Nature Unreserved

An (at times) excruciatingly painful back has forced me to reduce my already limited activity and, led me to the role of overseer as my beloved attempts to get to grips with the lawnmower and its height adjustment mechanism. Were I not such a nice guy, I could so easily get used to the role of bully! Whilst Helen carefully manoeuvred the grass cutting implement, I spasmodically used the end of my walking stick to move the trailing lead out of the way of encroaching blades. Although we’ve not been able to fend off the total invasion of the garden by the dark forces of ground elder, we are at least successfully decapitating some of it’s number who dared to encroach on our would be lawn!

At other times, I simply enjoyed the pleasure of relaxing on the bench beside the garden pond with its abundant tadpole population. Regardless of the water’s murkiness, I really find it relaxing watching the Brown Windsor Soup [aka Pond Water] swirl around and away from the water spout. My halo still gleams a little from all my efforts to re-instate the pond-pump. A simple need to ‘do’ something tempted me into applying a further treatment of the pond with ‘SludgeBuster’ but I’m not anticipating any overnight transformation. The water boatmen, skimming the surface, seemed hyperactive today.

It was wonderful, just sitting and relaxing amidst the activity of honey and bumble bees and the occasional sighting of flutter-bys. Today, for the first time this season, we were visited by a Small Copper butterfly by way of a change from the regular welcome trespass of Tortoisehell and Peacock varieties.