What a tonic it is to have a spell of decent weather.  It has stayed fine for the six days since we got home, and the grass is at last dry enough to walk on and to cut properly: it looks better than it is, actually: it is full of lumps and dips.  Martyn has put in several strenuous hours of weeding and edging, to which I've contributed a little, mainly with the lawn mower.  Between us, we've got it looking something approaching presentable.

I plan to plant out a few more seedlings today.  The few aquilegias I planted last year from a packet of bought seed are starting to flower with big, long-spurred blooms.  I hope they'll be as vigorous as their less spectacular neighbours.  We shall be very short of rudbeckias this year - germination from saved seed has been poor or non-existent, and the snails have been at them in the cold frame.  Cosmos seeds have done well, and a half-dozen are already planted out.  Dwarf nicotiana (bought) and antirrhinum (saved) also look promising. The orange oriental poppies started to show colour for the first time yesterday, so we're looking forward to seeing them in bloom.  I have potted up a handful of the seedlings of Immy and Jonathan's crimson one, and hope they'll come true to colour.

The art group met here for a change yesterday, since we had a project to debrief.  My colleagues and I were given the very broad topic of flowers, and the range of output was impressive.  We next bend our

minds to the latest topic - bird's eye view.  I have a 'here's one I prepared earlier' on the wall - the view of Lake Geneva from the Rochers de Naye, but suppose I'd better knock out something new.  Unusually, the female mallard (Doris Duck...) was here on her own yesterday.  She came crashing noisily in while the art crowd was here, much to their delight.  She was unusually vocal, calling for her mate (Arthur Mallard...), who systematically ignored her for five hours.  Later in the afternoon he started returning her calls, and soon afterwards came thumping in.  Their take-offs are short and powerful, but their landings are awful!  They stayed quite a while, and have been back for half an hour this morning.  Must take a stroll up to the pond to see whether that's where they spend the rest of the time.