Another defining moment of spring arrived the other day in the shape of a small herd of black-and-white heifers trampling through the dandelions in the field opposite. I’d like to think these are British Friesians, because they seem smaller and less gaunt than a typical Holstein, but to be honest I can’t actually tell the [...]
I probably shouldn’t admit to this, but I’ve been pinching the squirrels’ nuts again. Then again, they steal enough nuts from us, so fair’s fair. The thing is about squirrels is that they do like to lay up stocks for the spring, and who can blame them? I know that this is a subject I [...]
It rained yesterday. Coming after a relatively long spell of dry weather, it was certainly welcome in the garden and, being of short duration, it could be called a shower – an April shower indeed. Though the brevity of its duration would define it as a shower, the heaviness of the precipitation made it more [...]
It’s not just the reappearance of the swallows and martins that marks the passage of time. It’s also the day of the London Marathon again. How did that happen, when it’s only been a couple of months since the last one? Anyway, it’s here – but it’s not being sponsored by Flora this year. That’s [...]
Well, what a fantastic sight! The swallows and house martins are back again. As usual, it is the vanguard, those swift of wing outriders, that we saw today. All being well, the others will be here tomorrow, unless of course this advance party finds that all is not well and reports back that alternative landing [...]
Just recently, we had an interesting conversation with someone who described himself as a ‘wheat baron,’ growing a huge acreage of commercial cash crops for the food processing industry. Fully mechanised and chemically supported, his style of agriculture epitomises what is wrong with the way we procure our food today. The conversation was friendly. Although [...]
I am finding it increasingly difficult to fill these diary pages with the kind of light-hearted banter that our accountant once described as my ‘usual style.’ I suspect that he has long since stopped reading this diary in favour of something altogether more entertaining. For those of you similarly inclined, there are many far more [...]
Spring is firmly established now. If there were any doubts, the excited chattering of our little birds at dawn would soon dispel them. The sparrows in the dogwood at the front of the house are particularly vociferous, like a restless audience waiting for the show to start. Rising above the general babble is one clear [...]
And the Lord said, “Let there be light, and let there be sun on the patio.” And lo, the clouds did part, and the light did stream forth. And, yea, even unto the door of the greenhouse, upon the seeds therein, and hence upon the patio also. And the people were humbled. So too were [...]
Ah, the sound of summer. Not quite Joni Mitchell’s hissing of summer lawns, but not far off – our lawnmower bursting into life for the first time since autumn. It ushers in thoughts of sowing seeds, planting out, tea on the patio and maybe dusting off the barbeque. Rob the Lawn was slightly hesitant about [...]