A garden centre fallback, hydrangeas

A happy morning assembling stuff. First a fire pit, a present for my birthday from Chris and De'Shaun. Looks good in the garden and goes well with the patio furniture.

Secondly unpacked, assembled and began to get my head around the 4 in 1 petrol strimmer I purchased from Lidl the other day. My what a beast this is. Frightening too with all the safety instructions for each of the tools. I think I put the right bits in the right places. It is a substantial piece of kit, made in Germany and comes complete with everything including oil to make the 2 stroke mixture.

I now needed a petrol can, found one online from Screwfix, a check on their website showed they had a depot in Ashford, my destination for lunch with lifelong friend John.

Spent more than I expected as I bought a weed killer pressure spray and next door a pair of windscreen wipers, new chamois, sponge and car shampoo.

I've known John for over 50 years and really enjoy our lunches out. Talk ranges over a whole gamut of topics and it is always a joy as we're genuinely interested in each other's lives and not a monologue when the conversation is hogged by one person talking about themselves.

We were expecting to go to the Doghouse, a micro brewery that according to John, did a nice line in ploughman's and soups. For some reason it was closed just for today. So we had to go around the corner which was alright!

Most of the afternoon was over by the time I got home but there was time for a walk, calling in at the local garden centre where this fall back blip of colourful hydrangeas caught my eye.