The beginning of Summer – 31 March 2024

Allegedly the beginning of British Summer Time. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Having said that, today was a lovely day if you were in the sun and out of the wind. Unluckily for us, we were working in the back garden which is still in the shade and in the canyon the wind whistles through. Today’s task was to clean out the wee plastic greenhouse, clean and de-gunk the things that were going back in and to bundle up the pots and things that were going out. I spent most of the time scrubbing and cleaning the tools and the ‘keeper’ pots. I ended up smelling of Jeyes fluid. But as Scamp said, the greenhouse, which doubles as a shed, was looking a lot better. How long it will stay that way I wouldn’t like to say.

We started just after lunch and were finished much quicker than I’d anticipated. With the changing of the clocks very early this morning we ‘lost’ an hour, but had a lot more light in the early evening. It’s good to see the evenings lengthening, especially if we get some sun too. Scamp was delighted to see that some of her fritillaries in the front garden had flowers. We grew them some years ago, but couldn’t sustain them over the winter. Hopefully we’ll have more luck with these ones. I need to get some stakes cut to help prop up the old apple tree in the back garden. We found some likely pieces of wood today that might be strong enough for the job. Probably two will be enough to take the load, especially once the fruit starts to set.

I took a walk to St Mo’s later in the afternoon and one of the first shots I took got PoD. I thought it was just a big bud on a branch of a tree, but later noticed the telltale sign shaped like a horses hoof that tells you it’s a Horse Chestnut. Quite chuffed to find that there’s a horse chestnut tree nearby. Something to watch out for in a few months. When I was on my way back home I spotted two butterflies, probably Peacocks. Another sign that things are warming up.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Curry made with the leftovers from yesterday’s chicken and a Spice Tailor kit. Quite rich tasting with just enough spice to brighten it up.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that they now have a prospective date for the works to be completed around the middle of April. Glad they’re having a short holiday in the Lakes and using half of the time to go on a map reading course. Sounds interesting and very useful for the pair of adventurers and mountaineers.

Both Scamp and I are feeling better rested now even if we were working in the afternoon. We’re still a bit drained with all that has been going on at the weekend. Hopefully a ‘normal’ week will put us back on track to be ready for summer!

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