There is now some confusion about whether it is acceptable here to drive to an exercise location. Today I confined myself to our garden and the footpath across Roger Cobb’s farm on Downton Lane. This was once a regular walk – before my knee surgeries.
In the garden more tulips are opening
and daffodils continue to please.
The Cryptomeria Bed also contains cyclamen.
From the Weeping Birch Bed we enjoy various views.
Camellias crop up everywhere.
This one stands beside our eastern fence;
some bushes bear both blooms now turning to parchment and new buds on the way.
Shrubs, like this tree peony, pruned in autumn, are producing new shoots.
Soon the remodelled North Breeze house will be shielded from view.
Our house, however, will remain visible from the Heligan Path.
On Downton Lane the refuse bags were piled outside houses for collection a little later.
One household clearly needed more than one bottle bin – possibly to help them through the pandemic.
Grape hyacinths stood on a bank opposite
celandines and dandelions blending with primroses on the verges
like this one alongside Old Rode House.
Roger’s five-barred gate to the footpath was locked, but the kissing gate beside it was accessible. As far as I know this pleasant farmer is the only one in the area who really respects ramblers’ rights.
The grass strip along the centre is well stocked with wild lamium;
blackberry brambles are burgeoning with new shoots in the hedges
through which houses on Christchurch Road may be glimpsed.
The footpath is mostly dry, but the fields are rutted with rainwater runnels.
I did not venture across the tractor-scoured terrain which offered another view of the Downton dwellings mentioned earlier,
and others on Downton Lane.
While I was thus gadding about, Jackie was producing culinary recycling. Her finely chopped ingredients were boiled on the hob;
mashed in the Moulinex;
decanted into ice cream tubs;
labelled and placed in the freezer.
Here are her directions for the preparation of Compost Soup Base, handwritten on one of my sheets of scrap paper from 2009.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s toothsome sausages in red wine; creamy mashed potato; firm Brussels sprouts; tender runner beans: and crunchy carrots and cauliflower, with which she drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Médoc.