Weather's been too good to post

We had three straight days of summer and it's been wonderful. The days are so long it's hardly dark.

I just love this time of year, you feel like you have to bank these days to keep the soul warm in winter. I can almost see plants growing before my eyes. My bean plants are doing well, no sign of slug/snail damage, which is probably a tribute to the work of the garden's resident thrush. She has a "anvil" stone by one of the paths, and it is littered with cracked shells.

One baby blackbird has hatched in the nest on the lectern. I'm feeding the Mum cherries from my fruit bowl. I feel for her stuck in that hot, dry shed.

The writers' group concert/readings went well. The second night was packed, and I had more confidence by then. I even did an extra poem at the end of the evening. A local published poet came up to me at then end and said he'd enjoyed my pieces, which was very rewarding. I'm doing a writers' workshop tomorrow, which is being run by a friend who is a published novelist - I think she's on her 6th book just now. Should be fun. This is her webpage Deborah J Miller

I got new software to colour calibrate my pc monitor. Took me a while to work it all out, switching of virus protection temporarily and removing the old calibration programme. But the test image on the newly calibrated screen looks great, especially the skin tones. I've been editing pictures of too skinny women runners in a recent road race that I covered. The skinnest one always wins, but some of these girls are just far too thin to be truly healthy.

Better run myself, lots to do.