Saturday this and that . . .

 

(Mollie Brett)

Great is the sun and wide he goes

Through empty heaven with repose;

and in the blue and glowing days

more thick than rain he showers his rays. 

Though closer still the blinds we pull

To keep the shady parlour cool,

Yet he will find a chink or two

To slip his golden fingers through.  

The dusty attic spider-clad

He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;

And through the broken edge of tiles

Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around

He bares to all the garden ground,

And sheds a warm and glittering look

Among the ivy's inmost nook. 

Above the hills, along the blue,

Round the bright air with footing true,

To please the child, to paint the rose,

The gardener of the World, he goes. 

~Robert Louis Stevenson, Summer Sun  

 

Musica  Well the sun stuck around for a whole day yesterday. Very fitting for the first day of summer!  It looks to be a sunny day today also. 

We were able to get out into the garden yesterday and do a few chores.  I say "we" rather loosely of course.  Yesterday for me was one of those bad days with my arthritis that I struggled to even go up the stairs.  It was my left knee and my right lower back.  I don't know what is up with that.  It moves around and never stays in the same place for very long.  (Thank goodness!)  

 

We picked a  big bowl of black currants from the black currant bush, so I will be looking for something to do with them today.  I don't want to make jam. It takes too much sugar, but maybe I will make Todd a pie or some such.  We discovered a whole pile of mildewed and slug bitten strawberries in the strawberry patch.  That's the problem with lots of rain  . . .  it brings out the slugs.  I had been saving egg shells and so I crumbled them and scattered them around the berries.  Slugs can't crawl over them apparently. They are too sharp. It was sad to see all the  mildewed ones however . . .  

There are still plenty to come though, so much to look forward to.  Todd says he can't see any apples or plums on our trees and only a few pears.  He says that if we don't get any fruit from them again this year, he will cut them down and dig them out in the autumn.  It makes me a bit sad to think about that.   

I remember when we planted them that first summer we moved back here to Chester. We had such high hopes that we would be enjoying plenty of fruit from them.  We lost the first pear tree we planted to fire blight, so we got another one.  

We planted a full vegetable garden the first year also, planting peas and beans, potatoes, carrots, etc.  Our soil is not good for vegetables we discovered. It is too much like clay.  We've had much more success planting things in pots, and so that is what we do now.  We plant things like beans and tomatoes.  Can't wait! 

  

Of course Mitzie was very happy to run up and down the garden sniffing and snorting.  Trying to catch up with all the goings on that she had missed while the rain was pelting down and the gate was closed.  Todd finished up clipping the hedge.  We have a huge hedge. It goes all the way down on both sides and across the back.  Its quite tall also.  I saw on FB the other day where my next door neighbour had asked for recommendations for someone to pull down a hedge and put in a fence.  I can only think she must be thinking about her hedge in the front as it goes across her front and then up the other side which isn't shared with anyone else's garden.  It would cost a fortune to get rid of the one we share in the back.  Its quite long, being the length of the back gardens of six other houses. She would need to talk to our landlord also as it is a shared hedge.  At this point I don't think Todd would really mind not having it to trim, but it is home to lots of sparrows, and I would hate to see them lose out.   

Speaking of the birds, I could hear some flapping going on late yesterday afternoon and when I checked it appeared to be Wood Pigeons.  I am not sure what was up with them.  They were flapping about and making a lot of noise.  They can get quite noisy with their wings.  I don't know if they were fighting or whatnot.    

Lots of fledglings at the moment also.  Mostly sparrows. We don't get many other varieties of birds.  I have seen Jackdaws, the occasional tit, blackbirds, starlings and the odd robin. Mostly it is just the sparrows and wood pigeons.  We enjoy them anyways, even if we don't have lots of colour to look at.  Its quite exciting when something else arrives.  The odd time we have had a gold finch and we once had a Sparrow Hawk, which we were not too happy about!  

 

I got to talk to my dad for a bit on facetime yesterday.  He is doing very well.  We didn't have a lot to talk about.  We both lead quite boring lives for the  most part I guess!  But it was nice to finally catch up and have a chat.  I had tried several times over the past couple of weeks to call him on the telephone, but couldn't catch him at home and his voice mail is full so I couldn't leave a message either. He doesn't know how to empty it.  He goes over to my sister's a lot for suppers and such. He says she is a good cook.  No surprise there!  I know she meets him at the mall for coffee and breakfast sometimes also.  Sure wish I could be there. 

 I talked to my son earlier this week on the facetime also.  He seems to be doing okay. I think he is a bit spooked by it all.  He keeps his blood pressure cuff and nitro very close and checks it frequently.  I don't blame him. 37 is awfully young to have a heart condition. I would be spooked as well. He is off work until the second week of July.  I hope he will be okay.  He says food without salt is very bland.  I told him he would get used to it eventually and then he would find food cooked with salt far too strong.  

 

And I'll close with a few pictures of Doug's boys enjoying the summer thus far.  From upper left to right, Jon in a hamster ball, Josh the mad scientist,  effervescent Jake in the hamster ball, and Jake and Josh.  Fun, fun, and more fun!

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

 

Its a picture one! 

 

In The English Kitchen today . . .  Rocky Road Brownies.  Dangerously tasty!  Especially in a house where only one of us is fond of chocolate bakes!  Yikes!

Have a beautiful second day of Summer!  Don't forget! 

 

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And I do too!