A paddock of clocks

I chatted with a fellow home cheese-maker today who reassured me that my experimental Orkney Farmhouse is progressing exactly as he expects it to. It is now pressed and actually looks like a cheese.

It will air-dry until Friday when I will cut it...and yes, I will Blip it.

I slept very soundly last night after the day that disappeared too fast, and I was up with the dawn chorus filling my ears as I followed Bean across the lawn to the truck for breakfast. 

I love being up just before sunrise, when the new light is seeping through the air and the birds are busily relocating each other and themselves. I sit looking out of the window across the property and contemplate the day ahead, full of promise.

The first part of the day was in Katrina's garden, weeding (inevitably) and digging out an overgrown mass of agapanthus. That garden is beginning to look beautiful as various flowers bloom all around. I've attached a few in extras - the magnolia, one of the rhododendrons and some of the sea of ajuga.

Once home and lunched I tackled the main lawn, and gave it a short cut which I hope will last a week. Yeah right...

During the daily walk I bumped into a couple visiting the area. The girl (girl! ...probably older than me) looked familiar. As soon as I told her my surname she remembered me, and said some very complimentary things about my work ethic and integrity when I was running a project in which she was involved briefly in 2013. 

It warms the cockles of my heart to know that people appreciated me back then, at a time when pressure and stress was inexorably building up - and which ultimately resulted in my departure (and retirement) in 2015. The scars run deep, but conversations like the one I had today are incredibly healing. I am still smiling about it...

I'm glad we happened to be in the same place at the same time today.