Distracted

It is the time of year when life is all "do" and very little "think". The bees, the garden, the orchard, keeping up with friends, great weather for cycling, or walking, lots of places that could be visited, cafés to sit outside... and plenty more

And, to be honest, the world through the lens of the news media looks pretty scary. The American right, Putin and his bombs, China's obsession with Taiwan, Indian Hindu nationalism, climate crisis upon crisis, extinctions, plastics, demographics, dying waterways, the erosion of freedom, dying faith in democracy and the common good

I think my mind is glad to shut down for a while and focus on watering plants and delving in beehives. Today, I even washed the car!! Our weather is stuck in a rut: a cool north east wind has been blowing for weeks and shows no sign of changing in the next seven days. It is hot when the sun is out and surprisingly chilly when it isn't. And all the time it is dry

We got anxious enough about the young (1-5 year) saplings in the orchard to drive over there, turn on the water supply and carry water to them through waist-high grass (the grass mowers are coming when they can!) We were right to be concerned - they are showing signs of stress. If there is no sign of rain by early next week, we will need to do it again

Mrs M claims not to be a gardener and says the whole thing is little more than chaos. If so, it's the kind of chaos that pleases me. The bed in the background is all her work. The colours in the foreground are pot plants; along with Scylla and Charybdis, they are part of the borrowed garden that we are caretaking for a house-moving friend. This has now expanded to around 150 pots. There are some lovely plants, and we are learning from them but, in an extended drought, keeping them wateted provides another distraction from global tumult that, for a while, I'm pleased to embrace