Simple pleasures

Working under the hot hot sun today, putting up the stakes and training wires for the fruit bed. In this 11' x 8' raised bed in front of the chicken run we have raspberry and redcurrant canes, strawberries and (perhaps) a rhubarb rootstock, and it's all now beginning to throw out shoots. The birds will hopefully find the hanging bunch of redundant CDs a sufficient deterrent... 

So the potato sacks are now filled with chatted potatoes and compost, the shed has been frightened with a tub of forest green preserver (not sufficient for one slightly rotted corner but hey ho) and the greenhouse is full of germinating seedlings and promises of tomato plants to come. And the pond still has at least one ghost koi in it! After this winter's predation by the wandering heron I was thinking it was the sole demesne of frogs, toads and newts, but one of the 16" koi surfaced today, so I fed it.

Ans as I was working, this Peacock Butterfly dropped down onto a solitary dandelion (we don't spray our vegetable bed lawn, and the wildflowers  - or weeds - that pop up are at least tolerated and sometimes admired). I only had the iPhone with me, but he seemed quite happy for me to get close enough for a shot.

Parish Council meeting tonight, and I found out that I've been elected on the 7th May (I have a time machine... no, ok, the ballot was uncontested so I am returned by default). So Councillor Incredibish needs to get out of his gardening clobber soon and into something more suitable...