Yes deer

And it’s a grey and dramatically windy day out there with the threat of more storms.

I’m debating what chore to do. Do I build a compost bin out of old pallets? Go up into the forest and collect sticks for chipping? Or do indoor things? I think I will surge up into the forest – so painful when it’s hot to do this sort of stuff. The mulching of the new flower bed certainly lends itself to a coherence as well as a useful weed suppressant. And I have a bit of the pumpkin patch to cover up as well. But I need more sticks. I started up the top of the forest as that was where Michel the tree surgeon did most of his chopping in the spring. But really, it would probably be easier just to mooch down the path near the vineyard and collect sticks there. At least it is cooler and a lot less brambly. But I was being idiotically single minded. Just a quick tidy of the kitchen and up I go.

Look who entertains us when we do the washing up at the moment. Broad daylight no less.

But no. The stick searching was not to be. The rain beat me back. Huge downpours. So in between squalls I only managed to weed parts of the lower potager and add one more piece (my last, alas) of weed proof fabric to the quadrant of the bed.

Twas a lost afternoon of garden work, but then suddenly at around 8pm the sun came out and we experienced an amazing sunset and I could get into the cabbage patch and do the last bit of clearing. I have to watch the caterpillars on the cabbage. I caught two yesterday and need to inspect each one more assiduously.

The rain was so heavy it brought down the bean poles.