When I decided to uncover the gunnera on Friday, I had checked the weather forecast for the next few days to ensure we had no frost in store.

Things looked pretty good, with the exception of next Tuesday night, so I made a mental note to check the situation nearer the time to see if they had changed their minds. ( As they often do.)

I always check the forecast in the morning for the coming day to see when the best time is for being outside, and once again yesterday morning everything seemed fine.

Imagine my alarm when Peter told me at 6.30pm last night that he’d caught the end of a weather bulletin that was forecasting frost for last night.

So, armed with two torches and plenty of covers and newspapers, I went out to cover up the gunnera. Why can’t weather forecasters get it right? Sure enough this morning there had been a slight frost.

On a lighter note, I saw the first butterfly of the summer today. It was passed me in an instant, so I don’t know what kind it was, but it could have been a small tortoiseshell.