Midges galore. Sunshine. 12 July 2008

The arboretum just after Jim had mowed it. How splendid it looks.
Below: A new bed at the side of the arb.













The little fairy below graced me with her presence on top of the Fairy Hill


The 2 below are of the Fairy Hill which as you can see is very weedy and must be my next job











Good couple of days. I managed to get some gardening done in spite of the showers. I've been attacking the side of the road down to our neighbours' house. The road is ours but they have access. It's got very weedy and overgrown and the shrubs and willow at the side were
overhanging the road. It's taken me 2 days and I haven't finished yet! Still, looks a lot better for my efforts. Removed many many nettles and brambles, as usual. Cut the willows down to a stump and pulled up about 1000 sycamore seedlings. I must take a photo, but forgot to do a 'before'. Silly woman. Buster and BlackJack had great games this afternoon in amongst the greenery. At one point Buster rolled out of the montbretia and landed in front of me, looking a bit dazed. I guess BlackJack won that round.

Yesterday evening we were so cold Jim lit Stanley. In July for goodness sake. Where' s the global warming when you need it? It was a bit warmer today thankfully and we even had sunshine.

We had a very civilized cup of tea and choccy biscuit in the orchard around 5ish. Buster joined us and I had brought one of the almost empty trays of cat food for him to play with! How soft am I?

There are lots of apples this year, about 5 plums, loads of blackcurrants as usual and 2 redcurrant bushes are loaded with fruit. We also have 2 white currant bushes but are never quite sure what to do with the fruit from those. Having said all that, one of the apple trees only has one apple on it! That's mine I think.

The midges have been biting in the afternoons and evenings and in spite of lathering myself with deet and other disgusting jelly like anti bitey stuff, I have dozens of bites. They seem to have taken a fancy to my boobs lately. And my legs, ears, cheeks.......

We ran up to Canney's pub, petrol and general store to get a paper and took Buster in the back of the car to see how he was. He settled down and was just fine. Tomorrow we are going to a show at Adrahan and will take him with us. Could be chaotic!! Horses, dogs and all manner of livestock will be there. We went to a couple of the Irish shows last year and they were great fun. I particularly enjoy the horse events, although we could never quite work out which horse had won what and if a horse had won, what event it was!!

In the toilet training department, Buster has been excellent for the past few days. Fingers crossed.

The excitement of the day was our evening meal. We had fish goujons (what the hell is a goujon?), potatoes, carrots and chard. The potatoes, carrots and chard were all from our own vegetable plot. Absolutely gorgeous, especially the potatoes. We have quite a few rows of them too, so lots of tasty meals coming up methinks. Should be some broad beans soon I would think.

Each day I have been making an ATC (Artist Trading Card) and so far I've been pleased with my efforts, they've turned out better than expected. Must get Jim to scan them for me then I can put them on here.

I took a load of photos around the land 3 days ago. Really they show more what needs to be done than what has been achieved! I'll put some on.

That's about it. Should get to bed as much to do and see tomorrow.

Photos: Jim's silver car, Sandy and some of parking area needing weeding. Now done!
Star like purple flower is a close up of the large onion flower, just turning to seed.