Saturday 24th June 2017

I won't go on about the cold war between us and the neighbours, but clearly I am. But, not really a way to see out of it to be honest, we both feel that the other side has been slighted, and so it goes on.

It was a grey day, cool and windy so no real point in going out orchid hunting, as macro shots would be impossible. So, with Jools going to Hythe for a class at lunchtime, I would stay home and maybe deal with the back lawn. I call it a lawn, it looks more like savannah to be be honest, but the Yellow Rattle has worked, not we have to scatter more over a wider area. It does look untidy though, especially down by the shed where the clower is several inches thick, and now that it had stopped flowering, best get the mower out.

I go for a haircut first thing; not been since the beginning of May, and it was resembling a guard's bearskin. And was making me very hot, so, off into town at twenty past eight, so to be first in the queue at the shop. Get in, have haircut, do some bantz and home. Home for poor undercooked croissants, undercooked even with a good 7 minutes in the oven to heat through and crisp up. Very poor there by Mr Tesco.

Jools leaves at then, and I had planned to work in the garden, only the neighbours are out. I thought it best to wait until they had finished. Yes, it really is that bad. So I listen to some radio, edit some shots and write the Brexit post I posted yesterday. And by twelve they had finished so I could go out.

Walking out I found that just doing that caused the usual scattering of roosting moths to fly away, so I decided not to mow the whole lawn, just the bottom quarter, where growth was at its most lush. I potter about, cutting the parts nearest the edges to make mowing easier, then tried to start said mower; only the second time I had fired it up this year. But it fires first time, and I make short work of the area selected, going back and forth, up and down, and in half an hour it was looking better, at least the most jungle like part now under control.

Yesterday we also collected Yellow Rattle seed, saving it for an autumn sowing, spreading the area to further reduce grass growth and to prepare more ground to be meadow-ised. Anyway, that was done, and I was just about to start preparing insalata caprese when Jools arrived home, hungry. Just as well as it was lunch time.

I should have known not to have that third glass of wine, but you know, weekend and all that, so it came to pass shortly after finishing lunch, I was sound asleep on the sofa. For half an hour at least.

IN years gone by I would be glued to the TV watching the best sets from Glastonbury; Radiohead on Friday, Foo Fighters on Saturday, and all the other stuff, but, it seems to leave me a little cold now, making me tetchy that the usual shows on Radio 6 have been replaced by interviews with people saying "best gig of me life! and such things.

It is too cold to sit outside, so we drink coffee sitting inside, listening to the radio and doing other stuff. And in that way, a quiet day, quietly petered out. But more planned for the morrow.