Before this morning’s first shower descended I carried out a session of rose dead heading. Shirt sleeves kept me warm enough.
After a heavy spattering on our roof I introduced my lens to the sun briefly flirting with scudding cloud clusters.
Raindrops on various blooms and a few garden views came into view. The day, much of which I spent nearing the end of the second volume of Richard Church’s autobiography, continued with more overcast skies than with sunshine.
This evening we all dined on succulent roast pork with perfect tooth-testing crackling; crisp Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes; crunchy carrots; firm broccoli and cauliflower; tender runner beans and spinach; and meaty gravy, with which Jackie drank more of the Lieblich and I drank Hacienda Uranus Garnacha Old Vines, 2020.
Martin had been due to spend two days last week making a start on preparing the patio for repaving, but the gales made that impossible. He now plans to come for three days, starting tomorrow. Had he been due to arrive today the heavy rain and slightly less severe winds would have been no more conducive.
Raindrops created their now familiar circlets on paving pools.
I donned Jackie’s hooded raincoat and ventured out to test the waterproof quality of my Canon camera.
Before my Chauffeuse had suggested yesterday’s forest drive I had planned to photograph the various artefacts in our garden that have been subjected to the meteorological ravages, and the uses to which they have been adapted. This morning I considered that it wouldn’t matter that they were now being subjected to more of such harsh treatment.
We have found that metal garden furniture, like this rocking chair purchased from Molly’s Den, soon, despite additional coats of paint, rusts away, but still looks elegant provided it is not overtaxed. It has a few more years left in it for this extension of life as a plant pot stand.
Regular readers will know that we seldom leave the Council’s Efford Recycling Centre without having made a purchase from their Reuse Shop.
This wicker chair was one such, which served its original function for a year or two before also being relegated to a support for plant pots.
The duck perched on the chair-back was a solar light which no longer works and is now simply a water bird suitably adapted to the conditions.
Several garden lanterns also came from Efford and have been converted to containers for various items around the garden. This one really is at the end of its life.
This two seater bench from Redcliffe Garden Centre really didn’t last long until the Head Gardener reinforced its seat with bamboo stems. Despite its looks, it is now very comfortable.
We were very pleased with the bench that came from the Ace Reclaim salvage centre until that rusted away making it unserviceable for its original role, however, with the substitution for the seat of an old shelf found in the shed when we moved into this house, and with the additional support of a stack of bricks found buried in what is now the Rose Garden, it will hold a row of potted plants.
Speaking of the Rose Garden, its entrance arch lurches a bit, but is buttressed by wooden splints and supported by the stout climbing roses on its right hand side.
Even the stumperies are constructed from long dead tree stumps we uprooted a few years ago.
For our garden furniture we now confine ourselves to seasoned wood and strengthened aluminium.
This evening we dined on succulent fillet steaks; crisp oven chips and onion rings; peas and sweetcorn; baked tomatoes; and a mélange of stir fried vegetables. Jackie and Flo also enjoyed piquant cauliflower cheese, but I had no room on my plate. We repeated yesterday’s beverages – in my case that meant opening another bottle of the Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon.
While The Big Bad Wolf huffed and puffed at 60 m.p.h. overhead, battering our windows with driving spittle, and blowing open our front door in attempts to gain entrance; and I had just sat down to write an A Knight’s Tale post, my Chauffeuse asked me if I would like to look at some waves.
So off we went.
Once I had struggled in Paddy’s Gap carpark to prevent my passenger door from being wrenched from its hinges as I prised myself out of the Modus I managed just a few minutes facing the wolf’s huffing, puffing, and spitting
over the sea wall as it lashed the waves and strove to uproot breakwaters
Safe behind her windscreen Jackie’s only problem in photographing the scene was the sweep of her wipers, without which she would have been focussing solely on raindrops.
When I could stand the onslaught no more I turned just in time for a wave of water to slap my back rather than my front,
and to retreat into the car with the same difficulty as that which I had experienced on disembarking.
