The gloaming hour

Weeding in the dark, it will never catch on. You know how it is, it’s the gloaming hour; you have done squishing all the green fly on the roses (don’t they look gorgeous?) and then you think you’ll just pull out these few weeds in the courtyard gravel nearby. And in no time at all you have an armful of weeds, a determined glint in your eye. And then there’s no stopping you. Except it’s almost pitch dark (9:45pm) and time to call it a day.

First afternoon back is always busy: pictures to take, growth to admire, black fly on the broad beans to ignore, flowers for the house. And the wisteria is out at last, that’s worth a picture now rather than waiting for the photo round up. And mowing. The lawns were positive thickets after just two weeks away. So out came the beast for a few hours of tidying. Actually I needed the grass cuttings as a mulch for the potatoes: amazing how much growth they have put on in just two weeks. So I even ventured down to the first terrace in a bid for clippings. Looks lovely. And there is plenty more to do. But I can’t get it all done in one afternoon.

Instead I went down to pick up my seedlings from Bernard, collected up my weekly loaf of home baked bread (with chestnut flour for added chewy texture), watered everything thoroughly. And wrote out my To Do list for the morrow. Early start I think; heaps to do.