to stay like this I might even get out into the garden this afternoon.

Probably the first job to be done is to deadhead the hydrangeas, especially the large plant in the front garden.  I have deliberately left the plants alone - on the advice of a professional - to provide protection for the new buds in case of bad weather but I think the time has come for the new buds to look after themselves.  Besides, the old, dead flower-heads make the place look untidy.  And I don't want to tempt thieves.

I have yet to hear of it happening here in England, but there has been quite a spate of theft of hydrangea flowers across the Channel.  Around Calais, at any rate.  It seems that smoking hydrangea flowers produces an effect similar to one of the hallucinogenic drugs, LSD or something.  So I really should remove the temptation.  You can read a report here, from which I see that it is the leaves that are smoked, not the dried flowers, and the similarity is with cannabis.

Despite the sun we have here today, my picture is another taken on Friday.  This is Southwick recreation ground, again taken through the windscreen and not Photoshopped in any way.