THERE I’VE SAID IT AGAIN

THERE I’VE SAID IT AGAIN

(Vaughan Monroe, Bobby Vinton)

After 278 blogs I am repeating myself. This is not surprising as the garden goes round with the year and things come back again and again.

So I apologise if I say things more than once, like, I have been attacked by a horsefly AGAIN! - AND IT IS RAINING - what a summer! I know I go on about the rain but it really has been an awful summer. (Unless you are a rhubarb plant.) (Or a bog one.)

The garden is full of birdsong once more and the birds are queuing at the feeders. Mrs Pheasant wanders around with her four offspring. The other morning she sat down in the grassy centre of the track to he house. R was on her way out in the car. The bird, grudgingly, moved and the four chicks emerged from her feathers and skittered about before diving after Mum into the undergrowth. Just noticed the house martins are beginning to build again under the gable end - seems a bit late to me but I suppose there will give them a ready nest next year. If I go out of the kitchen door I am assailed by swallows as they try to chase me away from the nest above me.

An extract from this blog has appeared in The English Garden magazine on the Wiggly Wigglers page - about jam and chutney making. Ah! Fame at last.

Just got my Wiggly pack and the birds have got the seed - Thank you!

Fruit - this year is a damson, plum, greengage, pear disaster. Hot weather in March, then frost in April - nothing has set. The outdoor tomatoes have flowers but no fruit either - virtually no bees around to pollinate them. Or is it just too wet?

Despite providing flowers for my son’s wedding at the end of July the plants have recovered. (We did not have enough sweet peas then but were allowed to raid G and L’s garden as they were away - thanks to them for saving our bacon.)

R asks me what she can do in the garden - well, everything! No, that is a bit mean, so she has done a great job weeding the asparagus bed and the veg beds.

Now, how is this for a hobby - ditch digging! It should be in the Olympics - ditch digging and hedge-laying? and ploughing? Have just cleared out the channel between the pond and the Wendy House (for the uninitiated the Wendy House is an insulated wired up shed R uses for writing and doubles as a cheap spare room with a sofa bed.) This is heavy work and tough for an old codger so have to have a cuppa after a welcome shower.

Talking of showers - as I consistently repeat myself with the word RAIN I will correct that for today.

The sun is shining!!

(More precipitation due tomorrow)

This is tomorrow - the lawn is growing and IT IS RAINING!