The Journey: Just a little snooze


My purple rose has turned pink! Maybe it is from the rootstock or maybe other climatic changes. No idea!

Having a little snooze was my plan for this afternoon, but a pesky fly disturbed me and it's sticky hot. I wouldn't normally be having an afternoon snooze but I picked up a tummy bug and virtually slept yesterday away. I'm feeling much better today, albeit lacking in a bit of energy and about 1.5 kg lighter into the bargain, so it's not all bad news. Weight had been creeping back on, so it will be nice to readjust my diet back to what it should be to maintain my lower weight.

You've heard of "Where's Wally?" Well here is "Where's the bee?"

Just in case you didn't find the bee, here is a close up of the
bee enjoying the marjoram

Hay cut and turned

Ian bless him, has been cutting for hay again, even though he got a slight dose of what I have. At least he wasn't floored by it. The weather forecast was a bit iffy, but we were determined to get the haymaking out of the way and we have had quite a few forecasts promising rain that hasn't materialised. Only today it did materialise and we had a short torrential downpour, right over us. The radar didn't show much else in either direction for miles or kilometres depending on what you work in. At least now it is not as critical as we have got the majority in that we need for a year and plenty of good hay for eating, which is all under cover as we managed to get the other half of the ski hill baled.

Rain bouncing off the cars and caravan. Not what we
wanted and while I write there is more.

A peacock butterfly also enjoying the marjoram. It sure is a
good insect plant

The apples are growing well on this tree this year. Finally! Not
sure how long we have had to wait for a decent crop

George is getting more curious now and braver

Hopefully the addiction to watching the weather forecasts and radar will be soon over, at least quite as avidly as we do when it comes to getting the hay in. We were watching the weather forecasts with trepidation earlier on this week and had hoped to get the bales in at a more leisurely pace than we did in the end. Ian had just finished baling and sat down to eat when I told him that there was a threat of rain for the following day and was likely to be earlier than we hoped, so straight after eating we were both back out in the field gathering up the bales. There were still 20 left out in a separate area but we were too tired to get them, we were just hoping for the best for good weather the next day. As it turned out, I woke early and saw the radar was not looking good and we were out before breakfast collecting the remaining 20. Of course the rain didn't really come to much at all but at least there was some and it didn't rain on our bales of hay.

Freddie is such a sweetie

Blackcurrant bushes are bending under the weight of berries

We have also been collecting the berries. I haven't had to do this job for a few years as a friend often did that. Our friends are coming later on in the summer though and the berries are ready earlier anyway. At least I got some jars of blackcurrant and gooseberry cordial done in preparation for our workshops. I have also been drying herbs, turnip leaves and hollyhock flowers. The herbs are for flavouring and teas, the turnip leaves for adding to soups in winter and the hollyhocks either for adding to soups, for teas (a nice soothing one for sore throats) or for dye. The dark purple, almost black hollyhock flowers that I have give either a lovely purple or silver grey colour depending on the preparation and the fabric used.

My slightly messy garden but you can see mallow, marshmallow
lupins, poppies, Jerusalem artichokes, some fronds of asparagus
Rosebay Willowherb for future tea making and lots of weeds

Lady V feeling warm

I also got some cleaning done at our flat in preparation for our run of visitors over the next few weeks. I even managed to clean the windows - well sort of. They are still a bit smeared but at least you can see out of them when the sun shines. It is really looking like a home now, as long as you do not open the door of the storage room, where there is hardly room to walk. That will need sorting again later on in the year when we move back to living in the village, rather than out on our land.

Mari looking large and yes, still no babies have appeared this
week and so the waiting continues

Aggie has been feeling the heat too and hogging the water
bucket. We had to give her shower earlier yesterday to
cool her down

While I was cleaning Ian stayed out on the land with our young helper for the day. He's a bit shy, so conversations can be hard, but he is a good worker. Ian and he moved a stack of old wood for another hugelkultur, cut off dock heads to stop them spreading even more seed and mowed the grass. There hasn't been much grass mowed just lately, as it has been so dry the grass has been growing slowly. There are some benefits to the drier weather anyway.