I HAVE A DREAM

Well, I have had a dream for many years but now I am probably past realising it in any large way.
Asked what I would have liked to have been had I not been a medic I reply, independently wealthy.
I have a dream of being rich, buying up farmland, putting a fence around it and going away - rewilding it. Of course this would fall foul of agricultural policy, assorted laws etc and anyway I have not won the lottery - yet!
So I was given the book Wilding by Isabella Tree for my birthday and therein was a managed version of the dream - mine was more chaotic though.

The pond has had water all through the drought and is now overflowing after a downpour or two. One minute deluge, the next sunshine. Rain pours over the gutter from the roof in a waterfall as the clouds empty.

Monday evening, there is a humming bird hawk moth on the buddleia outside the kitchen, the mallard duck sits by the pond, at times the air outside the back door is full of Martin wings. 

The lawn grass is regrowing though there are bare patches where, in the winter, moss took over and the tough ribwort plantain in patches.

They say abundant lichen growth is a sign of clean air - whilst we were away in Wales we came across this seat at the gallery Workshop Wales - nuff said. It was too special to sit on and damage the growth though.

At the end of the week my cousin from New Zealand is coming to stay, an expert on organic gardening. I am biting my nails! So much is scruffy - but perhaps that is what our garden is all about, vaguely managed wildness mixed with more formal areas.
At least the blue agapanthus are out - they seemed to grow wild in Auckland.

What the garden needs this Autumn is loads of good manure, I will just have to get on with a bit of shovelling.

There are young chaffinches - see left - all over the place and, as shown on the right, greater spotted woodpeckers, goldfinches and tree sparrows above a cock pheasant hoping for a discarded seed or three.

One sad fact is that there are always one or two fatalities from window collisions no matter what we do. Other than stopping feeding - ? So far just one small chaffinch.

I have cut the beech hedge with my late father in law's electric trimmers. They must be forty or fifty years old but still work fine. It is just me that is not working so well. I had hoped the gardener who moved the rose bed would do it but he never answered my phone call and message.

There is still colour in the garden though not as much as we would like, the causally sown cosmos are coming out and the cutting bed is doing well.

And we have yet more courgettes!

R is making the red fruit salad - a pound each of rhubarb, blackcurrants, strawberries and raspberries cooked with sugar - add the brandy to taste at the last moment. It freezes well (before adding brandy).