FOX! FLOWERS AND FLANNEL

The internet is a strange world - suddenly the blog gets 94 hits from Mauritius!

This morning R called me upstairs and we watched a fox in the field below the house presumably hunting rabbits.

To some goodish fruit news - the Conference pear I was worried about has made a recovery and has some fruit. The Bramley apple is loaded - don't know what we will do with it all - probably give it away. The damson down the garden and the Victoria plum are also loaded but the damsons near the house and the greengage fell victim to the spring frost and are fruitless - this year.

We walked into the wood last night and the sunlight shining through the grasses and flowers was a treat. We saw a treecreeper - only the third time in nearly ten years but then they are a small brown bird and difficult to see against the bark. The ash tree branches are so low now they make a tunnel of the path beyond the beech hedge,

Reg Rambling Rector roses, usually fairly short in length of flowering are still going strong and new briars are shooting out across the grass. It grows so fast.

Being a good eco sort of chap, some of the time, I got myself an Ecotricity card for free charging of my hybrid on the Motorways. Last night I got an email to say that they are going to charge for charging! And I will need an smart phone with their Ap to do it. Of course if I go to them for my mains electricity supply I will get it free - but? As soon as they have cornered the charging point market and got everyone dependent on them they bring in the charges.

Now for some flower pics - yellow flag iris by the pond, blue knapweed, Hilary's rose and starry alliums - Christophii I think.

The upper banking is looking tidier, some of it. Where the white rosebay grows is still jungle.

We are still waiting for the paving man to come and repoint but there is no panic, anyway I would have to shift all the pots and  seats and stuff.

The asparagus, now fallow, needs weeding but there are a lot of good spears to build up the strength for next year. It only had a chickenwire surround of about a foot in height but that seems to keep the munchers away - for now.

I go on picking black and red currants - and then picking them over which takes ages. No wonder they are expensive in the shops.

The sun has come out - for one day anyway, my sister and husband are here to stay and coffee beckons.

So finally two more blasts of beauty - a vermillion rose and the simple white perfection of a water lily.