Sunday 25th March 2018

British Summer Time begins.

Sunday, day two of the four day weekend, and the weather should be a little worse than Saturday, but good enough to venture out. Or so we hoped.

And begins the the annual problem of finding out what time it really is, as some clocks move forward by themselves, some don't, and so it could be quarter past seven, eight or nine. I was plumping for nine, as the DAB radio in the bedroom seemed to suggest it was quarter past eight, but then being an internet connect device, it was right.

I thought I had slept the whole morning through, but was an hour earlier than feared.

But it was still fairly early. Time for a coffee, look at the internet and then cook bacon. I cooked Jools' fine then put mine in, but got distracted and found eight black crisps where rashers of Canadian maple smoked Tesco finest bacon should have been. I salvaged four of the less buggered ones and slapped them in a butty, and retired to the living room to eat them.

The rashers shatter into hundreds of pieces, and each piece reminds me not to get distracted again.

We get dressed and mess about in the garden; count the fritillaries and do the jobs Monty set us on Friday. I trim the ferns, the raspberries and generally much in, then after about an hour I go in to make lunch. I bake a batch of Norfolk Short Cakes. We have a largeish one each for lunch, so not to be tempted later and ruin our appetite for dinner, which was rather special. Even if I say so myself.

After lunch, and once the light rain shower passed, I dragged Jools out on a walk round this end of the village to look for wild flowers. She said my obsession is just growing. And as ever, she is right.

The house at the end has a fine display of daffs and narcissus I snap a few. The we turn down Station Road, looking at the areas of scrub land where nature reclaims. Out of the village towards Westcliffe to see the daffs planted on the path, and see what was growing in the hedgerows; Dog's Mercury mostly.

And back to the village, past the Red Lion and out on Kingsdown Road to the top of the Dip, down the Dip and home.

It had started out sunny, but by the time we turned for home, it was cool and breezy so we stumbled down the steep side, weaved our way through the mud at the bottom and after stopping to snap more plants, back past the hens, the pig's copse and across the fields. Now that called for a cuppa.

For dinner I make, ahem, herb crusted rack of lamb, baby new potatoes, and a melody of baby sweet corn, mange tout, garlic and chilli. It was magnificent. Oh my word yes.

For the evening entertainment I had recommendations that Guardians of the Galaxy was worth watching. It was. Good. We laughed. We enjoyed it. A racoon with a mini gun; what's not to like?