THE OLD MAN IS SNORING

It's raining it's pouring . . 

What to do on a wet miserable day? Make blackcurrant jam of course. The fruit softens so much faster from the freezer and it only takes a short while before the jam is done.

  I am sitting listening to the repetitive drip of rain from the scaffolding outside my window as storm Freya (what a silly idea naming storms) weeps.
  More manure is on the fruit, more compost on the roses.

And now all is super soggy, grass is boggy, builders in the bedroom, builders in the living room, each room made smaller by a huge sheet of polythene, girders going in, windows going in, we are going out (except it is pouring down) so we are staying in.



The only bit of sunshine in the garden comes from the masses of catkins on the hazel in the bottom hedge.

It was Friday night - no it was not - it was Saturday at 5 in the morning when I woke with thunderous rain hammering on the roof - the old man stopped snoring!

The garden is full of spring promise - flowering currant, the ornamental quince and bankings full of daffodils.

There are abundant primroses below the woodland and an assorted tumble of bulbs flowering under the magnolia stellata which is fat with bud.





Leaves are coming - on the roses and the fruit bushes like these gooseberries on the right.

The kolkowitzia (beauty bush) is well in leaf. R asks what can she do in the garden - we need to stay off the sodden grass - and before I utter a word she says that she will not pick up sticks in the wood.

I have just seen that the dreaded ash dieback is spreading - not here yet, fingers crossed as we have a lot of mature ash trees in our little wooded area.

As a bad habit I do not label plants and this leads to mysteries - like what is this? It is not grass and I suspect it might be a type of allium - we will see.

So this afternoon between showers I need to power wash some of the paving as it has become dangerously slippery.
And now it is Saturday afternoon, breezy and sunny and no showers. R has tidied the primula bed and weeded the asparagus bed. I have cut back vegetation by the decking and cleaned that after power washing as above. 

Cock pheasant by the pond -

Time for a nice cup of decaf tea.