Blog 5 / February 2016
The little
daffs in a basket have finally shown their heads and today we heard the clatter
of the Storks for the first time. I mentioned to my friend in the village that
the storks had not yet arrived and in her worldly way, sucked on her teeth and
declared that they are late and should be in their nests by now. I am putting
the delay down to the daft amount of wind we have had this winter but all fear
that the world is at an end is over because the dafs are up and the storks are
back.
With the
arrival of brighter weather Mike donned his work togs and went out to continue
the epic camper parking project. Before Christmas
he made a good start and then it all ground to a halt. As we poked and picked our way through the
to-do-list I just said ….. glibly ….wouldn’t be great to get a big job done and
dusted, so we decided to move the pepper shed to make way for the camper. 
A job like
this can seem really daunting, moving a shelter that has sat there since 2008
doing a great job as a pepper and chilly growing place but it had to be moved.
Mike, as always, put his appliance of science head on and we pushed and pulled
along wooden runners using iron rods as fulcrums and within an hour the job was
completed with very little industrial language.
All that is left is the clear up and then Mike
can seriously start putting in the gradient and start planning his next moves.
I spent a
couple of hours clearing out the poly tunnel to prepare for our growing season.
This time last year we were preparing for our trip to Canada and were still
putting things to bed for our return in June, but this year it is all action
packed prep and we are looking forward to the happy growing and harvesting of
our crops. I will give the chickens one
more month in here and then they are history, I will give them the garden to
enjoy their retirement in and we will not replace them …. We have done with
chicken keeping and look forward to buying our eggs from a neighbour and
believe me, it will be far cheaper in the long run.
A
few days of bright clear sky and we are up up and away. Mike is knocking down a
redundant garden wall and I have come out to prune the buddleia. I must have 30
buddleias all over the garden and at this time of year they all need a good meaningful
prune to give them the message that the time has come to get set and put new
growth on for this season.
HOSS is
never far away when I am in the garden and Mike always knows where I am working
because HOSS is always very close by.
Once I get going on spring pruning it becomes totally consuming and it
is only the late afternoon freshening breeze and my grumbling stomach that
encourages me to clear up and get back to the house. I probably have another 2 or 3 afternoons to
get the buddleia prune finished and then there is the dahlia garden to dig over
and the rose garden to kick start ect ect ect..
Well,
we really know how to celebrate and Mike
mentioned it was the 19th February and reminded me that it was 46
years since he asked me out after a school valentines disco. We opened yet another bottle of champers and
had a little reminisce
We drank
Champaign out of the glasses my Belgian great grandmother had on her wedding table.
We are lucky to have two complete settings and a few champagne glasses and Mike
always says we should use them and enjoy the historic connection we have with
our family. This portrait has been on
the lounge wall in all our homes since we inherited her from my great Uncle in
the late 70’s.
The camper
park is really taking shape and every time Mike gets onto his mini digger I am
amazed how much work he gets through. Each bucket of mud represents a barrow full
of hard manual work. Before we know it the hole is dug, and the hard core put
in and voila we have an entrance, magic. Mike is now seriously looking to
purchase a dumper as the pile of displaced mud gets higher and higher and will
at some point need to be transported into the garden. We need to find a stress free and physically
easier way to get that next epic part of the job completed.
Our dear
old HOSS is getting slower and slower and although he looks like a puppy
jumping about at walk time, his enthusiasm is over quickly and he pulls up to
heel and walks home like a gentle old fella.
The other day I found the cat in HOSS’s cage. I wanted to put him away to keep dry whilst we
were out but the cat would not budge and he just climbed in and gave me one of
his… so what… looks. The cat got the message in the end and left him in peace
but for a moment there it looked so sweet and not very cat and dog.
It is a
year this week that we purchased Monty and brought him home, and in the process
of this acquisition we made friends with his previous owners and to celebrate
the occasion of one year in Brevands we all met up for a spot of lunch around
our kitchen table.
We sat down
to lunch with John and Lynn at 1:00 and got up again at 6:30 and had a jolly
good day in good company. I did want Mike to get Monty out so I could take a commemorative
photo but he looked up at the sky and raised a finger in the air and declared
that the weather was inclement and Monty should stay in the garage…..I did want
to exclaim…it’s a car…. but to Mike it is not just any old car, it is Monty,
and we only get him out when the sun shines.
And finally,
the ground around us is so very waterlogged that in order to get Mike out in
the fresh air we have started our trips to the beach again. HOSS loves the soft
sand and Mike also prefers to walk on sand as well so it is win win all around.
The wind was up and the sea reminded me of our holiday home at Selsey in the UK
and I had forgotten just how much I miss the sound of a big sea crashing on the
beach. We will need to time these visits to coincide with a fresh onshore
breeze at mid tide to get a walk in, that is full of happy nostalgia for us, and happy dog time for him…..
