Early June and I haven't felt much like writing to myself for a good while. An inbetween time, hesitant, wondering what happens next, but enjoying the moment. Good thought on Something Understood this morning, which was, rather appropriately, all about gardening. A Buddhist insight: gardens need attentiveness, patience and hard work - as does life. I'm steadily developing the garden - a little pond, complete with tadpoles; every more fruittful veggie beds, wonderfully healthy looking roses after brutal pruning and heavy manuring last winter, and plans for a soft fruit cage.
The grandchildren are ever more lovable and interesting - such different personalities. A few photos below . . . And I've joined a new sailing club, West Oxfordshire. It's very friendly, and there are lots of new challenges on a lake in comparison to my familiar reach of the Thames at Port Meadow. I lose a lot of way rounding marks. But light winds give the British Moth a big advantage. Today should be brisker. My punt's splendid restoration is almost complete: I've got a few more bottom boards to rub down for their final coat of varnish, and Graham at the Oxford Cruisers yard is doing a wonderful job: I am now liveried in dark green, matching the Anglo-Welsh narrow boat fleet which is based there, with gleaming varnish above and inside, and they are going to paint her name Dulcibella on in elegant script. Should be able to begin my leisurely expedition to Cricklade by the last week in June.
Good walks with good friends; the bluebells have been glorious this year, and yesterday we tramped the Chilterns above Chinnor: picnic lunch on a bank cushioned with wild thyme and yellow vetches.
Alice, my history mystery, is shaping up, but would benefit from a week at St Deiniol's where I can write so much more intensively without domestic, horticultural, familial and waterborne distractions; in recent weeks I've been pleasantly distracted by writing a short 'official guide' to Oxford University: quite a challenge in 10,000 words.
It's also been good to see and listen to my audiobook gardening anthology, Pleasures of The Garden. I really enjoyed making this; excellent voices reading the extracts from great gardening writers, and I read the introduction and links between pieces myself. The good news is that Wisley, HQ of the Royal
I've just acquired four new hens: Maisie, Gladys, Ethel and Belinda. This time I'll be very wary of letting them range in the big garden, especially while young foxes are still around, but they have a spacious run on the east side of the house and seem very happy. Interesting how their characters differ. I've been petting them a lot, so they are very tame - even slightly bumptious.
Lastly a self-indulgent photo gallery of grandchildren:
