Time just keeps on passing with no real plan

A few more words and a few less pictures this week. I could have taken more pictures of the tulips as they are still going, but I think I am tulipped out for the blog this week. The summer flowers will soon by out so more of that next week.

It looks like the good weather is continuing at least for another week. There appear to be no clouds on the horizon and although the temperature is pretty average for the time of year the lack of watery skies is remarkable.

The sun has been really quite warm at times and the opportunity to sit and admire the world just going about its business really has to be taken. This spell won’t last forever as the summer warmth will move in and with it some heavier weather, but to sit on a bench with a cup of coffee (or something stronger at the end of the week) and watch the swallows flitting about or the sparrow hawk swinging by is to truly soak up the wonder of spring. In a world of chat bots, robotic automation and machine learning – the calming effect of the natural world is a lifesaver.

Try it. I know the world is going mad with more and more to do in less and less time, but just to take a moment and appreciate nature is to understand what is the point of it all, (well it works for me anyway).

Thankfully, nature has no project plan, no target to achieve and no cause to promote – it just goes about the business of survival and instinct as effectively as it can, within the chaotic order of the natural world.

It's hard to capture - but the lilac trees are having a particularly good year

I am exploring the earliest reaches of the morning on a regular basis at the moment, trying to miss the traffic when I travel and trying to fit things in when I don’t. The morning light is certainly not that of summer yet, with the dawn chorus really getting into full swing at about 5am.But there is something uplifting about waking up to lots of little birds singing for all their might and knowing that if you can get home in the evening, it is likely that you will be able to walk in the garden and potter about.

We like to potter about in our garden more and more these days, maybe it is our age – or maybe it is our attention to detail as we are reasonably on top of the garden at the moment. But we know the minute we have a weekend away or a few days off then we will be behind and struggle to catch back up. With our backs turned – the weeds will spread, the pond will go mad and the slugs will discover a particular penchant for our newly planted flowers.

I make it sound like a chore, but believe me it is not. We just like the feeling of being in control rather than constantly running to catch-up. It allows a little pottering, rather than the need to be focused and efficient in our garden delivery.

Drooling Tango

I mentioned last week that we had some new neighbours that we had got quite close to. A fine flock of sheep which contained some interesting characters.

Well they have gone!

No goodbyes, no fond farewells, no exchange of addresses and no idea when. They just upped and left. I woke up this morning and realised the new silence that had descended upon us. The silence of the lack of lambs!

The wind has been blowing a little from the west which has introduced a new song to the airwaves – that of the mooing cows. But this does not cover for the relentless baaing that we have enjoyed for the past few weeks. Maybe they heard that my Aunt was coming soon, and made a run for it. I can’t blame them! We will never know.

Now I am just left with a drooling Tango – (no this isn’t a new nickname for my other half) – the smallest of our two cats who has now acquired the lovely habit of drooling when he purrs. Considering he is happy most of the time, this tends to get a bit messy and my desk is now looking like it rained where he sat and enjoyed an early morning head scratch with me earlier.

The source of our angst

Last year we invested in the construction of some new raised beds. We had a mountain of stone blocking our drive and we wanted to use it for something constructive (excuse the pun).

We designed a wingnut shaped raised bed and found a local tradesman to come in and build it for us.

During the winter it started to crumble. At first the odd stone fell off but then this became an almost weekly occurrence until there was a collection of stones around the base of the beds.

We phoned the builder who was immediately very defensive, but to his credit agreed to come out and take a look. This took many weeks to arrange and he quickly realised that this was not something we could have done, but the mortar was clearly defective.

“I will come back for a day and fix this”, he said. The promise of a solution warmed our hearts and raised our expectations.

Well, to cut a long story short and after some wrangling, he finally arrived. He slunk into the garden without a hello and started to pull off the rest of the crumbling edifice.

My better half was really unhappy, (well we both were to be honest), but she was determined to add a verbal contest to the constructive repair. Thankfully she was not there at the start.

Later on, it became quite a study in human nature that the builder was so defensive and generally pissed off at having to fix it for free that he was looking to kick-off, and the customer was so unhappy that she was looking to kick-off. It was my edifice, my creation and now look where that had got us!

And then it happened!

The interchange was fast and furious, lots of finger pointing and a fair amount of irrational accusation. I am naturally one to try to calm the situation, but there was a chest full of frustration waiting to come out from the others.  

I jumped in to try to calm things, but then the finger pointing was aimed at both me and my better half. We must have gone around and wiggled all the rocks before they had set, how else would this happen! It never occurred to the builder that surprisingly enough, we have better things to do than wiggle stones in our newly constructed edifice and generally make it crumble.

He did finish the job. It is not great – well actually it is a very poor finish. I will never be forgiven. We won’t recommend him to anyone. Mortar has replaced stone in many areas, but at least it shouldn’t now fall down.

It is a saga never to be repeated, one of those below the surface irritants that will surface in our worst days together. I am not sure what we could have done differently, but we would like to avoid a repeat, so future stone projects are off the agenda in the near future. But looking for the positive, a shared experience that will make us stronger or is the word scarred, (I am probably in trouble for mentioning it on this blog L)

A picture of the corpse would probably not be popular - so here's our flowering berberis instead

As he walked across the grassy knoll, a distant sound made his ears prick up. His instincts kicked in and he was alive to the opportunity.

A shadow moved in the bamboo and he quickly moved out of sight to hide his direction of travel.

The location was difficult to reach. It would take all his dexterity to access. He would have to focus all the way and shut off all distractions to ensure a positive result.

As he shimmied through the undergrowth the dampness in the air made his nose twitch and the smell of the shallow water made him aware that this was not a place to linger.

As he reached through the wire fence, a sound came from up ahead. Had his presence been detected?  Had his cover been blown?

Confident that his training had given him the cloak of invisibility he shuffled on down the vertical slope and onto the launch pad to jump the surrounding moat and land on the island.

His eyes were focused on the movement in the bamboo, and silently he leapt into the air landing just on the edge of the water but without a splash. Those many hours of wandering through the undergrowth and climbing trees had come in useful.

He shuffled on his belly and then as if by magic he took off and crashed into the bamboo. Grasping at the outline of his adversary and trying to brake in mid-air before he landed in the soup.

He missed and the feeling of wetness would soon be upon him. Somehow he used the surface of the water as a springboard and he was quickly back to the bamboo.

Caught off balance his adversary didn’t expect him to return so quickly. He quickly pinned it to the ground by the throat. No noise, just ruthlessness beyond belief.

The struggle was swift, and the outcome was predictable. In a matter of seconds, the adversary fell still. No more wriggling or gnashing of teeth.

The squirrel was gone!

He gripped the corpse in his mouth and took off once again. Struggling up the bank he just got through the fence without having to put his prey down. He ran back towards where he had started and dropped the corpse at the feet of an incredulous human.

Thus was the story that unfolded in front of me last weekend as our cat demonstrated why they are so much better at catching squirrels than you would give them credit for.

The season has started again!

Final picture of tulips for the season

Another weekend for gardening by the looks of it. Whilst in the office on Thursday I heard a record that I hadn’t heard for a long time.

Why is this record remarkable – it is the first record I ever downloaded off the internet. Back when the notion of peer to peer sites was just getting off the ground and music streaming hadn’t been invented, the notion of free music through peer to peer sites was the future.

This is probably not everyone’s cup of tea but a classic for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z5aPaDwAkU

Have a great weekend! 

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