The hedge,,,,,,,,,

Sitting over my bowl of porridge, thinking I ought to let the family and you know that I am still here and carrying on in my normal way, although my hands are a bit stiff due to the cutting of the overgrown hedge out front. They also have been stabbed in several places by thorns. They are also feeling the strain of regular practices on the accordion. We have been invited to play for a Sunday afternoon lunch, whose hosts will have  guests from Ireland staying with them so they thought it would be a good idea to have an Irish based singalong. So that is what I have been doing during this spell of continuing hot weather.....practicing and sorting out our music, which is a job which had long needed doing. 

As for the front hedge, this again  has been an ongoing project, which has been frequently started but then left as I was diverted away to other projects, or we hit a patch of monsoon type weather which kept me indoors. But the hedge has got too big and scruffy, so I am on a mission to carry on getting it cut down. It will be a slow job, because it is a very big hedge now, and I only allow myself thirty minutes, (or one full wheelbarrow load of clippings) per day because I have several other projects on the go which I have to share myself with. 

The Hedge

........ and I have nearly made a break through from one side to the other.

And then I went round the other side of the Chicken Pen and clipped the blackberry shoots which had regrown since last I cut them back, which was in June. And that was me done for the day in regards to outside work because by then the sun was out in its full force,  and I needed to retreat indoors.

 But the chickens were happy because I lobbed some of last year's butternuts over the fence at them, although at first they thought they were being bombed by unknown forces so went into a bit of a panic. I shouldn't have put them into a fright, but it was too much of a bother to have to wrestle with the tangle of weeds and nettles to get to their gate so over the fence the butternuts went. 

Missed cooling off by paddling in the river this year, but after I saw the size of fish which swim in the river when several were washed up on our land in the recent floods, I feel a fear about putting my toes at risk of being eaten. And I can be silly and eccentric about this because I am of a respectable age to be so. I suppose I could wear old shoes, but this thought has only just occurred to me, ........ meanwhile, ..... if we have another hot summer next year, global warming and all that, I am of a mind to buy a plunge pool so I can cool off. Not sure where I would put it though as all available space where it could be placed would put me in full view of anyone passing. So perhaps, shoes in the river might be a better solution for cooling down next year!

 Off to attack my washing up, which seems to grow at the same rate as does those damn blackberries out on the smallholding!

Bye for now,

Vx