Z counts pollen

I coughed lightly throughout the governors' meeting. The last item under AGM was the guidelines received from the government about what to do in the event of Mexican flu. "Er, sorry," I said.

Apparently, now, they don't put up what the pollen count is, but instead what plants are in flower that are likely to cause hay fever. Until a few years ago - well, until my 40s - I never had hay fever. Partly, no doubt, this was because I lived in a seaside town. I thought I'd tracked it down to a rye grass, but we've had rain at the time that flowers the last few years so it hasn't affected me. But the flower they're warning of at the moment is the oak tree. We have a couple of large oaks on the drive, so it could be that. I took an anti-histamine pill this morning and was fine all day, though I'm a bit affected tonight, so hay fever seems the likely culprit.

This afternoon, I looked after Zerlina while her mother was at the dentist. She's still employed so still covered by BUPA health insurance, so might as well use it while she can. In the last week, Zerlina has learned to stand upright and, while holding on, take a few steps. She's an agile crawler and climbs things. She'll be 9 months old next week - Weeza is already having to watch her constantly.

Al has been taking a lot of plants to the shop to sell. Some of the courgette plants in large pots have quite decent-sized fruit. I'd meant him to take the slightly smaller ones and leave those for me, but he's taken them and put a fancy price on them. Hm. He's also taken beans and tomatoes - I grew 8 different varieties and people love to try out the unusual ones - as do I. I'm going to plant out the ones I'm keeping for myself tomorrow, as they're flowering now. French and runner beans are in need of being planted, but they'll have to be thoroughly wired off against rabbits. So that's a job for tomorrow afternoon, I hope (if the weather's okay) after Dave's visit to Bring On The Wall.

Just a couple of pics today, to follow - don't want to bore you.