FULL ENGLISH

So much happening.

My couture mentor has died aged 83 - at least that is the impression the family give me - Peter Falk in a Mac rather like the tattered Burberry my father would wear on the Fells.

The willow tunnel is exploding in growth and I am wondering how wise it was to create it.

I am also concerned that if I get a tractor mower the tunnel may be too narrow and I will have to use the old mower.

And we have had an explosion of feathers outside the kitchen. A sparrowhawk, I think, has got one of the collared doves. The doves will perch on the edge of the roof like sitting ducks - if doves can be ducks? They are too tame - I found one in the shed yesterday perched on the edge of the sunflower seed sack helping itself.

One of my birdbaths is going

rusty though the colour contrasts well with the catmint.

Birds - fledglings everywhere - some hyperactive like the bluetits, some mentally deficient like the robins and the blackbirds, some just pushy and greedy like the greenfinches.

Things are very picky at the moment - 5 pounds of gooseberries, six pounds of blackcurrants and a couple of pounds of raspberries.

We also had some spinach and the rabbits had some spinach and now we do not have some spinach. The bed with broccoli is like Fort Knox - chickenwire, netting etc and they still got in!

This is a beautiful white geranium.

I am still waiting for the beautiful white cosmos to flower but will not be long.

Put in some back up plants today and some verbena bonariensis I have grown from seed.

We went to one or two gardens in Ulverston on the open day on Saturday. They are so neat compared with our jungle. The weather was hot yesterday and today and very humid. The soil was warm to the touch and you could almost hear the plants growing. (Weeds and lawns especially.)

Having talked about summer weather - I think we have just had the summer - the temperature has dropped 7C in the last hour.

PS. I am now an old age pensioner - Happy Birthday to Me!

R asked me what I would like to eat for dinner tonight so we are having a Full English!