My struggle with nature continues. The really hard frost that killed off (for the first time in the better part of 30 years) virtually all my over-wintering Broad Beans and led me hastily to sow a bunch of reserve replacements - some outside. I have been watching their progress anxiously. So I was really dismayed to find one morning on my morning stroll around the estate that the outside contingent had been attacked by birds - with at least 50% losses. They were in a wired off enclosure (against rabbits) but I strongly suspect that the ungrateful Ferdinand was the perpetrator and responsible for this atrocity. So a second reserve set has just been sowed/sown (?) in the greenhouse but rather late; for this reason they are likely to be infested later in the season by blackfly. It made me think that nature, red in tooth and claw was getting the upper-hand, despite my continual presence and best efforts.
Not even the house seems safe - at least the outside of it. One afternoon I spotted some really large black beetles clambering up the outside of the kitchen wall. Really big boys: Christopher will no doubt be able to tell me what they were. Nearly 2 inches top to tail. I watched one get maybe four feet up before it fell off. Later on I spotted some of its colleagues deep inside the daffodils along the front boundary, really weighing the flower down. They're around in the grass as well. I have never seen so many of them before
But no doubt they all regard this as their territory too. I'm pretty sure that Ferdinand has taken up residence and hear him all the time. A deeply unmelodious squawk. The two mallard ducks have been back several times. One time they landed on top of the net over the pond and spent some time happily trampolining. Ferdinand came over to investigate, gave them one of his looks and after a heart-stopping Mexican stand-off , the Mallard cracked and clumsily made off. It all looked quite funny to me, though probably not to them !
Otherwise things have been quite quiet, though I did have one of those dreaded disasters, always lurking around the corner when working remotely and in a different time zone from one's victims. I was five hours out with pone of my three hour teaching sessions and was just enjoying my lunch before preparing for it later when the e-mails and Whatsapps came flooding in .'We're all here, but where are you ?!' So mortifying to have confirmed the absent minded old professor stereotype and then to have to improvise one's way through a 3 hour session one hadn't prepared for !
But I was prepared and ready for a family visit over the Easter weekend, bustling about all Saturday morning getting the annex ready for Team Powell. They brought fish-and-chips with them which was great and we sat with them inside -ish the annex and with me in the porch while I tried out my new Firebowl to keep us all warm through a pretty chilly evening. This was an enormous success and kept us going until 2200, roasting marshmallows and other such activities.
The following morning the sun shone and it was warm so we were able to proceed with the plan of extending the big table so it was half in and half out of the annex. Thus disposed we were able to have a really nice Easter breakfast - painted and chocolate eggs, candles and all - and everything perfectly legal. We were just finishing when Christopher and Beth arrived, in time for a walk on the hills to make up for the self-indulgence earlier. This was the first time we had all got together for months so it was a splendid success, much enjoyed and hopefully a harbinger of happier times ahead.
Times not so good for Shelagh and several of my friends who are going through some tough health issues indeed. What with this and the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, it's been a time for some reflection. Recessional and the passing of an era. I was trying to tot up the times I've encountered the Duke. It must be six or seven times since he was always popping into the naval and defence colleges. The first time for us was when Cherry and I went to a reception on 'Britannia' one July in Dartmouth, when they were all there, lined up and welcoming us aboard. Posh suits and dresses, and hats. Cherry loved it, she was ace at that sort of thing, but always with that splash of ironic observation. A good score for my 'I Spy Royalty' book, too. Happy days indeed but a long time ago and a different era.
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