Time for a walk after breakfast.

The sun is back after the wet Hebridean weather of the last week. We used the cooler temperatures that yesterday brought to get the house into order and finish off the work in the olive groves. The gardener came for three hours in the late afternoon and surprised us by saying that there was nothing else to be done in the grounds until September - I gently tried to suggest that weeding might be an option but only received a grunt in reply.

As part of our new lifestyle we are doing everything we can to be environmentally friendly and reduce our carbon footprint . By habit we turn off lights that aren't in use, have installed energy efficient LED light, only run the dish washer when absolutely full,and follow a whole host of other common sense measures - despite all of this our energy usage is only down 17% in volume terms from last years levels. If we are to get real about climate change we'll need to rethink our strategy. It would be good to cut our emissions by about a third but without losing all the pleasures of 21st century living.

The sore on Digby's foot seems to be getting worse again. The vet doesn't think it's a seed that's worked its way into the skin so it must be some form of bite. We've been bathing it in hot salty water but over the last three or four days the swelling seems to have come back - not that it seems to bother him much.