WIDE WEDNESDAY

Gentle rain was falling for most of the morning, so you can imagine that Mr. HCB is delighted especially as it means he won’t have to water anything.  

I was due to go out for a physically distanced walk with my friend, Gill, at about 10 o’clock and I had promised to take her over to “my field”, so we postponed our meeting for an hour to see if the weather changed.  

By the time she arrived, the rain had stopped, so off we went and had a lovely chat wandering around the field - I think she loved it as much as I do.  Of course, as I was with her, I didn’t sing, but we enjoyed being together and catching up.  

At one point, it started to rain quite heavily, so we just stood under the huge oak tree and chatted some more, until it became much more gentle rain, and then we made our way back to our house, where we then had a physically distanced coffee underneath our carport.

We were chatting so much I did forget to take a photograph - and could easily have taken a selfie of us both, so here instead is our Paul’s Scarlet rose, which as you can see is looking beautiful.  I did give it a very hard prune last year and said it had two choices - it either bloomed well or I would dig it out!  Well, it obviously listened and this year it is magnificent.

I did take lots of other shots of flowers in the garden, but wanted to record that 2020 was the year that Paul’s Scarlet looked good.  I just wish the clematis next to it didn’t look so bedraggled - I’m not sure that it’s going to last, so perhaps I need to give that one a good talking-to as well or it might even get moved in the autumn.

Just had to fire off a complaining email to a firm in China - I wasn’t told that there would be import duty payable on some vegetable peelers - they actually cost £11.47, but there is import duty payable of £24.30 before they can be delivered.  I have emailed and politely told them “On yer bike” and that I expect a refund of the payment already made - it will be interesting to see what happens.

“Grateful people learn to celebrate 
     even amid life's hard 
          and harrowing memories 
because they know that pruning 
     is no mere punishment, 
          but preparation.” 
Henri J.M. Nouwen