This morning Aaron twice drove himself and me to Mole Country Stores to buy some decking with which he repaired our somewhat decayed structure. The reason for the second outing was that the new lengths were narrower than those being replaced, so we were originally two short.
Sitting in the cab of a working van took me back to my teens and early twenties. As I said to Aaron, it is often the scents of such an enclosed space that stay in the memory. The dominant one in our friend’s vehicle was that of grass cuttings. Dad’s removal van during the 50s and 60s bore the strong aroma of Wild Woodbines, his chosen brand of cigarettes. I worked alongside my father in the school holidays, and later, on Saturday mornings.
Today’s TV rugby fare included matches between Samoa and USA, Wales and Uruguay, and New Zealand and Argentina. In order not to spoil things I will say nothing about them, except that that was a lot of TV.
In the intervals between contests I took the air in the garden, where plants and wildlife continue to benefit from the Indian summer.
Hibiscus thrives;
the first colchicum or Autumn crocus has emerged from the soil;
Bees, like this one on a bidens, still coat their limbs with pollen;
and a spider wrapped up its prey with which to stock up its larder.
The sunlight enhanced the garden views such as
those from the Shady Path across the Grass Patch,
and from the Brick Path towards the Heligan one and beyond. Japanese anemones are prominent in each one.
Jackie produced her delicious chicken jalfrezi with egg fried rice for our dinner tonight. Tesco’s meat samosas made good starters. Jackie drank Hoegaarden whilst I finished the malbec.