We can look forward to this Bank Holiday weekend for some warmer and drier weather after the wash out that was April and May. My other half and I have been thinking about taking part in a car boot sale for a while so it would seem like it may be the time to do it - we have both sorted out some things which we can live without.
Last weekend we were pleased to welcome our son, Carl, and his girlfriend, Beth, who live in Cheltenham, to the cottage. As indoor mixing was allowed for the first time we thought that Beth may like to visit, not having been here before. Carl had a look around his old room and took some things that he would like to have with him and also had a look in the garage where we store most of the belongings of our two children. The day was grey and damp so we couldn't enjoy the garden to its full extent, but it was a start. The house over the road is normally a holiday let but the same family has been staying for a few months during the lockdown. They have jusy moved out and I expect that we will be having a changing parade of visitors during the summer months.
We are still getting a regular Abel & Cole weekly delivery which always includes a veggie box, plus a few extras!
We also have a regular delivery from online supermarket, VeganKind, who sell some very nice vegan cakes and chocolate. This is topped up by a monthly delivery from Ocado who, since last September, offer a full range of M&S vegan ready meals.
As far as reading goes I recently read Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse' for the book club of which I am a member and decided that I should read more of her work. For the next meeting it will be my turn to present the book which will be 'Possession' by A S Byatt, winner of the Booker Prize in 1990. I wrote a dissertation on the book for my MA in English Literature a year or so later. 'Culpepper's Herbal' is very useful at this time of the year so that I can identify any new species that has arrived in the garden, I am also currently reading 'The Screaming Sky' by Charles Foster which is all about swifts who usually visit us around this time of year. The book takes a month by month view of their life. We have had three swifts with us for a few weeks and they have just been joined by a fourth. I have ordered a swift box from the RSPB which is quite a different shape from the other bird boxes.
I am still filling the bird feeders every day with sunflower seeds, suet balls and peanuts in protected feeders for the smaller birds. In the protected ground feeder for blackbirds and robins I sprinkle a seed/suet/mealworm mixture and some soaked raisind and sultanas. On the front lawn I put a seed/suet mix and more soaked fruit.
Among our regular visitors we can now include a number of pheasants (2 or 3 cock pheasants and 3 or 4 hens). One of the cocks seems to be a fighter but looks something of a wreck at the moment as his tail feathers are askew, his chest feathers are pulled out and he is bald on the top of his head. We still see plenty of blue tits, great tits, goldfinches, chaffinches, the odd woodpecker, robin and blackbird, but seem to have lost the collared doves, the long tailed tits, the nuthatches and the marsh tits/willow tits that were around in February. As always, the rooks, jackdaws and wood pigeons dominate the front lawn.
In the wild garden I have sewn many seeds of various mixes plus cornflowers, poppies and corn marigolds. In the front garden I have planted some crocosmia bulbs for some colour and have also bought some geranium plug plants for the same reason.
As a subscriber and viewer of Gardener's World I have received a steady supply of free seeds along with the magazine, so I have sewn yesterday, in the greenhouse, some zinnias, and, in the wild garden, some cornflowers.
At the moment, in the wild garden, the pink campion is flowering as is some garden escaped purple aquilegia. There are still some primroses and cowslips and grape hyacinths providing yellow and blue. Roy's metal sculptures that he created during the first lockdown are looking good.
On TV we (or should I say I) are watching 'The Great British Sewing Bee' and 'Gardener's World'. I also watch 'The Curse of Oak Island' on a regular basis which I am fascinated by, but am not sure why! The 'Pursuit of Love', from the novel by Nancy Mitford, has been our Sunday night drama viewing and I think that it has been a good adaptation with Lily James fully embracing the spirit of Linda.
As I have finished writing up Part Two (1600-1700) of my family history research project, 'The Rigmaiden Story' (now at the printers), I can turn to the addition of more listings in my three Etsy shops, of which MillCottageRetro was the first.
I have a few pieces of blue and white china (teapot and coffee pot) and some jewellery boxes waiting on the table at the moment.
I wish everyone an enjoyable long weekend including gathering with friends and family,
Best wishes,
Julie
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