Catching up on return

Back after a few days off the island. Returned to find shrubs and plants have grown amazingly in such a short time. Everything is looking fresh and abundnant with the yellow poppies in bloom (welsh poppies?) and even the rosa rugosa starting to bloom. While away I saw a wonderful display of Aqualegia and so was delighted on my return to find one of the plants donated by a friend was indeed an Aqualegia. So hopefully I can encourage lots more to grow in the border.

In my absence a friend has also sprayed the old garden with weedkiller as the first stage in the regeneration process. I’ll take some photos later as I want to have a “Before” and “After” record. It will take some weeks for all the weeds to die off, then it’s hoped the dead grass can be burned off to reveal the edging around the old borders. This was done with stone and these need to be dug up as they will damage any machinery used to level off the ground etc. Still not sure what I will do once the land is cleared – it needs to be fairly low maintenance so will no doubt include a large amount of lawn, but am also hoping for borders for flowers and vegetables and a seating area, as the 5ft wall will provide shelter from the summer “breeze”!

Also see that some young cattle stock have been turned out into my field which is used for summer grazing. There are about 15 of them and they are very funny as they act just like adolescents! Often they just graze but every now and then they start charging around the field. Or someone walks past and they run up to be nosey. The cat went out for his daily constitution this morning and ended up with 15 coos hanging over the fence watching!! Unfortunately I couldn’t get my camera in time as that would have made a priceless photo.

And the ewes in the field in the front of the house have got wee lambs with them too. I do love this time of year with all the young animals around – almost makes me want to turn vegetarian. Then a ewe eats one of my shrubs and I immediately change my mind!!

Fitzi-cat is still unwell and is now losing lots of fur, so I’m awaiting a phone call from the vet to discuss the next course of action. Given the traumatic last vet visit I’m hoping we can minimise the stress to all concerned this time.

Weather today is mild but there is a bit of a sea mist around and actually I think it might even be raining at the moment. That will please the farmers who spread fertilizer on the land a couple of weeks ago and have been waiting for rain to wash it in!