Home again

Home again, for a short time anyway.   And so yesterday we gave the van a good clean, with the help of Scott, who very kindly climbed onto the roof to give it a scrub.   Of course, we remembered to put the side mirror in before we started, keeping in mind the £600 we have paid recently for two new side mirrors.   We are trying not to make it a third side mirror, not yet anyway.

And the sun has been out for three days.    I need to write this blog before the weather changes to grey cloud and rain again.   How lovely it is to put out the awning and the umbrellas, and the shade cloth.

The garden is green and overgrown.    Most unusual for this time of year.  I can remember in June 2010, the garden was scorched and we had no lawn to speak off.   

I think the fox did eat our resident mole.  There are no mole hills anywhere.  I am very happy about this.   I know many people will think me uncaring to be happy about losing a piece of wild life, a national treasure, that lovely grey furry animal with large paws and poor eyesight.   The  same poor defenceless animal that makes my garden look like an excavation site.  At least the fox had a good meal.  And foxes are very needy animals.  Mangy and underfed.    

 And the rhubarb has grown more oversized green leaves and huge stalks.   This rhubarb started off as one small piece, which I broke off the rhubarb stump in Emma and Steve's garden.  I then chopped it into even smaller pieces expecting to have to give them a lot of loving care this summer, before harvesting them next summer, if they survived.   But I have already harvested the pieces once, and by the look of the patch I will need to have another chop.    More rhubarb crumble.   What did you do to this rhubarb, Chris, when you planted it in your garden years ago?    Amazing stuff!

 We also have a bumper crop of black currants.    My job this Saturday, will be picking them, and cutting the stalks off.   I no longer cut the fluffy bits off the top, on good advice from my sister, Margaret.    And no one has complained about the jam.   Walter is the resident jam maker, by the way, and he has already bought the sugar, in readiness for a jam making session on Saturday.

 The continuous wet weather, with a few days of hot sunshine, has resulted in a massive flower display.  The purple clematis putting on quite a show.

 The roses look so beautiful, and the perfume is breathtaking.

 These are my neighbours roses by the way, but they are hanging over our side of the fence.   Brilliant colours.

And fingers crossed the good weather will continue for a few more days.   England is a wonderful country to live in, when the weather is perfect and the gardens are looking fantastically beautiful.