Bloody circus

It was almost sunny for the entire day today. What a difference a bit of blue sky makes. And the anticipated storms of 8pm were only a very slight drizzle.

In order to celebrate properly, I took to the garden and, firstly, mowed the lawn. To say it needed it would be as big an understatement as saying that Titanic ran into an ice cube.

The long grasses of the African savannah

Of course, the grass was pretty sodden so it kept chugging up the blades and stopping the engine but eventually I managed to make it all look a little more presentable. Of course the path makes an excellent mowing strip as well as somewhere to bounce the mower in order to rid it of clumps of grass.

Still lush but lots shorter...and I think I've lost Day-z

The bit behind me looks much better as well. Speaking of which, I also planted the standard rose we bought weeks ago. It’s been sitting down the side of the house, propped up by the big blue recycling bin. It’s a lovely yellow, scented, standard rose and we’re hoping for great things from it.

It’s a David Austin English fragrant rose called Graham Thomas so, from now on, will be called Graham. When it flowers (repeatedly, apparently) it should look like this:

Graham's label

The day was so beautiful that, of course, we also went for a walk in the park. I decided to treat the poodles because they’ve been stuck inside for a week and took them all the way around. We met lots of other people taking their grateful dogs on sun-laden jaunts, all happily wagging their tails and full of the joys of being let out after a month of rain.

All was gorgeous until we reached the football pitch near the golf course. Last week the circus was in town and they always pitch up there but usually the rain is kept to a minimum for the duration of their stay. Of course, this wasn’t the case last week. In fact, normally I get to see them gradually getting everything set up for the big event on the weekend but, apart from seeing the trucks at great distance from the path into town, I’d seen nowt of their visit.

I may have seen nowt of their arrival and set up but I certainly saw a lot of what they left. They have devastated the park!!!! Ghastly great ruts of churned up grass and mud. It looks like a battle field after a jolly good rampant shelling from the Panzer Division of the German army.

Where picnics once took place

Honestly, I felt like crying. Only a few short weeks ago, I watched families frolicking, playing bat and ball games, giggling in the sun, eating home made treats on the grass. Groups of teenagers for once smiling as they laid back absorbing much needed vitamin D. Hundreds of dogs chasing hundreds of tennis balls. Now, all that’s left, is a desolate wasteland of truck treads.

Sob, sob

And with more rain forecast, it’s going to take a while to get back to anything approaching usable. It makes me so sad.

Rather than end on such a miserable note, here’s a ladybird that was happily sitting on the lavatera, watching me mow earlier in the day.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz