The Gardener

Sometimes it gets rather hot in our garden, so Mr. HCB, the gardener, likes to get out there early, almost before the sun comes up - whilst I stay up later at night and take my time getting up.

Today was no exception, and he was out there "beavering" away because he had lots to do in one of the raised beds and it would be too warm if the sun came out. We have some large trees outside our fence and their roots are interfering with the growth of anything in the beds so the answer was to line the beds with special material to try and stop this. This meant that the soil had to be dug out, the material put in and then the soil has to be shovelled back in. Not something I would enjoy doing, but Mr. HCB likes to put his back into manual work, so I asked if he would mind being my blip for today.

Of course, he agreed, after I had promised him a Rhubarb Crumble made with the delicious rhubarb given to us by a friend at church yesterday.

So here is Mr. HCB working hard - to the right are the wonderful lettuces he has grown from seed - M & S eat your lettuce hearts out - bottom left is the first row of Mange Tout peas, with space for another row to go in very soon and at the bottom right is the greenhouse showing the tomato plants with the automatic watering system set up and he also has cucumbers, chillis and more lettuce growing.

Mr. HCB works tirelessly in the garden and told me this morning that his satisfaction is knowing that all that is growing has been raised by him from seed - so bless his dear dad for passing that on to him! Yesterday, knowing I was on a fasting day, he had been nurturing our strawberries for a few days, and presented me with the first two as a special treat - what a treasure he is!

Some of my favourite verses in the Bible are these:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
Remain in me, as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
John 15 : 1-4
New International Version

Have a great week, fellow blippers.