BACK TO DROUGHT

Sunday - 
Saturday's gale blew many of the shingles off the Wendy House roof so will need to get it repaired - with felt I think.
We have great tits in a nesting box, moles in the lawn (actually the moleman has caught four and we wait and see if there are any more), hair that needs cutting, paths that need chippings, a spring that needs a drain, paths need hoeing . . . and I sleep, eat and dream - ennui!

Paths.
From the house -

To the pond

 and up to the wood where the red campion, and the odd white is in full flower, where the butterflies are flittering in the sun.


 

This is the view from my seat at the far end, back to the moss clad dry stone wall, over the moley lawn, past the white birches and across the veg beds to the house

And flowers come and go (so do my seedlings - mice, pigeons, rabbits, slugs - if I grew them think how successful I could be.)

White camassias I love, here with an oriental poppy. The camellia in the wood is still flowering and the may blossom (hawthorn) is like heavy snowfall on the trees.

The azalea (luteum) is throwing drift of scent into the edges of the woodland and glowing in the sunlight. and the knapweed thriving in the shade under the big sycamore.

Elsewhere flowers are filling the beds - the closer together they are the less chance weeds have to grow - or, at least, the less chance I have of spotting them. Anyway, what gardening have I been doing?

Just sown more carrots, again, earthed up potatoes, put out cosmos and courgette plants, the latter with bottomless flower pots with a copper strip around to deter snails and slugs.

And now back to drought - local farmers worried, little rain for more than 2 months, winter barley failed with February rain so sowed wheat - not germinated with drought.

R is busy dead heading the poppies to keep them flowering and I have noticed the other poppies sown last year, especially the Californian ones, are now flowering having survived the winter.





The rhubarb experiment is coming on Okay with new growth so I might pull the rest of the old stems soon.

The house is now full of flowers - the first roses and especially heaps of the beauty bush - kolkwitzia amabilis.
It has grown enormously since last year and we have branches in vases all over the place.

And here is the remains of a mole hill in the long grass with one weed growing from it - 

Even weeds can be attractive.
Back to mundane matters the chipping for the paths and slotted piping for the drain have arrived. It is going to be busy early next week with the gardener, the roof repairer and the boiler man all coming.

Finally the house martins are building under the eaves on three sides of the house -  a joy to watch - I know, they make a mess - so put newspaper under the nest and put that on the compost heap.