Summer lawns

I keep thinking this will be the last time I need to mow.

We’ve had no rain for ages and this are settling into that summer parched look.

I sit in the lovely cool of the morning in this office looking out onto the lower terraces.

And I see a lawn in need of work. It has taken me so many years of work just to turn this rough terrace into a semblance of rural lawn.

So I can’t stop now.

And I do love to gaze on my curves.

So 7am start to escape the heat and it’s done in an hour and a half. Very pleased. I even took the time to pick up the grass cuttings and use them to mulch the hornbeam hedge.

And once you have done such heroic deeds so early in the morning you positively twinkle back to the cool of the house.

I’m getting close to running out of worthy chores.  The deep freeze has been defrosted and emptied and refilled with fruit. I’ve polished silver. Made bottles and bottles of jostaberry cordial, the freezer has plenty of apricot cake.

I think the next ruse for hiding from the heat will be to make batches of pesto to freeze.  That will be fun.

But what I’d really love to do is prune back the oak tree on the guesthouse garden bank.  The gorgeous lavender Hidcotes are leaning to avoid the shade.

But I have to explain to the plants that at this time of year we are all seeking that bliss of shade. And this mountain garden is not blessed with that magic stuff.