Brambles, bracken and broom

My three Bs.  The dread things one encounters while strimming in the forest and the lower terraces.  Plus stinging nettles and grass.  But they don’t fit the alliteration.

Nor verbascums, and other mystery plants.  I have to strim carefully as there are some wonderful carpets of flowering thyme underneath the drying plant matter.

So I swing from the hips and make sure they stay intact but the other unwanted weeds come down.  I can’t remember how many terraces I did today. But I think it’s two. 

Plus a lot of the new growth in the forest.  I have thwacked the monnaie de pape – the silver dollar flowers which have now dried and are about to spread their seed all over the shady oak forest. I just gave things a helping hand.  Lunaria? I can’t remember the latin name (blame it on a fried brain from the heat and the hot work).

The one good thing about the forest was it was cool and shaded.  I didn’t start early enough today.  But I stopped around lunchtime. And boy did I stop.

I knew I had to spend the rest of the afternoon pottering quietly indoors.  So I have tidied my desk, written lots of proper letters, and baked two tarts.

I made an apricot and almond, and a jostaberry. It was mad using the oven as it’s still hot here.  But they are delicious and freeze well. So that’s a job done.

I took a tentative look at the vineyard as I worked and it is appalling. You can barely see the vines for the bracken and the weeds. And there are some chestnut seedlings that have turned into trees. 

I must try and get down there and tame it slightly.  It’s a disgrace.