Sunday 29th April 2018

Half the weekend gone already, and with 100% cloud cover forecast, no point looking for orchids. So the day was to be given over to "other things".

Other things like making coffee, feeding the cats and then watching the footy.

As I sat on the sofa, Jools was already outside sorting the garden out, I would join her later.

Halfway through the football, I pause the footy and make bacon butties, call Jools in from her toil, present her with a fresh brew and fresh tsp. In buty form. I cook mine, and after making a brew for myself, I go back to the sofa to watch the rest of the games and then after washing up, go out to do some stuff in the garden.

We have two large mostly empty beds to fill, so that really called for was a visit to a garden centre to see what there was. Our new favourite place is the Folkestone Garden Centre, which is not in the town, but 5 miles outside, beyond Hawkinge in Densole.

We get a trolley, and ten minutes later it was overflowing with stuff; digitalis, lupis, raspberries, whitecurrents, alpines, fruit nets and much more. We had to leave, we were like addicts, seeing more and more lovely things.

Of course, once back we have to put them all in the ground, and with a steady drizzle falling already, it was going to be a dmap job, but then just the thrill of putting plants in the ground, then seeing them grow and develop. I put in the new raspberry cane, the whiteberry, forgetting that I had put up the wiring last week, meaning get a spade in was troublesome. But I got it done, watered them in, then moved on to put the lupins and digitalis in.

An hour later they were all in, and it was half twelve and time for lunch. And it is the time of the year we have been waiting, the return of English Asparagus. I cook them in melted butter, and we eat them sprinkled with grated hard Italian cheese. The taste of spring, right there.

Rain was falling steadily now, so I take to the dining room table, write, edit and listen to football.

So passes the afternoon.

With the football at halftime in the second game, Man Utd v Arse, which was as tepid as you might imagine with the big names and characters out of the game. I prepare the rack of lamb, but it in the oven with a herb crust, pan fry the vegetables; onion, baby sweetcorn, mange tout and more asparagus. Fry some boiled potatoes, and with a bottle of cheap fizz. Perfect.

The weekend has slipped by again, time to speak to Mum in the weekly dance. I am past playing games so tell her straight, but at the same time, its her life. Whatevs.