This evening we dined on an excellent Red Chilli Takeaway meal. Jackie’s main course was Saag Chicken; mine was Tandoori King Prawn Naga; we shared Paneer Tikka, special fried rice, garlic Naan, and Saag bhaji. Mrs Knight drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Rioja.
On a day that returned us to warmth and full sunshine, Jackie spent much of it
examining her floral babies and stretching to care for them, while I mostly wandered in and out of the garden with my camera.
We have a number of clematises;
numerous roses;
freshly blooming rhododendrons;
and more welcome alliums.
The Kitchen Path runs alongside the Pond Bed towards the arch bearing a blue solanum.
The Gazebo and Brick Paths are colourfully bordered.
Jackie’s new planting in the Shady Path Bench Bed is burgeoning nicely.
The Byzantium gladioli are standing in several beds, including this one in the Rose Garden; the pink cabana Jumbo emerges from a blue pot; the red Japanese maple still dominates the Pond Bed.
Geranium palmatums, cosmos, dandelions, convolvulus, companula, pansies, and poppies are other thriving blooms.
Florence at Fiveways stands in front of our newest bench; the Nottingham Castle replica is the oldest.
Weigela and two different erigerons overlook the concrete patio.
This evening we dined on more of the marinaded chicken with boiled new potatoes, and tender runner and green beans, with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Shiraz.
After lunch I progressed enough with ‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ to feature another handful of Charles Keeping’s splendid illustrations to Charles Dickens’s novel.
In ‘The sky was black and cloudy, and it rained hard’, Dickens has used the weather as a symbol of the mood he wishes to create. The artist has reflected this in the vertical slashes across the scene involving horses hanging their dripping heads. There is neither steam emanating from their droppings, nor smoke from the driver’s pipe.
‘Martin drew back involuntarily, for he knew the voice at once’
‘He not only looked at her lips, but kissed them into the bargain’
‘Onward she comes, in gallant combat with the elements’
In ‘They walked along a busy street, bounded by a long row of staring red-brick storehouses’, Keeping displays his skill at depicting a packed street scene with gradually diminishing perspective.
On this warm and sunny afternoon we found ourselves on a drive outside
St Mary the Virgin Church at South Baddesley, photographed by Jackie, who from
her vantage point on the carved oak bench, also focussed on
mares’ tails, Celandine, and cows crunching hay opposite.
I wandered around the graveyard reflecting that the scenes reflected an eternal spring for those buried here.
Most poignant was this angel and child sculpture.
The crochet-embellished post box on Pilley Hill now sports an Easter Bunny. Nearby a sunflower embraces a post, and bluebells sweep down a bank.
For dinner we enjoyed more of Jackie’s wholesome chicken and vegetable stewp, accompanied by bacon butties, with which she drank sparkling water and I finished the Red Blend.
This morning, with minimal help from me, Jackie assembled the solar powered water feature bought yesterday. This is not its intended resting place but it has been left on the patio for the sun to charge it up.
On this hazy afternoon we drove to Mudeford and back.
I wandered around the harbour with my camera.
First I focussed upon people taking in the main view, before making my way to the north-eastern side for what I thought would be the best almost monochrome shots.
Take particular note of the elegant swan.
Allowing a glimpse of yellow a sailboarder walked in the water to the shore, where, unbeknown to either of us,
Jackie completed the story as he carried the sail across the sward;
she also photographed the masts laid up for winter, the street lamp, and gulls in flight, one of which perched atop a post.
Now back to my swan and the irresponsible chase. Even when fleeing for their lives swans take a long time to achieve lift-off. Like a bouncing bomb, our Cygnus managed to escape, and the dog returned empty mouthed. The photographer in me saw this as an opportunity; the human being, as a totally irresponsible act by the owner/s who had loosed two such animals in what should be a safe haven.
This evening we reprised yesterday’s fusion dinner with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Cabernet Sauvignon.
Early this sultry morning, before setting off to meet her sisters for lunch, Jackie carried out necessary garden irrigation which I continued after enjoying the lunch she had left prepared for me. After giving pots a fresh-water- and myself a sudorific-drenching I proceeded to a little dead heading that I had failed to ignore.
