The first half of the week passed in a blur of reading reports, analysing numbers and trying to get it all down in a logical way and make some sense of it all. By Wednesday evening, when the first draft of the report was sent, my mind was mush. Thursday I must have done something useful - but it is hard to remember what. Ah yes, new cylinder for the sodastream, visiting a couple of clients, feeding cats and sewing labels into summer shirts - clearly I did quite a bit that was useful!!
After the usual Friday visits, the new normal allowed us to go to the pub, sit out on the terrace and enjoy being around people, while taking on a glass or two of something cold. It is so good to start the old normal experiences. Tomorrow should have seen a bit of yoga too, but local elections mean the large village hall wasn't available, while the room offered as a substitute, as well as having a huge framed photo of the President, was not really conducive to socially distanced yoga for seniors. So we are cancelled until September, which is a shame.
Today we were out and about before the temperatures got too hot to do anything other than wilt. As well as productive things (more later), I spotted three different types of orchid out - two in the Orchard, and one in the One Acre Wood. Here are a bee, a lizard and a birds nest!
The roses are also coming on nicely at The Shack. There is a splendid white climbing rose with a delicate scent by one of the outbuildings, which is putting on a great display - next week will be all about dead heading I guess. The Fergus Memorial Rose, or Orange King as the label more officially calls it, has also put out its first flower. I photographed it both yesterday and today, but today's photo was after there had been a lot of strimming, so there were bits of shredded weed in the flower. I've not included that one!
The vegetables are coming on. Today I picked all remaining broad beans, and also lifted one of the main crop garlic to see what was going on, as the leaves and stems looked like they had been ravaged by rust, but there was a nice bulb and later on we will eat it to check on flavour! The sweetcorn I sowed last Saturday ALL came up, so I had to spend time thinning out the excess plants, which really, really hurt. I also planted out three more butternut squashes and four Bright Lights chard, the latter hidden among the shallots to get a bit of shelter while they establish themselves. The shallots will be lifted in about a month at which point the chard can do what it likes. Getting rid of the broad bean plants will give the peppers, aubergines and tomatoes more light, which will be good.
There is also a lot of wildlife around. Yesterday we visited a friend so John could do his Lawnmower Repair Man act (not totally successfully, but there is a deeper seated problem than he can get at). She has swallows nesting in her stables and while the parents were out gathering beakfuls of insects for the offspring, I was able to look in and catch a photo. Today, after I had toiled and done hammock time as a reward, I did my nature walk around the Orchard and the Wildlife Meadow. The wild scabious is coming out which means an explosion of marbled white butterflies, which are just lovely to watch and occasionally take a photo of too!
Next week's episode may be a bit late, but should have more exciting things to discuss, assuming the weather is a bit kind.
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