8th June 2019

In the garden, it’s that time of year when nature bursts into full swing; plant life emerges from its winter dormancy in eager anticipation of summer warmth, and most of the creatures visiting the garden are engaged in rather entertaining reproductive pursuits. It’s a fascinating season. The Scots Pine, just a few metres from the lounge window, attracts a steady stream of visitors to its seed and fat ball feeders, which hang from its lower branches, while the seed scattered daily at its base draws a variety of non-feathered guests.

Sue has become quite the expert on the many bird species hopping from branch to branch in the queue for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The spotted woodpecker is her current favourite, while Mr and Mrs Pheasant have won my affection. Our resident, boisterous robin, is welcomed by us both. Less welcome, however, are the pair of rooks, the gaggle of blackbirds, and the gang of strutting wood pigeons, whose bullying antics and voracious appetites leave the smaller birds looking on in envy.

Among the four-legged visitors, a pair of Muntjac deer have taken to foraging beneath the pine at various times of the day. Naturally skittish, this particular pair seem unfazed by passing pedestrians and vehicles just 50 metres away on Welland Park Road.

As we go about our household tasks, we often pause to watch the flurry of activity in and around our banquet tree, calling to each other to share a fresh sighting. More often than not, we find ourselves standing and chatting about the garden’s wildlife, perhaps even more than we watch TV!

The nest-building and home-improvement urge seems to have spread to the Palmer family. After putting it off for quite a few years, I finally painted our bedroom, thinking that a £10 tin of Whispering Sage was an economical way to modernise our sleeping quarters. My satisfaction was short-lived, however, as Sue soon decided that ‘to match’ the new colour, we now needed new curtains, bedside lights, and, no doubt, a new duvet in due course. Apparently, the main light switch is also now the wrong colour!

Staying with the theme of rising sap, on the last day of May, Peter and I drove to Newbold Verdon to take down a very large holly tree that was casting too much shade over Sarah and Lee’s wildlife pond. The day before, I had put my chainsaw to work in Desborough, cutting up railway sleepers in the back garden of Sean’s daughter in preparation for her dad to build some steps. Surprisingly, the chain was still sharp enough to fell the holly tree without needing a touch-up. Things were going almost too smoothly, so inevitably, disaster struck. The main trunk of the holly fell directly across the pond, puncturing the liner and causing it to drain slowly. Lee spotted the dropping water level as we were clearing away the wood, so before heading back to Harborough, we shifted the over-large liner slightly so that the hole sat above the waterline and refilled the pond. The frogs can now sunbathe to their hearts’ content.

Charlotte also had a job for me, removing a buddleia that had grown more into a tree than a bush. It was taking up the corner of her back garden, right where she wanted to put her compost bin. The chainsaw had another outing, and I benefited from yet more firewood for next winter.

Jamie, it seems, caught the home-improvement bug too. He had asked if I could help him move his shed, but by the time I arrived, just 35 minutes later, he had already done it! Somehow, he had managed to lift it from one side of the garden to the other, setting it neatly against the new garage wall he had built the previous week. When I arrived, he was already busy painting it. I lent a hand by cutting up all the surplus wood from his garage project and packing it into my Fiesta. Then, after clearing out the rubbish in his garage, I took it all down to the tip on my way home. His next project? Installing a low fence along the front of his property.

On the 9th, Suraj and I had a meal at the Nepalese restaurant in Desborough, keen to see whether the standard had dropped since our last visit a couple of years ago. Fortunately, the meal was just as good as we remembered, and we agreed that we should go again.

Jamie took part in a charity event to raise money for the son of a school friend, Michael Hobbs. His son has a rare genetic condition that is severely life-limiting. The Mudder Challenge looked exactly like the sort of thing I would have loved to do, if not for this bl***y knee!

Sue continues to be heavily involved in a wide range of U3A activities. She has recently discovered that her archery skills would have earned her a place among Robin Hood’s band of merry men, while her bowling prowess wouldn’t have been out of place on Plymouth Hoe alongside Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake. Despite her busy schedule of walking, weekly cinema visits, and Sunday car boot sales, she still finds time to terrorise the garden’s resident spiders and hoover up fallen leaves within an hour of them leaving the tree!

In the middle of the month, Sarah arrived at Willow Bank, and I helped her put up a huge marquee and a large six-man tent that had been left behind by the previous owner of her house. Since the marquee was seriously big, it had been used for children’s birthday parties, so we had to set it up on our lawn. It took quite some time to figure out how to assemble them, but all the parts were there and in excellent condition. There wasn’t enough time to take them down before she and Lee had to leave that evening to visit friends. The following day, it rained, and with Sarah and Lee heading down to Oxford, the tents couldn’t be packed away until they had dried out. Two days later, Peter and I dismantled them, but by then, both had already been sold via Facebook! Lee picked them up later that week.

Sarah came out of her leg support just a few days before she and Lee flew to Iceland on 22nd May. The night before their flight, they stayed with us, and we had the pleasure of looking after Mia for the week. They stayed in an Airbnb in Reykjavík, hired a car to explore, and had a fantastic time. They were lucky with the weather and managed to visit most of the well-known tourist spots, as well as a few hidden gems they discovered along the way.

Sarah returned to work the day after they arrived home and found it quite exhausting after nearly two months off. Then, on 4th June, she was off again, this time to Cyprus with four friends. She’s still there at the moment, though she contacted us today with some worrying news: the villa they’re staying in was burgled while they were out last night. £1,500 in cash was taken, though thankfully, Sarah only lost £30. The thieves weren’t interested in passports, tablets, or laptops, which were all left untouched. The Cypriot police told them that several gangs operate in tourist hotspots and that they had likely been watched for a few days. More on this in the next blog.

On a frustrating note, my foot, knee, and now my right hip are causing me problems. I still can’t walk very far, which means I’ve had to put off long rambles with John, and when we look after Harry and Mia, their outings are limited to short walks. A few days away for a proper walking trip is completely out of the question for now. Doreen continues to give me regular reflexology sessions, and I’ve recently bought a specialised knee support that seems to be helping. Improvement is happening, but it’s painfully sloooooow!!!