FRUIT, FRUIT, FRUIT - AND BIRDS

We go away and come back and the rose garden is nothing like it was - a lot of dead heading needed. This is how it was before we left after R had dead-headed them. Mind you the assassin had also been at the alchemilla chopping them back so they would not seed whilst we were away. You can see the damage on the right in the foreground.

Fruit - redcurrant - I have saved enough from the blackbirds to make a few small jars of jelly - nothing quite like roast lamb gravy, mint sauce and redcurrant jelly with  a slab of bread.

Blackcurrants in full flood - we have too many bushes so I think a cull is in order.

Raspberries doing well again - we have some golden ones but R will not eat them as they are not red.

Strawberries - going over a bit now - the bed needs reorganising with the plants more on ridges and further apart.

Courgettes (they are a fruit) at last under way.

Plums need thinning, damsons disappointing, apples and pears - we will see though the pear has blister mite - and we do have about six greengages.

Bird bits - the ducks return from time to time - she likes to sit at the exit to the pond. The pond is full of spirogyra - I lift it out by the rakeful.
Despite the rain the ground has absorbed it all and the stream hardly runs. The pond, however seems to manage to be full so something is coming in from somewhere.

This is a scraggy young female pheasant under the feeders. I see the birds regularly in the garden and in the field at the back. Every so often the cock's squawk shatters the peace.

This pic shows the house from the far end of the garden with the, as yet, not really tamed bank below the fruit beds. I used to call them veg beds but as we mainly grow fruit there now . . .

I have begun to cut the top banking which is a slog. 

Between that and the field is a hedge of Rosa rugosa. The soil is poor there but it is getting taller and thicker. Originally it was supposed to be a mixture of red and white but most of the bushes seem to be red.
Anyway it is a refreshing change from a conventional hedge.

We have two colours of anthemis and they are both flowering prolifically. The deeper yellow went on into the late autumn last year - great value for money and effort - well not much effort - shove it in, leave it.

The brachyglottis (senecio) that we did not prune is also in full flush. Some people do not like these but their grey foliage and abundant yellow flowers give a good reward. They are also tough and withstand much maltreatment.

So the hack back has begun, cutting the long grass and carting it to the far heap. Having moaned a bit about it - I have to say it does look better afterwards.

Just done one of those quiz things on Facebook to ascertain my political inclinations.
I came out rather similar to Bill Clinton, a bit left and a bit liberal, so I hope my political position is not compromising.

'Nough said, lots to do, like having cups of tea and biscuits. (Biscuits are my downfall.)
(There speaks a grazer.)

Actually just back from nine days in deepest Wales internet free and it is cold, and it is raining and there is a woodpecker on the nuts.
More when I have regained my sanity.