Val and I worked hard in the sun, tidying the rose-beds in Victoria Park with the rest of the volunteer gardening group.

I removed weeds and stray sycamore seedlings from amongst the rose bushes, while Val was chief dead-header.

After a coffee in the Green House, we did a 15-minute stint of butterfly-spotting for the Big Butterfly Count, led by the Portsmouth City Council volunteer coordinator. (And despite the sympathetic insect-friendly planting in the park, the butterfly population was worryingly low.)