Summer at last

Apart from a brief flurry in May (when we in the south of France – where the Cansfields are at the moment), we haven’t had a lot of sun this year. It’s been nearly all rain with temperatures remaining low. The Met Bureau says this was because the jet stream decided to stay too far south (where it generally lives during the winter months). Then, last Friday, the Met Bureau, with great joy and delight, announced the jet stream would be moving to it’s proper position. Today we felt the resultant weather conditions. It was hot, sunny and blue sky everywhere and butterflies frolicked in the warmth.

A welcome summer visitor

So, I guess, summer has arrived if a little late. After the constant rain, it is a wonderful change for the better. It also makes the mowing a lot easier and leisurely when I’m not racing to beat an inevitable deluge.

The poodles went off with Kate for a haircut late this morning so I donned straw hat and sunglasses and started cutting the grass. And it was very hot. I’m fairly certain it’s the first time I’ve broken into a proper sweat this year.

The best thing, however, was upon completion, I had a well earned beer, having finished the course of antibiotics. After two weeks and two days without any alcohol it tasted pretty good. To be fair, I actually had my first one yesterday but I felt like I’d earned the one today.

The poodles returned looking like new and we set off for the park. There was a noticeable change in their behaviour now their thick coats had been removed.

Short back, sides and head

Most of the day was spent in the garden, weeding, clearing out the herb table which has become overgrown with unwelcome weeds, the aforementioned mowing. A glorious day indeed.

A while ago, we planted a load of snapdragons and they are now out and looking superb. The odd thing is that single plants appear to have different coloured blooms. This is rather odd but delightful.

Multi-coloured snapdragons

Speaking of gardens…on Saturday we returned from London, made a cup of tea and went and sat on the patio. Mirinda’s face suddenly took on a look of what can only be described as shock. I followed her gaze. The Crazies had hacked back the overhanging trees near the back of the house.

I was vaguely irritated because it reduces our privacy somewhat. On the other hand, it means we can now see into their back garden from the upstairs windows.

Their garden is a MESS! From the roughly hacked ends of unfortunate trees and hedges, there is an ancient, weed ridden rabbit hutch and a less than appealing battered grassy area (I hesitate to call it a lawn). The beauty of this is that we feel somewhat vindicated after being accused of hacking our own garden so long ago when they went all crazy over the two inches of property we’d potentially stolen.

The only reason I mention their landscaping efforts (apart from gaining malicious mileage at their expense, of course) is because today I found out what prompted this sudden desire to allow more sun into their back garden. That, incidentally, was Mirinda’s second thought. However, her first thought was actually correct.

When I was out walking the dogs I ran into Mrs Crazy and she informed me that the builders will be starting this week on their extension. She wasn’t explaining the ex-overhang and demolition of all plant life, rather she was letting us know that a massive great scaffold is about to be erected at the back of their house.

The great thing about this is that Mirinda will now get to see how long it takes to get an extension and just how annoying it is. But, rather than dwell on something I’m sure I’ll be reporting on in the future, here’s some more snapdragons.

More colours