After all the long days of hot sunshine, it was bliss to wake this morning in the early hours and hear the sound of rain and to smell through the open window, that fresh, sweet scent.
Walking out into the garden when I eventually surfaced, the whole garden seemed to be a happier place as the plants drank the moisture from overnight and everything just seemed brighter and happier, including this tiny plantain
<<< bejewelled with the morning dew like drops of liquid crystal.
But there is a blot on the weed encroaching landscape >>>
This huge skip, which is now mercifully loaded with all that cannot easily be recycled and is now ready to be picked up and taken away. Hooray! I shall be so glad to see the back of it and see all that junk beyond salvage towed away leaving car parking space for visitors here.
Today, was an empty headed, slow mo, pottering gardening sort of a day. I need them as following the stroke, I still find it difficult to get my head around lots of information landing from all directions. With the American airbases nearby we get a lot of air traffic above us but there were things flying in the garden here today that are very attracted to fallen apples..
A lovely golden bee seeking the last pollen from the everlasting sweet peas and as for the orchard floor .... the wasps were in their element. I can honestly say that I have never ever seen so many drunken wasps! On the apple, as seen above, there were 18 in there, most of them unable to fly when I disturbed it. I had to spend quite some time on my hands and knees gathering fallen apples (because of the dog) and dumping them, wasps and all on the compost heap, where they will rot down and in two years time, whoever the new owner of this old place will be, there is some well rotted nutrient for future growing of vegetables in this old farm house. The bramley apple tree is nearly ripe enough to use.
Meanwhile, sadly due to all this extraordinary dry weather, the fallen apples are now decorating the compost heap. Now I need to explain that there are three massive compost bins her (loosely based on the New Zealand style) So ... what I put in now, will take two years to fully compost down. I am about to get a helper to dig out the excellent compost started a few years ago, to go on the veg patch. only then can I start bin number three with a bottom layer of nettles & hollow stemmed stuff, to give the base a good start. One needs patience for nature to take her course but with a three bin system that is easy. Yes I know, there are those reading this that may say "I haven't got the same room as you." ... but I did it with far less land than this. I had a small garden but I had a 45 gallon (scrounged drum) wormery, they are amazing creatures, they provide very friable compost in a short space of time .....and on top of that I kept four chickens in an end of terraced back garden. Except for "moult" an approximately six week period when they do not lay, those four kept me in eggs all the year round and with extra to give away.
The 15 rescued chicks are all growing apace and being well taught by Beatrice the hen
and soon we will be able to tell the boys from the girls and they will be able to go in the big run and scratch around in the earth in the vegetable garden before they find homes.
All I need now is a sheep or two to eat the weeds.
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