Not seeking perfection

The tranquility of the sunset last night gave no indication of the electrical storm that was to follow!

Good grief, did we have a storm last night!  Thunder and lightening like I haven't heard and seen for a very long time, and it went on for ages.  The sky was lit up with huge flashes and the thunder rumbled around almost continuously.  And did it rain!   Quite spectacular even if it was the middle of the night.

The tiling has been started.  It's a slow process but the end result is going to be worth it.  And a bit more of the bare plaster is disappearing which is a bonus.

We have finished painting the lounge at last.  I say 'we' because although I usually do the painting, for some reason the paint and I did not get on.  I was getting more than a little frustrating, not being able to do a good job so N offered to try his hand instead.  It's certainly better than my efforts and as we said, there's a number of pictures and paintings to be hung which will hide any imperfections.  I think there were a lesson to be learned there - sometimes, no matter how many times you may have done something before, there is no guarantee that the same job will go right every time.  N and I set ourselves high standards but again, we accept that striving for 'perfection' is often counter-productive.  Aim for the best we can do and be satisfied at a job done to the best of our abilities.  And be willing for someone else to take over if necessary - that's not always easy to do, and is something I need to be more gracious about, I think.

We hung the vertical blinds back in the lounge and have cleaned the greenhouse shading off the windows.  Just some curtains needed - I will keep an eye out for a charity-shop bargain.

This evening we noticed huge numbers of birds circling overhead.  A quick glance at the grass confirmed our suspicions - it's flying ants season.  For just a day or two every summer, the flying ants emerge and the birds gorge themselves.  We have so many ants nests in the lawn the grass was crawling with the insects as they emerged and began flying.  We will have to deal with all these nests over the winter; not sure what the best way to tackle them is but action is definitely needed.