Summer has arrived - it's 18 degrees.

Ahead of our first visitors of the season arriving we drove down the autostrada for an hour and a half to the IKEA store at Porta Romana. We had forgotten that today is 'Women's Day' and the place was packed solid at 10.15 am with families, dogs, stray children and every push chair south of the Alps. Clearly, IKEA is the place to see and be seen on a holiday. What it will be like on Mothers Day in a couple of weeks time I dread to imagine.

Back for a long walk with the boyz - their second of the day. We had a huge thunderstorm for all of five minutes and now the clouds have gone, the sky is azure blue and its 18 degrees. After lunch I tried to trim both boyz but the fancy new rechargeable trimmer from London ran out of juice within three minutes - despite having been on charge for 16 hours. I've just finished hacking the rosemary beds back into some semblance of shape. Rosemary keeps its shape better than lavender but I'm covered in scratches from the old, hard,brittle wood that needed to be pruned out. The sudden arrival of warm weather has reminded us both that we have three weeks or so to complete anything that needs to be done outside before the mercury starts surging.