Aaron, working at Mistletoe Cottage, dropped in for a chat.
Later, my clammy shirt now cold, like James Joyce’s wet bed sheet (“When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold.” – ‘A Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man” ),
I wandered around with my camera.
The random photographic results are all labelled in the gallery that can be accessed by clicking on any image each of which may be enlarged in the usual manner.
This evening we completed the watering and I cut off a few more heads before dining on spicy pepperoni pizza and plentiful fresh salad with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Carles.
Jackie has a penchant for before and after photographs.
When I visited Sears Barbers in Milford on Sea for my first haircut since they reopened after the coronavirus lockdown it was inevitable that she would record
before,
during,
and after Peter’s administration.
On our way home at lunchtime we had noticed windsurfers over Barton on Sea, and returned later in the afternoon to watch them. They had gone, so we made do with
socially distanced walkers on the clifftop against the background of clouds over distant hills and the Isle of Wight.
We continued with a brief foray into the forest where, at the Pilley end of Bull Hill, the Little and Large of the equine world grazed in a field.
The much smaller pony left off its feeding and trotted over to visit me. It was able to ignore the fly crawling towards its eye.
Perhaps the larger companion, giving every impression of posing as a spectral steed, was more vulnerable to the insect pests, as it sported full PPE in the form of masks designed to prevent entry to eyes and ears with the addition of a summer rug, light enough in colour to reflect the sun’s rays.
As always any clicked image gives access to its gallery – each picture can be viewed full size by clicking the box beneath it, and further enlarged with additional clicks.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s sautéed potato topped shepherd’s pie; crunchy carrots, cauliflower, broccoli; tender green beans, and tasty, meaty, gravy, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Rioja.
In recent days goldfinches have joined the ranks of birds swooping on the feeders.
We think we may be harbouring an extra long tailed variety.
Mum’s care home is now in total lockdown. Several of us telephoned her in turn.
I believe that is now widespread. Jackie photographed this conversation through a window at Barton on Sea. The son had left flowers at the door.
The cliff top grassed area was as crowded as any other spring Sunday afternoon, except that all the groups appeared to be keeping their distance from others.
Mudeford harbour was even more crowded, yet people picnicked
and played;
walked dogs;
and occupied benches in company
or in solitude.
Gulls simply winged it overhead or
over the shore at low tide,
while a pack of motor cyclists came along for the ride.
Early this evening Jackie nipped out to photograph Elusive Eric the pheasant, who evaded her, so she settled for
primroses,
cyclamen,
the Cryptomeria Bed,
the Dragon Bed,
daffodils and wood anemones.
This evening we dined on succulent duck breasts roasted with new potatoes; with crunchy cauliflower, carrots, and Brussels sprouts. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the El Zumbado Garnacha Syrah, this time 2018 vintage.
Having now reached episode 7 of The Crown series 2, we have decided that enough is more than enough. There is too much intrusive invention for our liking.
This morning I visited Sears Barbers for Peter to cut my hair. Knowing that later today we would be in for a storm which I believe has been named Brendan, we left home an hour early to watch a clear blue sky constantly changing as the relentless wind whipped the waves, scudded the clouds, and precipitated driving rain.
As we approached the coast, passing the White House perched against the indigo skies,
a lichen covered thorn hedge gave testimony to the purity of the nevertheless untamed air.
Even just after 9.30 a.m. the coast road was devoid of daylight
as dark clouds dominated.
A few dog walkers hastened along
beneath skies changing by the minute.
Some gulls struggled on the thermals,
while others hunkered down on the car park tarmac;
I do hope it was a piece of bread that this one gathered up for breakfast.
The waves were simply choppy at first,
but soon increased in ferocity.
The rain was brief but did send me back into the car before we moved further along the coast where
surging spray pounded the sea walls
their cream-laden fingers grasping at
the sturdy breakwaters.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s particularly spicy pasta arrabbiata and tender runner beans with which she drank Hoegaarden and I drank Concha y Toro Casilliero del Diablo 2017.
