Skip to main content

Poppy Days

 

I sowed some poppies in pots a couple of months ago and in the last few days they have popped into bloom. The photo doesn’t do the vibrancy of the colours justice but they are wonderful and make me smile every time I see them. They are also very resilient, given they’ve been beaten by heavy rains and winds in the last few days. 

I spent all morning in the garden, beating back the latest crop of undergrowth that has been horribly persistent in this Spring and Summer of heat, rain, heat, rain. The Autumn raspberries have been rescued from nettles and docks, I’ve pruned back some of the hawthorn, hornbeam and privet hedges, and weeded the courtyard rose bed. The weather is supposed to be dry for the next two days so I shall mow the grass before it rains again on Saturday. Gardening these days is like playing a strategic game of chess. I suspect it will become more so as the years go on. Nell has spent a lot of time inside hedges and is now covered in grass seeds and sticky weed bobbles which she is objecting most strongly to having removed. 

Yesterday, I went to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to be prodded. Today, we were expecting the septic tank man to arrive with his mini-digger, but he phoned last night and said did we mind if he postponed until Monday on account of an emergency, and we said no, we didn’t mind, and he said thank you very much for being so understanding, and we said, you’re welcome. I told our neighbours with whom we share the septic tank. I think Don was a bit disappointed; I’m pretty certain he would have been out there with a deckchair and supply of tea and biscuits to watch the mini-digger action. He won’t be at home next Monday as he is on grandchildren duties.

Other than that, all is quiet on the western front. Life trots on at an amiable pace. The winter pansies are just poking their heads above the seed compost in the greenhouse. The basil is finally romping away so I shall be having a go at making some pesto. The chilli peppers look like they might be thinking about flowering but who knows? The runner beans ARE flowering so we MIGHT be blessed with some beans. Everything seems behind this year. Ah well, Nature travels at her own pace and we just have to be patient. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Frosted Dawn Enigma

The decorators are in at the moment. Stairs and landing. Given my previous history of 'Hoo Ha Occurring on Stairs ' - reference the Trapped Under the Sofa Incident and the Foot Wedged Between Bookcase and Stair Rise Debacle - I thought it wise to pay for professionals to decorate the stairs and landing rather than get myself in a mix with ladder and plank combinations and achieve the Magic Three of staircase accidents. The decorators are a father and son combo who go by the  names of Craig and David. This automatically causes me entertainment. 'Came in on a Monday, prepped, filled and undercoated, back on Thursday, first top coating, by Friday finishing touches...' Okay, not as frisky or well-scanned as the original song, but you get where I'm coming from. Anyway, before they started the job Craig asked what colour I wanted for the walls. 'Same colour as the downstairs walls, please,' said I. 'Dulux Frosted Dawn.' And then white for all the woodw
2 comments
Read more

Day 1 - Decisions Are Made Beyond the Author's Control.

‘Well,’ I say, looking at the expectant faces gathered around the huge table in the Great Dining Hall of Much Malarkey Manor, ‘I didn’t think it was going to happen this year, but it is!’ There is a sharp intake of breath as everyone wonders of what I speak. I’ve been muttering about all sorts recently, and I’m not talking liquorice here either.   ‘The Much Malarkey Manor Annual and Traditional Christmas Story!’ I say, and wait for the expulsed air of relief to settle before I continue. ‘I thought we had done it all. I thought we had covered every Christmas story there was. I’ve been wracking my brains for a full two months now, trying to come up with something we haven’t done before and then it hit me! We haven’t done a version of one of the Great Christmas Films of Yore!’ ‘Your what?’ says Mrs Slocombe, who is more interested in the selection of pastries I have brought to this breakfast meeting, because that is what one does, isn’t it? Eat pastries at breakfast mee
8 comments
Read more

Sun Puddles

A few weeks ago, I met up with a dear friend for a meditation and healing afternoon, both of us being light workers on the spirit pathway. It did me good to re-engage in a bit of focused energy channelling (because I have let my practice slip somewhat) and during the afternoon the words ‘sun puddles’ popped into my head.  Now, I know this wasn’t my human brain thinking these words because I have never heard the phrase before; when I arrived home, I looked it up and said to myself, ‘Aaah, you mean sun spots!’ This is a sun puddle... ...there! That thing that Flora is lying on. No, not the sofa - the warm patch of sunshine on the sofa. Here are Flora and Bambino sharing a sun puddle... This proves that no matter how much they scrap with each other and try to denude each other of fur all over my rugs, they secretly share a mutual and fond admiration. I think. And here is Bambino on a sun puddle that has come to rest on my legs... It’s his casual, ‘I’m so cool’ pose. Metaphorically cool, o
3 comments
Read more