End of April

 30 April 2021

The end of the month.  Dave has had his first jab (AZ) and I’ve got an appointment for mine.  Dave has been working hard on the boat, changing the rigging to make it very easy for us to drop the sail or put in a reef.  He’s also started work on varnishing all the interior woodwork.  Yesterday he found that a stray cat has had kittens on the foredeck, under the stored dinghy.  We’ll wait till they’re a bit older and then relocate them ashore.  The garden is flourishing, although we’ve already had to start watering it.  Restaurants and cafes are due to reopen on May 3rd, so that will be exciting.  After a long lockdown winter, we are ready for a bit of summer fun.

Iris have suddenly bloomed around the pond

The Empress is back!  Maybe she was born here.

First water lily (showing how murky the water is at the moment)

Lovely little harebell-type flowers are everywhere 

This is an experimental mushroom bed.  It is full of straw, and the broken up oyster mushroom bale we had earlier in the year.  We’ve put it in a very shady glade, mulched to keep the brambles down, and we’ll see if anything grows.  It’s more likely in September, so we might introduce more spores at that point if nothing happens spontaneously.